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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    HCL Notes

    Score3.5 out of 10
    N/ANotes from HCL (formerly from IBM, acquired by HCL in late 2018) is a collaboration platform based on the Lotus platform.N/A

    Microsoft Teams

    Score7.7 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Teams combines video conferencing software with team collaboration tools. The communications platform allows MS Office users to conduct conference calls and share files via SharePoint, and join or initiate a group chat.

    $4.80

    per month per user

    Pricing
    HCL NotesMicrosoft Teams
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft Teams Essentials
    $4.80
    per month per user
    Microsoft Teams Enterprise
    $5.25
    per month (paid yearly) per user
    Microsoft Teams Enterprise
    $5.25
    per month per user
    Microsoft 365 Business Basic
    $7.20
    per month per user
    Microsoft 365 Business Standard
    $15
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    HCL NotesMicrosoft Teams
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Discounts are available for non profit organizations.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    HCL NotesMicrosoft Teams
    Considered Both Products
    HCLSoftware
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    Chose Microsoft Teams
    Microsoft Teams edges above the conferencing competition by allowing file collaboration and ongoing group chats with coworkers. We selected Microsoft Teams for all our video & audio conference calls for it's ability to integrate with our Outlook client and make it easy for …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    89%
    Would buy again
    201 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    180 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    90%
    Happy with the feature set
    202 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    115 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    92%
    Implementation went as expected
    139 Answers
    Features
    HCL NotesMicrosoft Teams
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of HCL Notes and Microsoft Teams
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    6.9
    10 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Microsoft Teams
    4.2
    192 Ratings
    59% below category average
    Task Management7.09 Ratings4.9147 Ratings
    Gantt Charts6.03 Ratings3.276 Ratings
    Scheduling8.09 Ratings3.9162 Ratings
    Workflow Automation5.06 Ratings3.8101 Ratings
    Mobile Access8.010 Ratings5.3184 Ratings
    Search6.09 Ratings4.2169 Ratings
    Visual planning tools8.03 Ratings4.1118 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of HCL Notes and Microsoft Teams
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    9.2
    10 Ratings
    15% above category average
    Microsoft Teams
    5.7
    201 Ratings
    32% below category average
    Chat6.010 Ratings5.6200 Ratings
    Notifications9.010 Ratings5.0199 Ratings
    Discussions9.57 Ratings5.4187 Ratings
    Surveys9.14 Ratings4.7112 Ratings
    Internal knowledgebase10.06 Ratings4.0122 Ratings
    Integrates with GoToMeeting10.03 Ratings6.547 Ratings
    Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts10.02 Ratings5.743 Ratings
    Integrates with Outlook10.05 Ratings9.1156 Ratings
    File Sharing & Management
    Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of HCL Notes and Microsoft Teams
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    7.6
    9 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Microsoft Teams
    4.7
    186 Ratings
    50% below category average
    Versioning9.04 Ratings4.8130 Ratings
    Video files6.05 Ratings4.1158 Ratings
    Audio files6.05 Ratings4.7160 Ratings
    Document collaboration8.08 Ratings5.6173 Ratings
    Access control6.08 Ratings5.0156 Ratings
    Advanced security features8.08 Ratings3.7117 Ratings
    Integrates with Google Drive10.02 Ratings5.353 Ratings
    Device sync8.05 Ratings4.4132 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    HCL NotesMicrosoft Teams
    Small Businesses
    Flock
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Flock
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Microsoft Viva Engage
    Score7.9 out of 10
    Microsoft Viva Engage
    Score7.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Google Keep
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Google Keep
    Score9.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    HCL NotesMicrosoft Teams
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.0
    (16 ratings)
    5.5
    (278 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    1.7
    (5 ratings)
    3.7
    (9 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    5.3
    (62 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.3
    (113 ratings)
    Online Training
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.3
    (7 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (7 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    HCL NotesMicrosoft Teams
    Likelihood to Recommend
    HCLSoftware
    I often work with teams from other country and regions, hence HCL Notes is a very useful platform for internal company management operations. It standardized organisational work standards in most of the offices worldwide. HCL Notes also enables chat with other team around the world that I find very helpful when initiating conversation or just want to have a quick update rather than sending emails and waiting for replies. However, HCL Notes is not very efficient in web browsing and user still need to use other internet service providers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Positive: The virtual workspace created for a work team within the same company, for the resemblance of information and communications in one place.Negative: The access for members of a non-profit organization who have external emails from the host but need the same access as an internal person since their volunteer work is part of the very core of the federation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    HCLSoftware
    • It has a really strong and robust database that's extremely scalable and holds up well to thousands of users and many different environments.
    • It has a really good enterprise-grade framework for development custom database applications
    • All of the custom database applications along with the email all have a nice uniform look and feel so their easy-to-use.
    • I really like how it's developed and supported on every client OS (Windows, OSX, Linux)! The competitors definitely do NOT offer this (M$).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Virtual meetings - ease of set up and execution
    • File sharing! We build channels for projects, and being able to invite only project members is huge!
    • Peer-to-peer communications - being able to "ping" one of my colleagues, either text, video or call-only, on-demand, is what runs our business.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    HCLSoftware
    • Notes' backwards compatibility sometimes gets in the way. Menus are cluttered with extraneous, outdated options and features that modern users will never use, and Preferences are often difficult to navigate for those coming from Gmail or Outlook. We have greatly simplified this via Policies, but users still find it daunting to go through all the options that are available.
