Single user alternative to Goldmine or ACT!

My impression is the MS CRM is not intended for single user, with
Desktop and Notebook PC and database of 40,000 contacts.

Cost is also a consideration. What I know of MS Outlook with Business
Contact Manager does not appear to be ideal either, though I'd like
integration with Outlook and don't need Exchange.

Am I on track here?

Any suggestions for products I should look at?


John "J.J." Jackson

John
Thu Mar 16 00:59:30 CST 2006

You right in that CRM is not intended for a single user. Even for one user
you would still have to implement a server etc. BCM or business contact
manager can work for you and it also has a migration path to full CRM.

What features do you need in a solution and why does BCM not fit your
requirements?


=======================
John O'Donnell
Microsoft CRM MVP
http://codegallery.gotdotnet.com/crm




"JJ" <jjyg[DELETE_THIS]@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:tcrg12du2m227id7jv9evkp0acfa0a1ih6@4ax.com...
> My impression is the MS CRM is not intended for single user, with
> Desktop and Notebook PC and database of 40,000 contacts.
>
> Cost is also a consideration. What I know of MS Outlook with Business
> Contact Manager does not appear to be ideal either, though I'd like
> integration with Outlook and don't need Exchange.
>
> Am I on track here?
>
> Any suggestions for products I should look at?
>
>
> John "J.J." Jackson

JJ
Sun Mar 19 17:03:49 CST 2006

"John O'Donnell" <csharpconsulting@nospam-hotmail.com-nospam> wrote:

>You right in that CRM is not intended for a single user. Even for one user
>you would still have to implement a server etc. BCM or business contact
>manager can work for you and it also has a migration path to full CRM.
>
>What features do you need in a solution and why does BCM not fit your
>requirements?

My requirement is Sales Contact management (Mortgage Broker) with a
starting database of about 40,000 Realtors. The focus on the
individual Real Estate Sales Person Contact vs. their Organization
(employing Real Estate Broker) is an issue. Both Home and Work address
& phone are important, and multiple emails. Sales people move from
Broker to Broker but stay in the same line of work.

Need for customized fields to gather information on actual Mortgage
Prospects that will be needed to fill out Loan Application (form
1003), track all the things that must be done before the loan can
close.

Track referrals etc.

Need custom forms, custom fields. With Goldmine you can set up views,
so that a field is used for one thing with one type of contact and
used for something different for another type of contact. With
Goldmine you can set up automated campaigns (on day 4 send this email,
day 10 send this letter, etc.)

While I own BCM, I uninstalled it and to be very honest did not spend
a lot of time learning what it COULD do. My impression is there is no
way it can do the things Goldmine or ACT! can do in terms of CRM
features, campaigns, automation, customization etc.

I was also concerned about volumes, but am rethinking that a little
since the data is not stored in PST files but MSDE.

I know Office 2007 will be here very soon.

I am very curious as to what the future holds for BCM.

Microsoft has a reputation for constantly improving their products
until they become dominant. If the Office 2007 version of Business
Contact Manager is going to get a major face lift, BCM becomes more
attractive JUST because it is a Microsoft product, and better
integration with Outlook, lots of R&D dollars, slick user interface,
long term safe decision.

While I am a sole proprietor and don't need or want all the stuff
required to support MS CRM, the sucess of MS CRM and/or BCM is
probably going to have a negative affect on vendors like ACT! (Sage
was Best Software) and Goldmine (Front Range) in terms of market
share.

The rewrite of ACT! under .NET disappointed a lot of people and was
very scary.

Goldmine has always been more powerful and more complicated than ACT!,
and their direction is to new technology as well, but that is a double
edged sword. They have not ported the single user version of Goldmine
from the dBase engine to Firebird, and I hear the Corporate version of
Goldmine 7 (runs on Firebird or SQL Server) is like Beta Software.

FrontRange has other products, and I wonder if Goldmine is a money
maker for them, and just how committed they are to it, especially to
the single user version. They shut down their unofficial UseNet News
Group, have had some management changes, seem behind schedule on the
release and debugging of Goldmine 7.

Right now my raw data is in a FoxPro table and I dread making the
wrong decision, dong a conversion to a product with an unknown future.
, and Goldmine.

MS CRM seems to be getting attention in the media now, but you hear
very little about MS BCM. You see where FoxPro has fallen by the
wayside. MS doesn't need three database products. To the extent that
MS wants larger organizations to go with MS CRM they might limit the
power of MS BCM.
John "J.J." Jackson