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.
If you don't have a huge budget and want something that works with minor quirks here and there then Zoho Mail is definitely something you should look into. For half the price of Google G Suite or Office account you get 5GB of storage per user and can send up to 25MB emails without restrictions. Great for small businesses in my opinion. I have had some issues with their spam filter, but we use SpamTitan and just shut off the one that comes with Zoho Mail. Zoho's spam filter isn't horrible but you should definitely use something in addition or instead of what comes with Zoho.
Data sharing via small database format is valuable as they are quickly deployed, easily managed and distributed on backend email servers.
Integrated messaging allows quick communications between geographical sites reducing long distance costs.
Policy documents for registering new users, setting initial security levels, assigning default database access is managed easily with the admin client.
I really like that there is a free version in which a single user can be created. It is really useful because it allows you to evaluate each characteristic of the service without having to buy it.
I also really like the visual aspect of the inbox, which is partially customizable. Because you can make small changes such as changing the color, the language, and among other things.
The simple user experience can be touted as a positive, but it is also a negative in some ways. Compared to other calendars, email and chat tools, IBM Notes looks like it is from the 90s.
We have constant issues with chat crashing. This is the main reason so many people in our organization chose to switch away from Notes.
There aren't a lot of integrations with IBM Notes and other applications we regularly use. Notes seems to have been left behind by many.
When receiving an email with images that are not displayed automatically, you have to activate this function manually. It is a bit uncomfortable, I would prefer that it be activated automatically
The filter to search for information is not very accurate and unfriendly
The way to manage the storage capacity and to buy more space for the mail is not very friendly
Since companies started to moved their email systems to the Exchange platform and the cloud, we are unable to find any new projects with IBM Notes, the marketing share and software price is another issue, so we have to move to another platform.
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.
It is very easy to use and does all you need. It sends newsletters to their own folder. A notification folder for more important things. The Spam folder collect the right amount of spam emails
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.
I have spoken with Zoho several times and their support is always friendly and helpful. I have always been asked for security pins and codes when seeking assistance which helps me to feel my accounts are secure and I have never had to wait on hold to speak with someone for more than 5 minutes. They always seem to have someone available to help. If you call asking for instructions on how to do something they gladly walk you through the process and if you just need something done and don't have time to do it yourself they will happily customize whatever you need without you having to spend all day with it.
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.
I've already answered this question in the previous questions however to sum it up IBM Notes stacks up VERY WELL! It has a LOT of really good business/enterprise features like enterprise-grade Dropbox-like storage, synced email/calendar/contacts, it supports a LOT of third-party add-ins, easy-to-use and friendly, very strong and robust, and most importantly it's a LOT more secure in my opinion than the competition.
Zoho is free. Also, there is no need for a separate IT guy for creating mail, or if any issues come you don't have to find anyone anyone can check and fix all issues from their super admin panel. Zoho overview is much better than outlook and its appearance of getting mail popup and functionality is better than outlook. My friend suggested for this and also after using I have referred my friend
ROI for us has been extreme. In the late 1990's we automated dozens and dozens of paper-based processes and created workflows for activities that had never been formalized before. Additionally all those forms with their comments, etc. have been captured in a central place to serve as audit trails.
Whenever we need faster access to data (mail or otherwise), it's quick and easy to deploy a new Domino server somewhere, setup replication of appropriate databases, and get the local Notes clients pointed to those resources. So that to me is positive ROI because it represents time savings based on user need.
Tech. Support would claim a negative ROI in terms of supporting the Notes client, Notes updates, peculiar Notes issues, and users who complain about Notes. That is certainly true to a point. The Notes client is a much more complex piece of software than, say, Outlook. But we have to remember that Notes deployments are not just for Mail but many, many applications as well. In the end I'd say we might have 1 or 2 user complaints per month, typically around Calendar issues more than anything else.