    • The IBM Notes client for Windows & Mac is essentially the Eclipse Java development platform...so it is HUGE. Performance initially was very slow but IBM has done a good job of speeding things up. As IBM moves more toward cloud-delivered applications, this will not be as much of a problem.
    • Notes and Domino can be complex to manage for administrators who are more accustomed to ActiveDirectory, Group Policy, etc. Editing a notes.ini file to add a feature, or working with XML files by hand to create a SmartUpgrade kit can be daunting to those coming from more modern administrative roles.
    • Some users claim to "hate" Notes mail. While I have heard this less and less over the past 10 years, we have had 3rd party software offer plugins to Outlook and it's rare to see any for Notes.
    • The client update process should be automated more. I would like to see the Notes client update quietly and quickly more like an Adobe software update. If an update fails it should automatically try again without prompting the user over and over.
    • Notes multiple language spell checking is a downloaded add-on Java-based resource that has to be deployed in a convoluted way that is difficult for users to grasp. Therefore any foreign language spell check updates must be done individually per Notes client by IT, which is unfortunate. I would prefer to see that be a "live download" update option for users to get directly from IBM (don't make me download it and put it on my network).
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • The feature of notifications in the mobile application could be improved. Sometimes notifications of different teams are not visible and are only visible when the application is opened.
    • It uses lots of computational resources while running and thus, slows down the system sometimes.
    • It allows a few channels per team. The number of channels could be increased for better productivity.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    HCLSoftware
    I've been in IT business and as a Programmer/Developer for 20+ years with too many programming languages experiences/back ground (C/C++/Visual Basic/Basic Program/Unix/COBOL/Java). Also with 18+ years with Lotus Notes/IBM Domino, I am still and always think Lotus Notes is the best RAD platform available!. When the time where resource is very limited and the expectation is very high and the turn around is too short, IBM Domino/Notes is the platform to use and it's the only choice available.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Teams is included with our Office 365 subscription and we have no intention of migrating off of Office 365 and Microsoft products. Since Microsoft Teams is included for free with our Office 365 subscription, and since we enjoy all the features, benefits, and functionality, there is no question that our team will continue to use the product
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    HCLSoftware
    Easy to use for the user, most of the apps we developed, there is not much need for user training. Most of the times, we just do a demo to the users group and they can pick up from there.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    User experience has been much better than the previous Skype for Business app. It has an easy-to-use interface with persistent chats. The search feature is very fast and useful. MS Teams has mostly focused on Collaboration and team building features which are very useful for organizational communications. Since Teams is accessible from multiple platforms like Laptop, Desktop, Mobile phones, etc it has been very convenient from a Mobility perspective.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Rare, but outages do happen
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Sometimes about once a week I get a message that says "Sorry, there seems to be something wrong". But it goes away in a few minutes.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    HCLSoftware
    I've been using the production for a very long time and very happy with it. Also, all the online resources and forums for notes is very friendly and easy/quick for getting help. I found out that compared to Microsoft or Oracle or any other platforms, IBM Notes online forum is the best I have seen.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Using Microsoft Teams has resulted in much faster business communications with both co-workers and consultants. There has been little need for support with this software as the interface is very intuitive and the product is overall very well designed. We did encounter an issue with the built-in phone service, however, this was quickly resolved by the support team.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    HCLSoftware
    Implementation is easy and smooth if the requirement is well gathered/documented. Notes is a RAD platform, all projects in Notes is simple in the implementation step.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    I find everything I need for my day-to-day work.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    HCLSoftware
    Outlook has been considered for years as a replacement platform. Pricing and support staff made it prohibitive. Our long-time use of Microsoft Office productivity suite naturally led us to consider the adoption of Office365. A recent investigation told us that Azure Cloud services propel an O365 solution to the forefront. Early adopters in international divisions have paved the way for Azure and O365.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Our company and IT department previously used Skype for our communication needs. Skype was not dependable in my opinion, because it seems each time I used it during a call and/or a meeting, I and several other team members would get disconnected more than once. This caused a great interruption of our meeting, caused team members to have to ask others to repeat themselves and caused a general lack of interest in employee attendance during meetings.
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Honestly, this tool is worth every penny. Yes, it's not free and you pay for the quality of services and the license. But the ROI and the benefits are all there. Also, the renewal, negotiation, and contract terms are all very well explained by our Microsoft account manager, and she's a charm.
    Read full review
    Scalability
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    It does not appear to have a limit to how many teams and employees we can have using it
    Incentivized
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    Professional Services
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    I used Skype for Business to take calls, hold conferences, and provide remote assistance to users. Microsoft Teams, on the other hand, is superior to Skype for Business in my opinion. My job entails a lot of screen sharing.
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    HCLSoftware
    • Over the years, we have lost countless hours of productivity from the thousands of crashes we have experienced.
    • One benefit of IBM Notes is that it is very simple to train a new user on. Many people prefer and are familiar with Google tools, but those that use IBM Notes have very little trouble acclimating themselves.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • I'm not sure I can point to a specific ROI, but it has improved our ability to communicate and work more effectively together.
    • It's also nice to have records of every interaction, photo, and document that has been shared. Less chance of something completely disappearing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots