The digital world is frequently changing, and software updates are critical to ensuring system security, performance, and reliability. HCL Notes stands out as a robust email software solution. It not only offers essential email, calendar, and contact management capabilities but also integrates seamlessly with other Lotus Notes communication tools and business applications, ensuring organizations stay secure and efficient amidst continuous technological advancements. With an improved user interface and expanded vital email functionality, HCL Notes transforms your everyday email into a management hub, increasing team productivity.

There are governance, compliance, and retention requirements that need to be considered without losing the context of the email body and chain of communications. Most large-scale businesses struggle to meet these requirements while keeping up with the operational needs of the business. Lack of compliance and governance while using legacy systems could potentially lead to hefty fines, loss of reputation and business license.

This blog delves into the key aspects of moving away from legacy systems such as HCL Notes and presents alternatives to retain the data while being compliant to regulatory requirements.

History of IBM Lotus Notes

The Lotus Development Corporation created HCL Notes (aka Lotus Notes) in 1989. Inspired by Plato Notes, Lotus Notes was created in 1973 by David R. Woolley from the University of Illinois. IBM purchased Lotus Notes in 1995, establishing a new subsidiary named Lotus Notes Development. In early December 2018, an IBM India official announced the sale of the Lotus Notes business to HCL for $1.8 billion in employment.

Present Version of Lotus Notes

Since the sale, Lotus Notes 14.0 is the updated version of HCL Notes, with the following security-related changes:

• AdminP immediately creates the AdminCentral application (admincentral. nsf) on the Domino administration server.
• You may access AdminCentral straight from your Notes Standard or Nomad web client without first running Domino Manager.

This new functionality tells you of the most recent versions of Domino and the Domino product family on the Domino server. You may utilize AutoUpdate to download software from the My HCLSoftware portal and send it to specific groups or Domino servers.

Lotus Notes 14.0 improves Domino’s one-touch setup. The Domino installation includes HCL Verse, HCL Nomad Server for Domino, and OnTime Group Calendar.

The Domino installation no longer supports notes.ini in the Windows administrative directory. The automated notification tool for new product versions alerts administrators of the most recent version of Domino and Domino add-on products.

Domino 14.0 supports only 64-bit Notes clients.

Users upgrading from Domino 12.0.2 (or older) to 14.0 with a 32-bit client should use the 64-bit version. If a user is already using a 64-bit client, administrators can still set up an automatic update (AUT) to facilitate the upgrade.

Disadvantages of Lotus Notes

While HCL Notes itself is being discontinued, so there are certain downsides to continuous usage, such as:

• The software might lock you into inflexible procedures that previously worked for you but are outdated and need too much manual intervention.
• The Domino server and Lotus Notes software both require frequent upgrades and additions.
• Many firms no longer provide the resources to sustain their Lotus Notes database.
• Any system update needs the assistance of an IT support specialist. Being a legacy system, working with Lotus Notes will be resource and time-intensive.
• HCL Notes developers no longer support the program in which your vital business documents are integrated.
• Troubleshooting server, database, and desktop client difficulties can be time-consuming and resource-intensive.

Alternative for Lotus Notes

Many Lotus Notes users are eager to upgrade to newer, simpler, and commercially accessible technology for the above-mentioned reasons. These firms frequently want to consolidate documents and procedures into a system and establish linkages with ERP and CRM systems.

Many organizations have turned on their next-generation environments like Office365 or Google and just kept Lotus Notes running. The expense to just keep it running is perceived safer than being the ‘Notes Undertaker’ and reconciling the complexity of that old environment. But hardware breaks, drives fail, but more importantly, over time the software running the machine becomes out-of-service, causing a security risk. It becomes unsupported when the technical resource with the right know-how retires.

When looking for a replacement, businesses should focus on locating a customized document management software system with a staff that has experience with crucial data migration. To guarantee a successful migration from Lotus Notes, look for a document management system or document supplier that offers data migration, data security, archiving, and auditing capabilities.

Platform 3 Solutions brings the expertise and the tools to help make this conversation easy. With Archon suite of products businesses will be able to:

• Seamlessly connect to legacy systems such as Lotus Notes.
• Analyze the unstructured data in the environment with the help of machine learning capabilities.
• Filter out important data while migrating from the source to the target system.
• Place the results in an open, parquet-based repository.

Platform 3 Solutions’ offering for IBM Notes/Lotus Notes extends both to email and Workflow applications. Historical data from the Lotus Notes environment can be used for preservation or any legal requirements. While the data kept is immutable, managing the lifecycle of the Lotus Notes data in the Archon Data Store platform becomes easier. For more information, feel free to Contact Us.