Whats next for Domino, Connections and Sametime

During Digital Week, HCL has presented another look at a positive future for the core of the Digital Solutions portfolio, Domino, Connections and Sametime in the coming year.

Domino Designer and Notes v12

The main theme of Domino V12 is: Apps that Run Your Business – Domino V12 comes to support Volt and thus seamless app development.

• Business workflow for everybody. Every business user can use forms, enterprise data and workflows to build a solution.

  • Workflow canvas

  • Powerful forms and views

  • Integration built-in

• Your business, your data, your cloud. Domino Cloud Native delivered with the security and automation that every organization expects.

  • Leading container platforms

  • Database backups reimagined

  • Simpler security deployment

• Better App and Mail Experiences, Everywhere. Use your existing apps, do mail and chat using your desktop, web and mobile devices more easily.

  • Zero-footprint apps on a browser

  • Windows, Mac / OS and Linux supported

  • Game-changer for Notes upgrades

Here are some interesting features from a server perspective:

Domino V12 also supports more platforms, the focus for now being Linux:

• RHEL

• RedHat UBI

• CentOS

• SUSE

• AstraLinux

As you might expect already, HCL Domino gives power to the user to choose when his data is stored. Domino Cloud Native delivered with the security and automation that every organization needs.

• Leading container platforms

• Backup reimagined: you can now backup with any vendor so you don’t have to worry about losing data.

• Simpler security deployment

As far as security is concerned, 2 Factor Authentication is also one great plus with Domino V12:

• 2FA is delivered “out of the box” for Domino customers

• Just works. No change required to existing Domino apps or when using email

• Users can use their favorite app (Google Authenticator, Authy)

HCL is also pushing towards Nomad Web and their Progressive Web App technology.

The priorities for Verse:

• iNotes Feature Parity

  • Find available time in Verse (Graphical Representation) – New Design

  • Archive documents

  • Calendar Improvement (e.g. Reschedule meetings with comments)

  • S/MIME

  • Contacts UI

• User Features Enhancement

  • Photos from NAB

  • Calendar Improvement (e.g. Create meetings with over 24 hours)

  • Push Notifications for Verse Web and PWA

• Programming and Extensibility

  • Javascript API for 3rd party integration

  • Enhanced Mail UI extensions

  • Extensions for Calendar

• Cross-Product Integration

  • Connections Integration

  • Sametime Chat Integration

  • Enhanced Integration with Sametime meeting configuration

What is up to come with HCL Notes V12

• User Interface: Updates to the user interface to improve user productivity

• Competitive enhancements: Alternate Form, Format Painter, Import Improvements

• Performance: Improvements to responsiveness of the client: 20% faster startup; Improve performance on slow networks. 

• Additional Language: Dictionaries part of Notes kits for Windows. No need to install them separately

• Cascaded installer to combine MUI (incremental language) kits with the English installer

• Reduced footprint of install kit: Remove unused MS VC++ libraries; Remove unused templates from client kit.

HCL Domino Designer V12

Connections 2021 and Beyond

With the coming of Connections 7 in December, let’s see what HCL Connections has planned for us for next year.

As you might expect, in the Chat and Meetings corner we have Sametime, with its new capabilities. These features will not be taken over by Connections.

Next comes Project Yuzu which takes care of Collaborative Work Management and it does have one important distinction from Connections: this is outcome based, extremely focused small team oriented.

Connections on the other hand is community oriented, about attracting expertise, it’s all about engagement, a broader sharing of knowledge and bringing people together.

Connections make the step from an Enterprise Social Network to an Enterprise Community Platform:

• Easily create and share content

• Exchange thoughts with experts

• Discover and network

• Develop viewpoints and add depth to knowledge/understanding

• Create and exchange ideas

Here is what the HCL Connections Product Strategy looks like:

Connections 6.5 came with enhanced user engagement and adoption. This has been achieved through: TouchPoint, Sidebar, Highlights and Invite which made it easier for users to join the Connections family. 

HCL Connections 7 which is just fresh out of the oven the focus was Integration and Repeatable Success. You now get a Tailored experience (templates were introduced), MS Ecosystem support, PDF export and Partner-led Cloud .

Next in line for 2021 is giving a better User Experience. This will be made possible with a new UI Framework to enhance usability, consistency as well as upload, discover and share. 

The build of the new UI will not mean a redesign one-for-one but rather the focus is on the most used used-cases in Connections, how they should be presented using a more modern UI. The visual silos are being kept, between Wikis, Activities, etc but the flows are improved based on use-cases for a better user experience, improving navigation – fewer clicks for an action.

2022 is planned to improve the Enterprise Community Platform, Strengthen the Community with better management (lifecycle, member), Engagement (Landing Page, Updates and Notifications) and Integration (HCL Ecosystem, 3rd party apps).

Here is how HCL is building a new experience through HCL Connections:

Sametime

Even if a lot of great things were announced already with Sametime, HCL also has some great plans with this tool as well. 

Here are the main Roadmap Themes:

The main focus for the next year remains giving users a better experience when working with Sametime, and of course the new Sametime Meetings. A lot of feedback is being processed in order to determine which features are a must and need to be implemented as soon as possible. If you are a user and have any ideas, shoot them up to HCL so they can provide an even better app for us to use. 

Cloud Native does not mean that you can’t go with a Premises solution; you have the option of selecting what best suits your company. At the same time, you can select your cloud and HCL does support their partners who are more than welcome to lend a hand. 

Digital Office refers to HCL’s Project Yuzu, which at this point is more of a concept; but the plan is to enhance Sametime’s capabilities in order to give users a better collaborative experience.

Sametime is planned to become the heart of Project Yuzu – all the collaborative tools that you need in your work, meetings, tasks, chats all in one place.

HCL does encourage feedback from their users, so if there is any functionality that you would like to see in the future, let them know.