I am thrilled to announce that registration is now live for what will surely be a true, blockbuster event on June 7. This exclusive virtual event celebrates our latest versions of HCL Domino v12 and HCL Sametime. The first 1200 registrants got a free gift (we blew past that number in a couple of days!). I personally love the amazing video that helps capture the excitement as we could down the days to these “breakaway” releases. (An agenda will be released soon. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest.)  The launch event will include thought-leading sessions, demos, customer speakers, and more. And, it kicks off an exciting collection of Domino content delivered in a series we are calling the “Domino Dozen” (once you’ve registered for the launch, you will have access to this program). Each day, for 12 days following the launch, we will drop a new, essential Domino-related treasure. These pieces will include webinars, panel discussions, and technical deep dives, early access to special programs, thought leadership pieces, and more.   Also, join us for the closing keynote and happy hour on June 23 — we are calling it “Nerdi Gras” as a hat tip to the days of Lotus past. We will be releasing a party kit soon, with downloadable favors, so you can join in the fun. For those of us who’ve been on this Domino journey with us for so many years — and for those of you who we will be welcoming as new customers — we can’t wait to celebrate. Join us.

We are pleased to announce the release of HCL Verse 2.1.0 for general availability. In the past few months, we have been focusing on providing you a more user-friendly email platform which aims to boost your productivity at work.     Some of the new features of this release are:    Contact Photo from Domino NAB:     Now you can upload your contact photo (profile picture) to the Domino Directory through Verse. There are a few ways to do this:    (1) Upload a photo from a local drive   (2) Enter a URL to photo  (3) Take a picture using the photo booth in Verse and upload it!    If you already have a photo configured in the Domino directory, Verse can access the directory and display your contact photo.     A New Extension Point – Modify on Send    Extensibility is one of the focuses of our product. In this release, we deliver a new extension point which allows customers to modify the email body and subject before mail is sent. One of the major use cases is inserting a classified marking to mail subject and body. This feature helps users to flag and classify emails based on sensitivity of information.  This is particularly useful to public authority, government departments and large enterprises.    Verse-Sametime Integration with new Sametime web client    This improvement is not limited to Verse 2.1.0. With Sametime 11.5 FP1  (released in Feb 2021) you can now initiate chat and meetings with your co-workers using the new Sametime web client. We understand that it may take time for customers to upgrade to Verse 2.1.0, so this new experience is compatible with previous versions of Verse as well.  To enjoy this new feature, just install the latest FP of Sametime!  These are just some of the features of this release.  To see the full list, please refer to our Release Note.  To try out these new features for yourself, simply download the package from Flexnet.    For more Verse information visit:  HCL Verse Developer site can be found here HCL Verse Ideas Portal on Aha - Domino Product Team

Every successful company invests in customer experiences, but far fewer are making the kind of investments in employee experiences that truly matter. As companies add more and more applications to support their business and customers, employee experiences can be neglected — even though now the need has never been greater. Digital platforms and tools are an essential component of an effective business to employee (B2E) strategy. An employee experience is the sum of interactions and exchanges an employee has within their company — both personally and organizationally. How an employee perceives his or her journey through all the touchpoints within the organization matters. A lot. Why? Because employees are the true drivers of your business and the better the employee experience, ultimately, the better the customer experience. A Gallup study found “that companies with highly engaged employees outperform their competitors by 147% in earnings per share,” and that highly engaged employees are energized through an exceptional digital workplace. Businesses are also seeing a cultural shift with new norms and expectations from employees. Add to that the recent pandemic, which has accelerated the use of digital tools and driven the need for companies to invest in digital platforms like never before. As employee demands and outside pressures continually grow, companies can’t afford to ignore these expectations if they want to attract and retain talented employees and teams. Employee portals are key to improving the overall employee experience. Whether it’s an employee searching for IT support documentation or taking an eLearning class online, these B2E portals offer the opportunity for businesses to radically improve the employee experience. You first need to understand why your employees would be using intranet portals. Are portals used to collaborate with other employees, search for answers to common questions or just necessary for getting work done? Gaining...

