Real Unique Selling Points for Notes/Domino
Rapid Application Development with Security from the Beginning
Time to market or the overall development cycle for Domino applications in your organization can be vert short. Domino leverages the key value paradigm of more recenet databases. Security and replication are built into the platform. It is fast and scales. While one team has a hard time developing basic features for a new application, a Domino developer team can deploy on multiple devices from the start and has a wide toolbox at hand to utilize security, robustness and fast update cycles offered by Domino.
Can run in a cloud setup, but is primarily available On-Premises for your data center in-house
It’s your data. While a lot of vendors now prefer to move you and your company compute assets to their own servers and infrastructure, you can always run your Domino servers on Linux and Windows on your own hardware – either virtual or on bare metal. You decide.
SwiftFile: Notes Client suggests the Folder to file your Inbox Messages into
SwiftFile is built into the HCL Notes client starting in 11.0.1. It is available as an extra install for all previously supported versions.
There is a nice technical report that has all the features explained in detail:
Abstract
While most e-mail clients allow users to file messages into folders, the process they must go through to file each message is often tedious and slow. For each message, the user must first decide which folder is most appropriate. Then, the user must inform the e-mail reader of that choice by selecting the appropriate icon or menu item from among what is typically a set of several dozen choices. The combined effort of choosing a folder and conveying that choice to the application of-ten discourages users from filing their mail, resulting in unmanageable inboxes that contain hundreds or even thousands of unfiled messages. SwiftFile encourages users to file their mail by simplifying the task. Using an adaptive classifier, it predicts the three folders that are most likely to be appropriate for a given message and provides shortcut buttons that permit the user to effortlessly file it into a predicted folder. For typical users, SwiftFile’s predictions are accurate over 80% to 90% of the time, resulting in a substantial reduction in the time and cognitive burden required to file messages.
Team Mailbox: a mail-in mailbox with one unique sending address for multiple users
Sure, you will need a team mailbox. One single mailbox with one address like Sales@mycompony.com that even a distributed team of people can work with. You can read more about it when browsing the official documentation: Selecting an alternate From address in a shared mail file
Team Calendar: Using a Calendar with a bunch of people simultaneously
It’s groupware – so it’s obvious that it should offer a Team Calendar.
The official documentation about the Team Calendar in HCL Notes has all the details.
E-Mail: Putting a Notes Inbox Message into more than one Folder (without copying it!)
Mat Newman explains this in a YouTube video
Domino – the reliable 24/7 groupware server
HCLs (former IBMs) groupware package offers a built in web server.
The server component is commonly referred to as HCL Domino.
This part of the software communicates with your installed
- HCL Notes Client using the NRPC protocol over tcp port 1352 fully encrypted and/or
- Web browser using the https protocol over tcp port 443
HCL as a owner of Domino is really interested in improving the user experience. HCL Nomad is the newest addition to the portfolio. You can now run all Notes applications natively on iPhone, iPad and Android devices. As of version 12, Nomad is now also available as a native web client. Meanwhile version 14.5 is being tested in an early access program (EAP) and of course version 14 is widely deployed as of today.
A common use these days is to have your mobile device (iPhone, iPad, Android) connected to the server part. The server task running on the Domino server is called Traveler.
Domino servers can be easily clustered. High availability is built into it due to its replication features. One server goes down, your clients fail over to another cluster member. If you use managed replica settings, your users won’t even notice.
Notes/Domino is like a good wine: getting better over time
Version 1.0 of Notes was first available on December, 7th 1989. The most recent version is currently available as version number 14.
There are not many software titles available these days that are still in the market since their first appearance.
You can still open your in 1989 created version 1.0 databases using the most recent version. The terms Lotus Notes, IBM Notes are all talking about the same. Now it is HCL Notes. HCL bought the software from IBM. It’s Notes the client as part of the server named Domino.
Notes is the client software talking to the server Domino
HCL is selling the client server groupware platform in two parts:
- Notes is the client software available for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android
- Domino is the server component with the built in web part
Notes/Domino – what can I do with it?
There are quite a few definitions out there. A good source is Wikipedia. Please refer to their article about the software to find out more.
Other resources on the web
Why Notes/Domino is Still a Solid Choice
Today, many platforms claim to offer groupware solutions. However, one of the pioneers in this space was [Lotus|IBM|HCL] Notes/Domino. Still available and fully supported by HCL, it has set the standard for this category of software.
If you chose [Lotus|IBM|HCL] Notes/Domino in the past, you made a smart decision. The platform continues to be supported, ensuring that your investment is secure. More than that, it has evolved into a powerful rapid prototyping framework for the web. If you need functionality beyond what’s built-in, you can develop custom applications or have others build them for you.
New features are consistently added with each release, delivering ongoing value to your business. Best of all, your team doesn’t need to change the way they work; Notes applications can adapt to your needs, continuously evolving to better support your business.
In addition to standard features like email, calendar, contacts, and to-do lists, Notes/Domino can enable new ways of collaborating. Even if you don’t have time to develop something new from scratch, there’s a robust open-source repository, OpenNTF, offering free applications. For those looking for trusted third-party solutions, the HCL Domino Marketplace provides a wide range of proven applications.
Notes/Domino is a reliable platform—modern, scalable, and available 24/7, whether hosted on-premise or in the cloud. The choice is yours, and your data stays in your control.
