What We Know About HCL’s Roadmap for Domino and Connections

Confused about what is happening in the world of Domino and Connections now that HCL is in complete control? Let me help you clear up a few things.

All information presented here are taken from presentations, webinars and documents distributed by HCL in the past weeks:

Domino V11

The following languages will be shipped:

• English
• Chinese Simplified
• Chinese Traditional
• French
• German
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Portuguese
• Brazilian
• Spanish
• Czech
• Russian
• Polish
• Dutch
• Swedish
• Arabic

So, if you speak, like in my case, Norwegian, you will have to go with an English Notes client (even if Swedish and Norwegian are very similar, it will still be easier)

Also: Bye bye Internet Password, you will be able to use the normal Notes password on the web as well

For application development, the following has been said:

• Domino Mobile Apps (DMA, also referred to as NOMAD), which makes it possible to run Notes applications on iPads without any new development will be available for iPhone, Android Tablet and ChromeOS. Support for Android phones will be a little bit later in V11’s life cycle. There will also be GPS support
• There will be a design specially made for mobile within standard templates that comes with Domino, which means that template like the Discussion template will behave more like a mobile than a notes app, without you having to do any coding
• A new tool that makes it possible for business users to quickly build apps and workflows will be coming. It will be deployed as nsf files. These are meant to enable users who don’t know programming to quickly create apps. They are not meant to re-skin or modernise old Notes apps. There will also be templates available. Oh yeah, it’s all included in the Domino license too:
  
• The Application Development Pack for Domino will be greatly enhanced so that you have more possibilities when it comes to programming languages and platforms
• iNotes (the web mail client) will be included in V11 but from V12 Verse on Premise (VOP) will be the only web mail client. New version of VOP will soon be presented in a Webinar
• Sametime will be updated with better design and will make it possible for you to integrate it with 3rd party conference tools, including Microsoft. You will also be able to use it with Notes, Verse, Gmail and Outlook/Exchange
• Xpages will still be supported, but it won’t be developed further

Notes client

The Notes client is still with us, but it will have a completely new design and colors. It will be delivered with the following variations:

• Notes, Designer and Administrator
• Notes, Designer
• Notes
• Basic Notes (no Eclipse)
• A lightweight client where you can run your Domino/Notes applications in the browser, mail will be in Verse

Connections

I wrote a detailed blog posting about the fact that IBM Cloud (Connections, Sametime and Domino) is dead, and that HCL will not be continuing this service. So go read that before coming back here, if you are wondering about anything when it comes to Connections.

However, Connections as a product is something that HCL is investing strongly in. Here’s what’s coming:

• A simplified user interface
• A Connections sidebar that you can integrate into any web page where you will get status updates and notifications (My hope is that this can be integrated in the sidebar of Notes, Verse and Outlook too)
• Touchpoint: An onboarding wizard for new users
• You can add external users without admin privileges
• Self service when it comes to password changes and reset
• Configure mail templates for invites
• An intelligent surface for your workday which suggests apps and files, includes integrated workflows and 3rd party integrations
• Integration with email, chat and activities and tasks
• Quick access to your contacts
• A simplified calendar (and I hope, integration with the Domino/Exchange/Gmail CAlendar)
• Templates for easy setup of communities and apps

Connections 6.5 will be out in Q4 of this year, and V7 will be out Q4 2020. That’s the version where we will se full integration with Domino

So, I hope this made it clearer for you. Any questions? Let me know in the comments section below!