HCL Connections vs Microsoft 365 Business comparison

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HCLTech Logo
180 views|100 comparisons
93% willing to recommend
Microsoft Logo
555 views|267 comparisons
97% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between HCL Connections and Microsoft 365 Business based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Atlassian, Liferay and others in Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals).
To learn more, read our detailed Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) Report (Updated: March 2024).
767,995 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured 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 feature is the Activity flow that is used to catch new activities.""Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."

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"It's available online as well as via desktop applications when deployed in the cloud.""You can have conference calls with different parties using video and voice.""The Power BI environment and the integration between Power BI and SQL are the solution's most valuable features. The integration between products is great.""All the development that they've done in Teams recently has been great.""Microsoft 365 Business is stable.""Great accessibility and file storage.""I like that there's no maintenance involved.""It is easy to use."

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Cons
"The support is an area where the product can improve...If you are having an issue on a Monday, the support personnel will contact you next Monday.""The inclusion of a file plugin for Windows Explorer would make it easier to use."

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"The solution isn't stable.""The solution has a lot of areas to be improved. The tool needs to improve its background synchronization of data between the platforms. It can facilitate better decision-making and analysis of data. The tool should also make improvements to responsive mechanisms which can eliminate any bottlenecks.""The solution could work to offer better security.""It would be ideal if they could improve the cybersecurity of the endpoints, and to provide pictures of new zero-days cybersecurity threats as soon as possible.""No assistance with initial setup.""Teams is, in some respects, lagging behind Skype for Business in some telephone-related features""The ability to manage the updates a little better would be helpful. Sometimes end-users will get a prompt in the middle of the day that they have to update. When there's a new update, then their system automatically starts to reboot, which can be ill-timed. Having a little more control over that would probably be welcome. Notices in regards to updates and being able to manage the timing around them or to be able to do it at off-times would be helpful.""Excel hangs many times, especially when we have equations. Excel is very heavy on the hardware, and it needs powerful hardware. I hope they can enhance the performance of Excel. Other products are working well, except for Excel."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
Information Not Available
  • "Depending on which plan you purchase, there are a plethora of applications available to you."
  • "Compared to buying a license, it is much cheaper and a good buy."
  • "We do monthly billing, however, I'm not sure what the exact costs are. We may pay around $1,000/month. We started using the Microsoft Teams and we've started doing the conference call feature, so that's another $4 an account and we have a few accounts using that right now."
  • "USD $1,250 annually for the standard package."
  • "Pricing can vary a lot due to fluctuations in exchange rates and that is not favorable for planning."
  • "Now you can select different licenses, for example, if somebody doesn't need all of the features, it would cost $8 USD per month and if they didn't need the email application then it would cost $6 USD per month."
  • "It works out to be $12.50 per user per month."
  • "Microsoft 365 Business will be good to have if you have a large organization where you have more than 3000 employees. Other cheaper solutions, like Gmail, are easily available in the market."
  • More Microsoft 365 Business Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
    Top Answer: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 to… more »
    Top Answer: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.
    Top Answer:The product's initial setup phase was straightforward.
    Top Answer:My company places emphasis on the different licenses purchased. The company has P1 and P2 licenses from Microsoft. For certain tasks, you need a Microsoft license. There are additional costs attached… more »
    Top Answer:The solution's technical support team takes time to respond to users, making it an area of the tool's shortcomings where improvements are required.
    Ranking
    Views
    180
    Comparisons
    100
    Reviews
    1
    Average Words per Review
    649
    Rating
    9.0
    Views
    555
    Comparisons
    267
    Reviews
    30
    Average Words per Review
    304
    Rating
    8.3
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    IBM Connections, Lotus Connections
    Microsoft 365 E3, Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft 365 F1, MS 365 Business
    Learn More
    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.

    Microsoft 365 Business is an integrated solution, bringing together the best-in-class productivity of Office 365 with advanced security and device management capabilities to help safeguard your business.

    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
    Urban Agriculture Co., The Detroit Wallpaper Co., TransBlue Facility Management, Garner Food Company
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Transportation Company12%
    Government8%
    Insurance Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization32%
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Insurance Company6%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company14%
    Comms Service Provider11%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company14%
    Government7%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Healthcare Company6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise45%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise42%
    Large Enterprise40%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business44%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise39%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business35%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise48%
    Buyer's Guide
    Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Atlassian, Liferay and others in Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals). Updated: March 2024.
    767,995 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    HCL Connections is ranked 6th in Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) with 55 reviews while Microsoft 365 Business is ranked 2nd in Mobile Device Management (MDM) with 240 reviews. HCL Connections is rated 8.2, while Microsoft 365 Business is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of HCL Connections writes "Provides potent document sharing with good integration with the Microsoft desktop and smartphones". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft 365 Business writes "Improves productivity and allows team collaboration in organizations". HCL Connections is most compared with Skype for Business, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams and Yammer, whereas Microsoft 365 Business is most compared with Google Workspace, Microsoft Intune, ManageEngine Endpoint Central and Windows Autopilot.

    We monitor all Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.