What a blast! In our webinar hosted this week, we announced Beta 3 is now available for download on Flexnet for all Domino customers. Watch the replay here.  This will be the last beta drop before the v12 release so don’t miss your chance to participate and help us shape the future of Domino! In this third iteration, we are unleashing another set of great features. See the full list here or read highlights below. We’ve also included a Q&A received during our webinar and a special shoutout to all our customers and partners who covered our beta in blogs and tweets below! Notes Client Highlights New 64bit Notes Basic Client For the first time ever, we are releasing a 64-bit Notes Basic client for beta testing. Many of our customers have been voting for this and we’re pleased to deliver. (See this idea from Cormac.) Our main intent for this release is to engage customers, business partners, and third-party vendors to try out 64-bit Windows Basic version and test existing extension integrations. Our plan is to provide several iterations of this 64-bit client in beta and once we feel that we have addressed most of the known and reported issues, we will release the Standard 64-bit client. More Improvements for the Workspace In Beta 2, we introduced a new Notes client user interface for the workspace. Thanks to all your feedback, we have addressed several improvement requests such as reducing excessive spacing between icons and adding the ability to change the font color of workspace database icon (which is also policy controlled). Now you can also partially or completely collapse the workspace navigator and easily identify multiple replicas with the added a visual indicator. Read more here:  Updates to the new Notes V12 workspace design  Collapsible workspace sidebar  Apple M1 Support Good news for customers planning to use Apple’s new M1 hardware with HCL Notes. Beta 3 now also supports those type of CPUs. Domino Server Password Synchronization A new secure method to synchronize password changes from Active Directory to Domino allows customers to reduce the number of passwords that users have to remember. Password changes from Active...

Today marks a major milestone in our commitment to helping create the digital office our teams need to get work done, be more efficient, and collaborate effectively with colleagues. We are thrilled to announce 6 new features for your favorite meetings and chat solution: New filters in video settings: Animations will make it appear as if you are focusing intently, even if you are checking your phone or surfing the web  Awards show mode: Music will automatically fade in when the meeting goes past the scheduled end time — or attendees can activate it manually to drown out someone who is being dominating and annoying  Picture-in-picture pet mode: A new setting allows for you to have your camera display one window for you, and one window for your pet (who only seems to wander around or bark when you have meetings with management)  Social media security settings: A custom notification will display if you are sharing your screen and distractedly attempt to go over to the browser tab that has Facebook open  New AI integrations: When you suddenly are asked a question in a meeting when you weren’t paying attention, you can summon Siri or Alexa to answer it for you — run through a special Sametime voice-matching filter set up to sound like you  New audio settings: Less embarrassing, pre-set sounds, such as water running or a carn horn honking, will be auto played to drown out toilets flushing or family members yelling in the background.    Happy April Fool’s Day. Of course, this was a joke! But you know what’s no joke? The upcoming global premiere of the newest version of HCL Sametime on June 7. And, the fact that Sametime beats the competition — hands-down. Let us show you how.  

Project teams are a critical component of getting work done, and their productivity is key for success. Since collaboration and communication are so important, how do you know if your current toolset tools support your needs? Eliminate roadblocks One of the biggest roadblocks to close collaboration is the lack of a fundamental framework that makes collaboration easier. In other words, collaboration is not just a personal skill, it’s a result of structure and tools that support content sharing, ideation, and interaction between team members. If you add virtual project teams into the mix, the challenges of effective collaboration are even more pronounced.  HCL Connections solves this dilemma by enabling organizational teams and project teams to create “Communities” to support a collaborative work experience. So, what is a Connections Community? It’s a flexible, digital workspace where people come together to communicate, collaborate, share information and expertise, and solve problems. Communities enable information flow and sharing across the entire collaborative ecosystem. Make success repeatable Connections Communities make collaboration an integral part of the work experience by organizing your productivity tools, apps, content and tasks all in one place. Virtually everything you need, focused on a particular project or important activity, is at your fingertips. Whether you need to view the status of assigned tasks or edit a shared document, your Connections Community provides the tools to get the job done efficiently. Connections also includes a setup wizard to simplify the creation of new Communities. Use our built-in, professionally designed templates or reuse proven and engaging templates built upon your own best practices. Creating a new community and getting a new project team up-and-running has never been faster or easier. Be more productive One of the biggest productivity losses for project teams is searching for information. Information is typically disconnected from projects and tasks, and therefore hard to find. Studies consistently demonstrate that employees spend needless hours...