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HCL Notes pros and cons

Vendor: HCLSoftware
3.8 out of 5
585 followers
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Pros & Cons summary

HCL Notes is a stable and scalable system known for excellent security features, seamless integration, and effective workflow applications. It supports complex approvals and secure communication. Despite these strengths, HCL Notes requires a major UI upgrade, excessive resource usage, and unreliable chat functionality. Integration with other solutions is limited, and web support is outdated. Additionally, lengthy loading times and inefficient connections to the Microsoft database hinder its performance.

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

HCL Notes offers exceptional security, including field-level security and encryption.
Integration with other services is straightforward and efficient.
The platform is highly stable and scalable, performing well under various conditions.
HCL Notes is excellent for workflow applications, allowing task approvals with attachments.
Secure communication is a standout feature when dealing with professional entities.

CONS

HCL Notes is resource-heavy and consumes more than necessary for an email client.
Integrating HCL Notes with other solutions can be challenging.
Features in HCL Notes require updates and modernization.
The connection between HCL Notes and Microsoft databases can be difficult.
Web support for HCL Notes is outdated and needs enhancement.
 

HCL Notes Pros review quotes

reviewer1419795 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 14, 2020
The product is very stable and scalable.
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TA
May 19, 2022
HCL Notes has fantastic built-in security. The email and personal communication components are excellent, but they are some applications provided by HCL that Notes previously provided when it was under IBM and Lotus. Everyone wants email, so that's just part of the product. However, more savvy users can build their own solutions for managing information, and that's the great thing about it.
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reviewer1738818 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 5, 2022
Its security is absolutely stratospheric. In an application, you can lock down to field-level security. For example, I could log in and see a field in an HR database with salaries. When you log in, you see exactly the same database, but the field with the salary just isn't there. So, you can literally have field-level security on it, and you can also have secure encryption. For example, I could give you that database allowing you to see the salary, but a calculation that shows how much they get per month in another field is encrypted. So, you won't be able to see that because you don't have the encryption key. You can implement high-level security very simply.
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HCL Notes
June 2025
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Chiheb Charmiti - PeerSpot reviewer
May 18, 2022
It is one of the best products in the world for workflow applications. It works very well for workflows or decisional processes where a task needs to be first approved by someone. After that, the task moves to the next or final stage where another person approves it with some notes or attached documents.
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reviewer2035941 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 27, 2024
Notes is a perfectly adequate front end. It's clear and straightforward.
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Bogdan Chechlowski - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 22, 2022
The most valuable feature is the access that it provides to documents. This offers us an easy way to make changes.
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Bogdan Chechlowski - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 4, 2024
The most valuable feature is security. It's very easy to manage security on records, views, and tables.
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TA
Dec 27, 2024
It offers unique capabilities, excellent security, and replication features.
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reviewer2261757 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 1, 2023
The security and performance of the solution are good even though our platform is variable, except for the mail services.
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Herad Howell - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 12, 2024
The software's secure communication is particularly useful when dealing with professional entities.
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HCL Notes Cons review quotes

reviewer1419795 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 14, 2020
Notes needs a major upgrade for the UI.
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TA
May 19, 2022
I would like to HCL update Notes' development tool and make it more attractive like Microsoft Visual Studio and similar products. For example, there's a programming language that I used for my product Woodpecker called LotusScript. LotusScript has been available since around 1995. When LotusScript was released, it was like the original Visual Basic, but it has improved since then.
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reviewer1738818 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 5, 2022
The only improvement that we're planning to do is that all our applications are still designed in the layout and format of Notes version 4, and our plan over the coming years is to modernize their look. One of the things they're developing or considering deploying is a program to automatically upgrade the look and feel of databases. If they deploy that, that will be revolutionary. In other words, we decide on a corporate look and feel for our database and press a button. We've probably got 50 different applications in Notes, and it would just go through the whole lot and upgrade all of them to look the same.
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Buyer's Guide
HCL Notes
June 2025
Free Report: HCL Notes Reviews and More
Learn what your peers think about HCL Notes. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
DOWNLOAD NOW
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Chiheb Charmiti - PeerSpot reviewer
May 18, 2022
I love this product. I have used it for many years, and I have been a developer for it. If anything, it can be faster in the client version. The client version is a little bit hard. It is not fast. This is the only problem I see. Otherwise, it is a very good product.
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reviewer2035941 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 27, 2024
Some people complain that they want something more modern and jazzy.
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Bogdan Chechlowski - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 22, 2022
We had trouble connecting this solution to the database from Microsoft. We have done it, although it can be easier.
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Bogdan Chechlowski - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 4, 2024
The performance was terrible because we have a very large database with around three million records, including attachments and scanned comments. It was slow, and integrating new technologies or designs was also slow.
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TA
Dec 27, 2024
While HCL has made significant advances in the user interface and diverse platform compatibility, some improvements could be made in user-friendliness and graphical interface enhancements.
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reviewer2261757 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 1, 2023
Web support is very old and needs an upgrade. We can handle a different password for the client to access the mail services, compared to the web services. We need to implement many other components to get access to the web access. There could be a feature to interpret if the web access is available from any end-user equipment.
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Herad Howell - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 12, 2024
One area for improvement would be making the interface more user-friendly.
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Show 5 more reviews (out of 15)

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Product Categories

Product Categories
Email Applications

Popular Comparisons

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