Best CRM practices - need general concept help
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Sunday, February 22, 2009 9:25 PMHey all this might a bit off topic. But I hope you can help me out.
I'm digitizing my rolodex and I want to track whats going on with each contact. Ex if that is suplier I want to have all history off all our business. Also I want organiz emy contacts by groups so that I can send out large news updates to every one who belong to that group. I'm pretty flexible to accept any solution. I can even build my own custom program.
Shopping on open market makes me crazy. there are 1000000 of companies that call their product with a CRM tag but max they can do is send emails and track invventory. Gee I got quick books and outlook that can do that just fine and say its free (well paid in the past for it)
I just want to maximize the use of my contacts to bring some more biz.
Hope some one can give me few tips.
Tnx!
Newbie
All Replies
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Sunday, February 22, 2009 10:42 PMGiven this is a Dynamics CRM forum, you are going to be told that Dynamics CRM is an excellent CRM, which it is. However, for one user it is something of an overkill. The secret agents of Microsoft may send round the assassin ninjas for this but my recommendation would be to look at a product like Sage ACT! which you can buy from basically any large office or software outlet. Read the reviews online to see what it can do and see if this fits well with what you are looking to do.If you'd prefer to stay in the Microsoft camp, the Outlook extension Business Contact Manager may also be an excellent choice.Leon Tribe
Want to hear me talk about all things CRM? Check out my blog -
Monday, February 23, 2009 6:39 PMThere's an upcoming webcast on February 24, 2009 about choosing the right CRM solution for you. I'm sure it will be archived somewhere afterwards. Register on the Microsoft Momentum site.
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Monday, February 23, 2009 6:42 PMI looked at several solutions.
email me offline if you want my opinion.
matt.hill.email(at)gmail.com
-matt -
Monday, February 23, 2009 9:55 PMI guess I'll try businesss contact manager first.
Now the question is where do I get it?
I have office 2003 and 2007 isntalled (the 2007 one seams to be regular version ) is there any way to get BCM like a standalone license? I'm not in the mood buying full office 2007 enterprice caz i hate new GUI :(
Newbie -
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 12:41 PMModeratorMicrosoft Outlook with Business Contact Manager comes with the Microsoft Office 2007 Small Buisiness Edition. It doesn't come with Professional or Enterprise editions because BCM isn't recommended for medium-sized and enterprise organisations. I don't think it is available as a stand-alone product, but you can buy Outlook 2007 with BCM without the rest of the Office suite.
http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Outlook-Business-Contact-Manager/dp/B000WEJYM4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1235479233&sr=1-1
Regards, Neil -
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 9:14 PMYou might also consider CRM Online which is designed as a hosted offering for the smaller firm. I think you will discover that BCM might have certain limits that trip you up if you are really trying to do significant marketing and CRM management.
Anne -
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 9:35 PMok I will then get demo of Outlook w/ BMC.
I just found 2 unswaped boxes of office 2003 and they have BCM disk included. So I myght downarde my outtlok to 2003 see how BCM works.
As to online solutions I dont like them for simple reason, once u stop pay them you loose everything.
I dont really need heavy CRM functions, I cust want to be able to saty in touch with all my contacts.
Newbie
