Lotus Notes is still a widely used platform with a user base of over 145 million. Their relevancy, however, is declining rapidly due to the increased popularity of Google Apps and Microsoft hosted email, which are lauded as more user-friendly and convenient. Synaptris, through the deployment of their Lotus Notes add-on FewClix, hopes to remedy these common complaints. With an advanced search function, addition of a grouping feature, and a way to personalize your mailbox, FewClix hopes to make Lotus Notes more efficient.
FewClix, now in open beta, has added an advanced search function to Lotus Notes. Instead of simple queries, like name or date, users are able to refine their search through the use of FewClix’ “Quick Search Bar.” As an example, lets say I know I sent an email to Steve, with an attachment, between July and August of last year and I need to resend. Instead of sifting through endless emails by using Lotus’ simple search, FewClix narrows down the email based on the given information.
Another new feature FewClix brings is the ability to group emails together and perform actions on them: a feature not available with Lotus Notes alone. Emails are grouped by simply using the drag-and-drop function in order to create single and multi-level groups. By doing this, users are now able to right-click these groups and perform common operations such as moving them to a folder, deleting them, or copying the attachments to local drives. By combining the search function with grouping, users can archive emails more effectively as well.
Users can define how they want to view their mailbox as well with FewClix. By saving the tasks people use more often as “Smart Views”–which can be re-used anytime a user wants–FewClix cuts down the time people spend getting to these tasks normally.
Innovation is the key to any business. If Lotus Notes wants to stop the bleeding and become relevant again, they need to have more products, both first and third-party, which improve the user experience. While FewClix isn’t a complete answer to the problems Lotus Notes faces, it is a step in the right direction.
Synaptris is venture backed by SAIF Partners and is headquartered in San Jose, California.
