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HCL Sametime Reviews

Vendor: HCLSoftware
4.0 out of 5
776 followers
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What is HCL Sametime?

HCL Sametime. Secure Conversations Across Any Device ​

Get the Virtual Meetings Buyer's Guide and find out what your peers are saying about HCL Sametime and more!
Buyer's Guide
Virtual Meetings
May 2025
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Helped 853,868 peers since 2012

Featured HCL Sametime reviews

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HCL Sametime mindshare

As of June 2025, the mindshare of HCL Sametime in the Virtual Meetings category stands at 0.4%, down from 0.6% compared to the previous year, according to calculations based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
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Key learnings from peers

Valuable Features

HCL Sametime provides efficient real-time communication with features like status detection, auto-status change, and integration with IBM Notes. Users appreciate fast audio and video calls, high response rate in chats, and the ability to see colleagues’ availability. The software includes emojis for easier communication and strong security for general use. For enhanced email security, some users combine it with FortiMail Gateway.
  • "The security was quite good."
  • "I can view the status and availability of colleagues or team members, which makes it easy to approach them when they are available."

Room for Improvement

HCL Sametime is currently lacking in telephony exchange and suffers from a dated interface reminiscent of Windows XP. Users report frequent hangs requiring restarts and face limitations in file sharing and meeting participant numbers. Video conferencing quality is subpar, with video pause issues. Absence of native emoji support is noted, though integration from other apps is possible. Sametime lacks features available in modern platforms like Microsoft Teams, including the ability to send screenshots and other files.
  • "It lacks some features compared to modern solutions. For example, it doesn't allow sending screenshots or other files."
  • "The webinar should be integrated into Sametime for a larger number of participants."
These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.
Download our Virtual Meetings Buyer's Guide for additional reliable information.

Learn more about HCL Sametime

Your company can’t afford to take any data risks, but your teams still need to be able to interact and react quickly, wherever they are working. Sametime offers modern instant messaging, file-sharing, and online meetings with the proven security your business can trust.

HCL Sametime was previously known as Lotus Sametime, IBM Lotus Sametime.

HCL Sametime customers

Connect2Cloud, Superior Group, Daifuku Co. Ltd., Seaward, The City of Fort Worth, Christian Brothers Services, Berlitz, Deutsche Notes User Group, Danske Fysioterapeuter, Slumberland, La Vacanza, Rheinmetall AG

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HCL Sametime reviews

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Bogdan Chechlowski - PeerSpot user
Kierownik Biura Informatyki at EIB SA
Verified user of HCL Sametime
Jun 5, 2024
Stable product, communicate very fast and allows to see who's online in the office or work environment

Pros

"The security was quite good. "

Cons

"It lacks some features compared to modern solutions. For example, it doesn't allow sending screenshots or other files. "

What is our primary use case?

It was used for communication through text messages, primarily.

What is most valuable?

Being able to see who was online and communicate very fast was a good feature. 

The security was quite good. However, when we tried to implement it for email at a high level, we had to use another solution, FortiMail Gateway.

*Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Read full review (350 words)
MT
Consultant and Research Analyst (Technology) at Frost & Sullivan Asia-Pacific
Verified user of HCL Sametime
Dec 16, 2019
Product version discussed: IBM Sametime
Easily communicate and share files with colleagues

Pros

"I can view the status and availability of colleagues or team members, which makes it easy to approach them when they are available. "

Cons

"The webinar should be integrated into Sametime for a larger number of participants."

What is our primary use case?

I use Lotus Sametime for internal communications across regions. I'm a consultant and therefore, I need to connect with teams in the United States and the United Kingdom. With Sametime, I can connect and chat easily with my team members effortlessly.

I also use this solution for quick internal meetings and sharing files.

How has it helped my organization?

This solution saves time and cost in communicating with team members. We don't need to have telephone calls. It streamlines the tasks in my organization by encouraging us to chat directly with the relevant person. Sametime also encourages communication among peers that further strengthens professional relationships. 

*Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Read full review (345 words)
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FP
Support Analyst at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Verified user of HCL Sametime
Sep 26, 2017
Product version discussed: 8.5.2
Provides faster communication than chat, but it is a bit pricey

What is most valuable?

  • Audio and video calls
  • Faster communication than chat

What needs improvement?

The interface is too colorful and looks like Windows XP.

*Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Read full review (172 words)
PeerSpot user
Project Manager at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
Verified user of HCL Sametime
    Mar 4, 2016
    Widely used organizational chatting and messaging software

    The Lotus Sametime software provided by IBM is chat and messaging software which is widely used over email communications for faster data transfer. There are below pros and cons for this related software:-

    Pros:- 1. It provides instant messaging, web conferencing, communications and collaboration for enterprises. 

    2. This is a client-server application that provides real time, unified communications. 

    3. It can be integrated with wide variety of software, so stability is high. 

    4. Support is available from IBM and third party companies for 24 * 7 as it is sold by Lotus Software division of IBM. 

    5. It provides interoperability with public IM networks via the IBM Sametime Gateway, including AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk and XMPP-based services. 

    6. It provides audio/video services which supports audio and video codecs. 

    7. It gives good quality over the Intranet for audio/video facilities. 8. It also has functionality for failover, clustering, and scalability for the IBM Sametime Gateway deployment.

    Cons:- 1. It is IBM proprietary software, and not a opensource software, so licenses need to purchased from IBM. 

    2. There is echo or low voice quality over the communication line or throughout the conversation over the internet. 

    3. Development is still going on to integrate it with Mobile applications 

    4. Chats are saved in text format, so transferred images are not readable.

    Alternate Vendors:- AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, MSN Messenger !!


    *Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    Read full review (228 words)
    PeerSpot user
    IT Administrator at a media company with 51-200 employees
    Verified user of HCL Sametime
    Dec 21, 2012
    Simple yet reliable communication and real-time collaboration software

    What is most valuable?

    A very good communication and real-time collaboration software. It is simple, fast, reliable, keeps history and the best feature of all is its intelligence. It can detect if a user is away from keyboard and auto changes the status to away. So in case one forgets to change his/her status, it auto changes the status to away.

    What needs improvement?

    It seems that the software might in the future, support the software telephony exchange but at the current time, it is not doing that and because of that one key feature of real-time communication is missing from it.
    *Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    Read full review (112 words)