Lotus Notes vs Office 365 – Which Productivity Tool is Right for You?

Lotus Notes and Office 365 are both known as email clients. Lotus Notes was started by IBM but later on, it was sold to HCL in 2019. HCL Notes uses the Domino server to handle the emails. Microsoft 365 and HCL Notes both can meet the enterprise’s needs. But the question arises: which one is more suitable for you? So, let’s discuss the difference between HCL Notes and Office 365 through this table.

Lotus Notes vs Office 365 – Concise Overview!

Here’s a direct comparison of Lotus Notes and Office 365 in tabular form:

Difference Between Lotus Notes and Office 365: Detailed Explanation –

Let’s explore the key distinctions between these email clients to help you grasp their unique features:

1. Deployment of the Email Client

Office 365 uses the cloud to manage the emails. There are the proper subscription plans that need to be bought by the Organization as per their need. The plans can be extended or Renewed if required. Because of the cloud, it is easier to manage.

Lotus Notes was on the cloud in the earlier days. But now HCL Notes is based on the on-premise server. To use Lotus Notes, you need to manage the server and allocate the administrator for smooth functioning.

2. User-Interface for Lotus Notes vs Office 365

The user interface plays an important role in the difference between Lotus Notes and Office 365. Office 365 offers, Outlook as the email client. It provides an engaging interface, due to which it is easier to understand for the users. Any new user can be familiar with Office 365 very soon.

The user interface of HCL Notes is under development. It is improving regularly to make the users understand quickly. The more features of Office 365 such as Word, Excel, and so on are easily integrated. But Lotus Notes has not provided this facility. Because of the cloud, Office 365 can be operated from any location with the help of the Internet.

3. Lotus Notes vs Office 365 Comparison Based on the Security of the Mailbox

Discuss the HCL Notes vs. Office 365 based on the security of the mailboxes. In Lotus Notes, the No-SQL database is used to store the data. It is a highly secured database and is used at an alarming rate. It is a flexible database that can store huge data. All the data in Lotus Notes is stored in the format of.nsf files. The administrators can manage the database with the help of its documentation and apply the latest encryption algorithms. There is a requirement for a highly skilled administrator to manage the HCL Notes data. It also requires third-party software such as antivirus, etc.

Office 365 is more secure because of its regular updates. Office 365 uses the 128-bit RPC encryption technique. There are regular updates in Office 365 to provide better security. It uses the OST file, which is regularly synced with the server, to reflect the changes to the data.

4. HCL Notes and Office 365 Comparison based on the Storage

Let’s explore the storage to find the difference between Lotus Notes and Office 365. As Lotus Notes uses the on-premise server, the storage should be maintained by the administrator by adding more hard drives. Expanding or Shrinking the storage in Lotus Notes should be performed carefully. But in Office 365, for more storage, you can upgrade the plans. You can also downgrade the plans as required.

5. Lotus Notes vs Office 365: Application Availability and Content Management

Lotus Notes does not provide any additional applications for another purpose. HCL Notes also does not have any application to manage the content. Office 365 has a collection of multiple applications which are used for calls, online meetings, storing documents, etc. Office 365 uses SharePoint to manage the content and also provides a collaboration feature.

Overall, when choosing between Lotus Notes and Office 365, enterprise size matters. Large organizations might still prefer Lotus Notes for its robust security & customization. Medium-sized businesses benefit from Office 365’s user-friendly interface. Small enterprises often find it more suitable due to its affordability. 

After analyzing the Lotus Notes vs Office 365, you are wondering if there is any way that can help you migrate NSF files to Office 365. Let’s find a way to switch to Microsoft Office 365 from HCL Notes.

Now, Explore How to Switch From HCL Notes to Microsoft Office 365 Manually!

To use Microsoft Office 365 but with the old mailboxes of HCL Notes, can move the data to Office 365 by using different methods. Two manual methods can migrate the data efficiently. Let’s explore each one in detail.

Method 1. MONTI Technique to Use Microsoft Office 365 with HCL Notes Mailboxes

Microsoft Online Notes Inspector (MONTI) was developed for the customers to collect particular data to make the migration easier. It collects multiple pieces of information, such as mailbox size, calendar item size, group item size, and contact item size. It requires the Reader access to the Domino servers. The user should be able to create replicas on the Domino servers and issue remote console commands to the Domino servers.

Limitations

1. To use the MONTI method, you should be good at the technicalities of the server and Lotus Notes as well.
2. It is a time-consuming process to migrate the large data.
3. You need to follow the 86-page manual guide without skipping any step.
4. There might be chances of data loss or corruption in between the processes.

Method 2. Use IMAP Connector to Shift from HCL Notes to Microsoft Office 365

The second method is the IMAP connector to switch from HCL Notes to Office 365. You should take backups of the Lotus Notes database, which are NSF files. After that, you need to manually create the mailboxes in Office 365 for each user. Then enable the IMAP connection to synchronize the HCL Notes emails to Microsoft Office 365.

Limitations

1. There is a firewall and proxy in the server of Lotus Notes which block the Internet.
2. It does not support the calendar migration.
3. It is only applicable to the NSF files, which are in 1 GB of size only.
4. The time-consuming process to create the users in Office 365 manually and there can be human error that ruins the whole process.
5. With this, you can’t export address book from Office 365 in one go.

Author’s Suggestion!

Now you are aware of the difference between Lotus Notes vs Office 365. All the key differences are discussed in detail. The different methods are also elaborated to switch to  Microsoft Office 365 from HCL Notes. We have discussed the two manual methods but they are not reliable for naive users, because they need some technical know-how to use.