HCL Connections vs Microsoft Office SharePoint Server comparison

Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)

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Helped 884,976 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

HCL Connections

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) (5th), Enterprise Social Software (15th)

Microsoft Office SharePoint...

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

4.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Content Collaboration Platforms (5th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Messaging and Collaboration solutions, they serve different purposes. HCL Connections is designed for Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) and holds a mindshare of 5.3%, up 3.0% compared to last year.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, on the other hand, focuses on Content Collaboration Platforms, holds 3.6% mindshare, down 8.8% since last year.

Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
HCL Connections	5.3%
SharePoint	22.9%
Drupal	16.7%
Other	55.1%

Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)

Content Collaboration Platforms Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server	3.6%
Office 365	9.9%
Google Workspace	8.9%
Other	77.6%

Content Collaboration Platforms

Featured Reviews

Hasnain Zahid

Talent acquisition & development specialist at Software Productivity Strategists, Inc. (SPS)

A stable tool useful to manage marketing-related activities

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten. Sometimes, the portal hangs because I find that if I am on a web page, I have to log out, and then I have to log in to the portal again. Since I see that the portal hangs at times, I have to move from one side of the portal to the next, making me feel that some things are scattered in the product. I attended a meeting with IBM recently, and they are improving a few of the things, in my opinion. The concerns that I have related to the product are being improved since I think many other users have reported issues similar to the ones I faced.

Read full review

Daniel Giacomelli

Security and Compliance at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Has transformed how I manage documents through metadata and automation while enabling structured collaboration

Microsoft should restore some functionalities from older versions of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2003 and 2010. Specifically, bringing back something similar to SharePoint Designer would be beneficial. SharePoint Designer was both advantageous and challenging - developers found it limiting and preferred Visual Studio, while non-developers struggled to use it effectively. A new tool for configuring webpage design and development for content pages would be valuable. The current system is too basic. While integration of filtered lists and libraries is possible, it requires knowledge of Python or jQuery. A WYSIWYG editor would be preferable to requiring programming knowledge or Visual Studio.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The most valuable features of this solution are that it provides a space for team collaboration, sharing, security, and a standard language within the company."

"For example, you can really collaborate in multiple channels, using Connections, so whether it's cognitive collaboration, or file or content collaboration, it makes it much easier."

"Our productivity has increased by using IBM Connections."

"Some of the valuable features in this product are: Profiles – It is easy to find people with similar tech skills and reach out to them internally for a project requirement, and project managers find it easy to know who in the organization possesses a skill that matches the requirement."

"Fully integrated solution, love the social element of Profiles, Files and Activities all securely accessed on Mobile !"

"IBM Connections is a great product, with new functionality each year."

"It's easy to use for both developers and end users."

"The Files feature has really changed the way we do business."

More HCL Connections pros

"The support from Microsoft is very quick and they are very proactive."

"Microsoft Office SharePoint Server helps with return on investment as it saves a lot of time and helps clients improve their processes."

"Ability to collaborate with others in one location."

"The solution's most valuable aspects are its collaboration capabilities, its communications site and the innovation within the product itself."

"Some of the best features with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server are that it is easy to use, security is easy, and it's all integrated into the university's security systems."

"I believe the control and the restrictions, accesses that we can have once we decide to share any document through Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, are the most beneficial aspects for me."

"This solution has provided us with a collaborative workspace to allow everyone to work together and be on the same page."

"The solution's most valuable features is its document management. It allows sharing with external users and integrates well with Office apps and Microsoft Flow."

More Microsoft Office SharePoint Server pros

Cons

"Support needs improvement. The product seems to be released with a lot of bugs."

"It's a complicated setup, but then again it's built for enterprise and volumes."

"It is not easy to create a company’s Intranet home page since the home page is the first page the user lands on."

"I was involved in the setup process to an extent. It was quite complex."

"Technical support is hit-and-miss. In general, the support staff is willing, but there is a large range of capabilities among them, from mediocre to excellent."

"Most Connections functionality must be customized and personalized but it is more expensive to customize this product, and the product does necessarily provide the widespread coverage that a customer may seek."

"For most of my users, the consistent feedback has been about how difficult it is to use and how the interface is poorly designed."

"Development of more customized widgets as per the organization’s requirement is one area, which if improved, will attract even those employees who don't use this product often."

More HCL Connections cons

"The Branding and User Interface Design and CK Editor should be improved, as well as the upgrade process."

"I think that it can be improved in terms of security, to manage roles and better performance."

"Searching information internally in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server could be better because when we get a lot of information, it is difficult to find."

"With SharePoint, if you change the location of a file or you change its name, you are breaking those links."

"The ability to preview files in different formats should be expanded to include formats such as embedded postscript (EPS), AutoCAD, and Adobe Acrobat PDF."

