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HCL Connections vs SharePoint comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.2
Users achieved ROI from HCL Connections in nine months by encouraging daily use and eliminating redundant features like chat.
Sentiment score
7.5
Organizations achieve cost savings with SharePoint, boosting efficiency, centralizing data, and enhancing stability, despite unspecified ROI metrics.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
HCL Connections' customer service varies, with mixed reviews on support responsiveness and challenges in reaching knowledgeable staff.
Sentiment score
5.9
SharePoint support quality varies significantly based on subscription, with users often relying on communities due to mixed satisfaction.
technical support has been efficient and reactive to problems we encountered with SharePoint.
I deal with a third-party service provider, which is a Microsoft partner, and they have been very good to me.
Microsoft support could be better, especially for enterprise troubleshooting.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
HCL Connections offers high scalability with effective IBM WebSphere support, despite Solr search limitations and manageable storage challenges.
Sentiment score
7.7
SharePoint is highly scalable with proper planning, despite some initial configuration challenges and storage constraints in the cloud version.
SharePoint is massively scalable and I would rate it as 8.5 out of ten.
SharePoint allows multiple teams to work at the same time, making it adaptable for large data volumes.
Making it easy to scale from a load-balancing and infrastructure perspective.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
HCL Connections is stable on WebSphere but needs tuning for performance; IBM support addresses occasional instability effectively.
Sentiment score
8.2
SharePoint's stability varies; it is generally stable with proper setup, but issues arise with updates and large data volumes.
Everything runs smoothly, and I have no problems with its stability.
SharePoint is a stable product.
The stability of SharePoint is high; it is quite stable and resilient.
 

Room For Improvement

HCL Connections needs better document management, interface customization, third-party integration, collaboration, and cloud stability for improved usability.
SharePoint needs improvements in co-authoring, permissions, search, integration, mobile optimization, user interface, workflows, and interoperability for better usability.
Expansion of scalability is needed, specifically the threshold limits for site items should be increased beyond the current 5,000 items.
The rights management aspect can be particularly challenging, which may affect the overall user-friendliness of the product.
A chat support or chatbot feature could also improve the response time of technical support.
 

Setup Cost

HCL Connections pricing varies widely, offers discounts, flexible licensing, and competitive pricing compared to Jive or SharePoint.
SharePoint offers variable pricing influenced by CAL agreements, requiring careful planning and expert consultation for tailored organizational needs.
Unlike Drupal, all necessary applications are included in the Microsoft license, making it cost-effective.
Ten dollars might be cheap, but if everyone else is charging one dollar, it is very expensive.
Microsoft offers bundled pricing for Office, SharePoint, and Exchange, making it cost-effective.
 

Valuable Features

HCL Connections enhances collaboration with file sharing, tool integration, expert profiles, mobile access, and efficient content management.
SharePoint offers collaboration, Office integration, document management, search, version control, multi-device access, customization, and robust workflow features.
Additionally, SharePoint acts as a version control system, allowing easy recovery of past document versions.
SharePoint provides security for documents, allowing them to remain private and not shared publicly.
Its rights management capabilities and ability to restrict access to certain people are also very useful.
 

Categories and Ranking

HCL Connections
Ranking in Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Social Software (11th)
SharePoint
Ranking in Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
158
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Content Management (1st), Web Content Management (2nd), Enterprise Intranet (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) category, the mindshare of HCL Connections is 3.0%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SharePoint is 24.5%, down from 30.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)
 

Q&A Highlights

Jul 10, 2014
 

Featured Reviews

Hasnain Zahid - PeerSpot reviewer
A stable tool useful to manage marketing-related activities
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten. Sometimes, the portal hangs because I find that if I am on a web page, I have to log out, and then I have to log in to the portal again. Since I see that the portal hangs at times, I have to move from one side of the portal to the next, making me feel that some things are scattered in the product. I attended a meeting with IBM recently, and they are improving a few of the things, in my opinion. The concerns that I have related to the product are being improved since I think many other users have reported issues similar to the ones I faced.
Sanil Paul - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlined collaboration through seamless integration and customization
I have been an administrator for SharePoint and have used it as an end-user for document storage. Predominantly, I've been involved in administration SharePoint helps a lot since we've moved from using it directly to using it as a backend for Teams, which makes collaboration easier. It supports…
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842,466 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user8925 - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 23, 2013
Jive vs Sharepoint vs Drupal Commons
At Mediacurrent we often get requests to compare Drupal to other platforms used for intranet sites and social business platforms (like https://dev.twitter.com/ for example). This is often referred to as “Social Business Software”, which has grown in popularity in recent years. I decided to do a…
 

Answers from the Community

Jul 10, 2014
Jul 10, 2014
Hello, Looking at my referrers, I noticed that this question pointed out to my comparison between SharePoint & Connections (see previous discussions for the link). I didn't compare Connections and SharePoint/Yammer yet but just Connections & SharePoint Social. Now that I have a little bit more experience with Connections & IBM Products in general, I'd consider choosing either of ...
2 out of 9 answers
it_user128490 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 1, 2014
I have experience using Yammer, Sharepoint, IBM -Sametime, Cisco-webex as a social platform. I liked Cisco - webex for various reason - Easy to use, online conferencing, blog, message broadcast, desktop share, meeting scheduler and seamless integration with MS office calendar. I found webex connect to be feature rich and meets most of our Orgs social needs. Many Thanks Pratyush
Jul 1, 2014
IBM Connections Integrates well with SharePoint. Post the integration configuration, most of the time, we should be able to get our SharePoint Libraries and Mysite integrated with connections. By having Microsoft Windows Authentication, we would be able to see the teamsitres, contents etf through SharePoint APIs on Conections page.Availability of Uploading docs are also single click away.Its visa versa from SharePoint as well. Questions regarding MS Yammer or IBM Connections would be subject to business decision however it would also be dependent on wheather we have Connections in the system or Yammer. if its a fresh new set up planning then in long run SharePoint with Yammer negates the need to have IBM connection and have more cost effective solutions. Best regards, Kumar
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
36%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Real Estate/Law Firm
8%
Media Company
7%
Government
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about HCL Connections?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
What needs improvement with HCL Connections?
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 ...
What is your primary use case for HCL Connections?
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.
Would Alfresco give an organization more benefits in terms of cost, features & security as compared to Sharepoint?
Alfresco scores are high on all features of an ECM solution and tools. Back office processing, rated as 3.36 good. Business Process Application 3.55 Good to excellent. Document Management 4.12...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SharePoint?
With SharePoint, we save by not needing multiple external licenses. Unlike Drupal ( /products/drupal-reviews ), all necessary applications are included in the Microsoft license, making it cost-effe...
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Also Known As

IBM Connections, Lotus Connections
SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010
 

Overview

 

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
Toyota, Aeroports de Paris, ASBBank Ltd., Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals, CambridgeshireConstabulary, D&M Group, NPL Construction Company, and The Regional Municipality of Niagara.
Find out what your peers are saying about HCL Connections vs. SharePoint and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,466 professionals have used our research since 2012.