01 December 2008 - When Microsoft produces something this useful, we should all take note... Author: Garry MacDonald
Like me you are probably a big user of Outlook and are probably about as good as me with computer programs, a fully signed up member of the 'point and click brigade' !
I therefore thought that you may appreciate hearing about this genuinely useful addition to Outlook... Business Contact Manager 2007.
For the first time ever, I've found the parts of Outlook that had always been missing for my needs ie. 'Contacts', the people, being associated under the main company name, ie. the 'Accounts'. Then being able to use that information, in a linked way, to form a sales forecast, manage a project or market your proposals to sales prospects in a tailored way.
I'm sure, like me, you've had to go and find then in other contact management programs such as ACT!, Maximizer or Goldmine. Remember any of them? The problem I always found was that they then had to integrate back into Outlook for email and/or diary management. That then becomes a pain to manage two programs and the data differing between them as you only remember to update one. I'm sure you know the situation ?
So far I'm quietly impressed with this value for money entry into 'Customer Relationship Management' (starting from £185/user). If you're interested, I will happily show you the BCM on the laptop so you can see a practical usage of it and see if it would be of value to you in your business. In the meantime here is a very useful online BCM demonstration.