"Technical support could be improved. They are not fast enough, especially when we'll go deeper in the product itself. More complex issues make it very tough to find someone that can help you."

"The solution requires a lot of hardware capacity for high availability and performance."

"The solution could probably be improved by incorporating some of the power apps for workflow and easy setup."

More Microsoft Office SharePoint Server cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"There are some aggressive discounts offered by Microsoft for organizations that are not for profit, which we are, and it makes it quite attractive to consider."

"One of the reasons why we don't recommend the cloud version of SharePoint is the cost. With the on premise version, you pay for the license once. For the cloud version, there is a recurring fee. It is very expensive. They expect everyone to pay $20 or $30 per user per month."

"Pricing plans may be flexible depending on volume usage and your corporate relationship with Microsoft."

"It can be expensive for on-premises deployments, especially when you have to support SQL Server as your backend database. That's where the cost comes into play. SQL Server has its own licensing, which Microsoft keeps on changing. Therefore, it can become costly. In the earlier versions of SharePoint, version 2007 or 2010, they had an express version where the SQL Server licensing was free. It wasn't like a full-blown SharePoint. It was only a slimmed-down version. It used to be whatever your hardware costs. You would install the free software and work with it, but you were very limited in what you could do in SharePoint. If you wanted the SharePoint Enterprise Server with all the bells and whistles, then you had to pay more to get the SQL Server license based on the number of users or servers. The subscription model is different for cloud deployments. Licensing is per user and per month. The cost also depends on the storage required. If you have a lot of sites or documents, then you need to expand it based on your needs."

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884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Performing Arts

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Marketing Services Firm

11%

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Marketing Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	26

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	17

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with HCL Connections?

The support is an area where the product can improve. My company faces some support-related issues because whenever we create or generate a ticket, it takes two days for the product's support team ...

What is your primary use case for HCL Connections?

I use HCL Connections for marketing purposes. The IBM product in our company already provides us with direct links to the marketing and HR sides.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server?

I am not aware of the pricing, so I cannot say if the solution is expensive or quite affordable.

What needs improvement with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server?

My expectation when I start using a Microsoft product is that it would be easy to incorporate diagrams and such from other Microsoft Office products. Incorporating a diagram I've embedded in a slid...

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server?

I produce content about the work I'm doing inside the company, making information about IT architecture, work processes within IT architecture, and security reviews of applications or infrastructur...

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Compared 17% of the time

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Compared 12% of the time

LucidLink vs Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft OneDrive for Business vs Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle Beehive vs Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

Compared 7% of the time

More Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Competitors

Product Reports

HCL Connections

Download HCL Connections product report

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

Download Microsoft Office SharePoint Server product report

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server report

Also Known As

IBM Connections, Lotus Connections

Office SharePoint Server, MS Office SharePoint Server

Overview

IBM Connections™ is a leading unified collaboration and social networking solution that helps you filter out the noise to get work done. Connections empowers your teams and organization to engage with the right experts, accelerate innovation, and deliver results. All the collaboration tools you need to be productive are united under a single sign-on so you can reduce time spent switching between disparate tools and focus on the people and work that matters most. Experience a security-rich and business-compliant environment sanctioned by IT. Confidently share knowledge within your teams and your organization, and extend collaboration beyond traditional boundaries. Connections can enable you to improve decision-making, increase productivity, and accelerate time-to-market. Shift from being merely productive, to truly effective with Connections today.

IBM Connections can help you: Engage experts. People-centric platform enables you to easily locate the expertise you need, right now. Accelerate innovation. Illuminate and promote new ideas within a thriving social network of teams and communities. Empower teams. Get work done together and take action; anywhere—from any device. Deliver results. Leverage cognitive insights to prioritize results and arrive at better outcomes. Extend collaboration. Safely collaborate with customers and partners, bringing them into the conversation.

HCLSoftware

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) is a Microsoft software portal based on the ASP.NET framework. MOSS facilitates file sharing and collaboration, social networking, Web databases and Web publishing. It is hosted by Microsoft Windows Server and is accessible through Microsoft Office or the Web.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Yamato Financial Co. Ltd., University of Zurich, Gwinnett County Public Schools, Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., Telus, Rabobank, Christian Brothers Services, Grupo Financiero Banorte, The Loft Group, Dow Water & Process Solutions, JGC Corporation, College of Medicine, Swansea University, solvito GmbH, Loft Group, Hamm-Reno Group GmbH, Geno SA

Del Monte Foods, Unicredit Leasing, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, Nokia Czech Republic, Perkins Eastman, JLL, ICA, óxito Software, Dorset Software, PKP Cargo, Arcapita Bank B.S.C., AVE CZ, Chesapeake Energy

Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)