HCL Connections vs Office 365 comparison

Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)

August 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score

7.2

Users achieved ROI from HCL Connections in nine months by encouraging daily use and eliminating redundant features like chat.

Sentiment score

7.1

Office 365 boosts productivity, offers flexibility, enhances security, integrates well, and provides good return despite perceived costs.

No quotes available

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No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Office 365 report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.5

HCL Connections' customer service varies, with mixed reviews on support responsiveness and challenges in reaching knowledgeable staff.

Sentiment score

4.2

Office 365 support is efficient but variable, with response times often needing improvement; users favor stability and community resources.

No quotes available

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At times if you're trying to use their online support, they'll send you to an article that may or may not have anything to do with what you're looking for.

For more quotes and insights, download the Office 365 report

Controller/HR Manager/IT Manager at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.6

HCL Connections offers high scalability with effective IBM WebSphere support, despite Solr search limitations and manageable storage challenges.

Sentiment score

7.7

Office 365 is praised for its scalability and cloud integration, despite some noting the cost of licensing when expanding.

No quotes available

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No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Office 365 report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.3

HCL Connections is stable on WebSphere but needs tuning for performance; IBM support addresses occasional instability effectively.

Sentiment score

7.4

Office 365 offers strong reliability and performance, with minor disruptions, high uptime, and favorable user comparisons to alternatives.

No quotes available

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The integration capabilities of Office 365 with Word, Excel, and Outlook with OneDrive for cloud storage have been smooth and work well.

For more quotes and insights, download the Office 365 report

Controller/HR Manager/IT Manager at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees

Room For Improvement

HCL Connections needs better document management, interface customization, third-party integration, collaboration, and cloud stability for improved usability.

Office 365 needs better inclusivity, performance on Mac, integration, cost management, UI consistency, security, customization, and simplified updates.

No quotes available

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One of the big changes is when Microsoft updates anything, they will switch where some of the settings are and where to find them, which becomes a little frustrating because you're used to it in one spot and it's someplace else.

For more quotes and insights, download the Office 365 report

Controller/HR Manager/IT Manager at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees

Microsoft could improve their support; I don't deal with Office 365 or Office 365 application-specific issues, but I wonder if it's similar where you get someone from Microsoft to hold your case, which could take a couple of days, maybe a week in between when they get back in contact with you.

reviewer2133984

Sr. Security Analyst/Incident Response at a retailer with 5,001-10,000 employees

Setup Cost

HCL Connections pricing varies widely, offers discounts, flexible licensing, and competitive pricing compared to Jive or SharePoint.

Office 365 offers flexible, scalable plans suitable for enterprises, providing value through integration and device capabilities despite complex licensing.

No quotes available

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My experience with the pricing or licensing of Office 365 is that a lot of times we've gotten them when they've been on sale, so we've had really good pricing for the Microsoft products.

For more quotes and insights, download the Office 365 report

Controller/HR Manager/IT Manager at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees

Valuable Features

HCL Connections enhances collaboration with file sharing, tool integration, expert profiles, mobile access, and efficient content management.

Office 365 enhances productivity with cloud collaboration, integration, real-time editing, and robust tools, benefiting organizations with time-saving advantages.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the HCL Connections report

Office 365 has positively impacted my organization by making the salespeople more accurate because they've been able to use the features in Excel instead of relying on the calculator or adding machine.

For more quotes and insights, download the Office 365 report

Controller/HR Manager/IT Manager at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees

The best features with Office 365 include the ability to access email anywhere since it's not an on-premises server, it's in the cloud, which saves us on storage and exchange administration.

reviewer2133984

Sr. Security Analyst/Incident Response at a retailer with 5,001-10,000 employees

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 (10th)

Office 365

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

145

Ranking in other categories

Content Collaboration Platforms (2nd)

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 3.0%, up 3.0% compared to last year.
Office 365, on the other hand, focuses on Content Collaboration Platforms, holds 8.8% mindshare, up 6.0% since last year.

Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
HCL Connections	3.0%
SharePoint	28.0%
Liferay Digital Experience Platform	19.4%
Other	49.6%

Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)

Content Collaboration Platforms Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Office 365	8.8%
Dropbox Business - Enterprise	10.1%
Microsoft OneDrive for Business	9.4%
Other	71.7%

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.

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Gary Cook

Executive at Empowered Analytics

Access to advanced features boosts productivity despite pricing concerns in developing regions

I need to do maintenance for Office 365 very seldom, once a year. In the maintenance process for Office 365, we have about 12 people involved. For the maintenance side of Office 365, only one person is involved. Looking at Office 365's pricing, I would give it a 4 on a scale from 1 to 10. My overall rating for Office 365 is an 8 out of 10, but for the product itself, I would give it a 10. I would definitely recommend Office 365 to other businesses, probably a 9 out of 10 for recommendation. This is only because of its price and the fact that they do not take into account developing countries such as South Africa, where they should give us more favorable prices or local prices. We do not have a partnership with Microsoft, which is a sore point for us. We have reached out to Microsoft South Africa, and they are very hard to contact and largely uncooperative. We are a B-Level 2 and a B-Level 1, which are local affirmative action ratings that companies get. Level 1 is the highest, and Level 8 is the lowest. We hold amongst the highest BEE ratings, but we have not found Microsoft South Africa to be forthcoming or very open. We should have a partnership with them, and we run Power BI as we are a Power BI shop now. I strongly would want to see a box within Office 365 for our team to have ChatGPT through OpenAI as well. We use Excel as a data source for many tasks and find that it integrates really well with Python. We write a lot of Python code and use Excel as a data sheet many times, and we operate through SQL and other zero elements as well. From an Office 365 viewpoint, we find that with Copilot and Python and Excel's provision for Python, it is very useful.

Read full review

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Performing Arts

20%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Media Company

10%

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

17%

Government

Outsourcing Company

Performing Arts

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	62
Midsize Enterprise	29
Large Enterprise	68

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about HCL Connections?

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

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 Office 365?

For pricing, I think it's fairly priced, I would rate it 8.

What needs improvement with Office 365?

The areas of Office 365 that have room for improvement are what should be better in this solution.

What is your primary use case for Office 365?

A typical use case for Office 365 is how I primarily use this solution.

Microsoft Teams vs HCL Connections

Comparisons

Compared 56% of the time

SharePoint vs HCL Connections

Compared 44% of the time

More HCL Connections Competitors

Google Workspace vs Office 365

Compared 51% of the time

Dropbox Business - Enterprise vs Office 365

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft OneDrive for Business vs Office 365

Compared 7% of the time

Amazon WorkDocs vs Office 365

Compared 6% of the time

Atlassian Confluence vs Office 365

Compared 5% of the time

More Office 365 Competitors

Product Reports

Download HCL Connections product report

HCL Connections

September 2025

Download Office 365 product report

Office 365

August 2025

Also Known As

IBM Connections, Lotus Connections

Microsoft Office 365, Office 365 Enterprise, Office 365 Enterprise E1, Office 365 Enterprise E3, Office 365 Enterprise E5, Office 365 ProPlus, Office 365 Business, Office 365 Business Essentials, Office 365 Business Premium, Office 365 F1

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

Office 365 is more than just Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. It provides powerful services like business-class email, online storage, and teamwork solutions that you can access from anywhere. Bring teams and resources together with solutions like Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business that make working together more productive and enjoyable regardless of where participants are located. Easily implement security and privacy controls to help protect business data and devices against malicious threats and help you meet your compliance obligations. Automatic updates ensure your employees will always have the latest features and security updates.

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

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