G
Guest
I am trying to understand what is the difference between an account and a company. I would assume that they are the same but when I enter a contact it also asks me for an account and a company.
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R
Rob Schneider
Danw said:I am trying to understand what is the difference between an account and a company. I would assume that they are the same but when I enter a contact it also asks me for an account and a company.
I guess you are talking about Business Contact Manager where you
associated contacts with "accounts". I perceive "accounts" in BCM's
context as the collective noun for business contacts of whom are or not
part of the same company. Generally one account is for one company, but
I can see the situation also where youcould have an account name "Big
Worldwide Corporation", and have individual contacts inside that account
with different company names (divisions or affiliates in different
countries, for example).
From a computer program perspective, I think BCM uses "account" as the
key field to make each account name unique. It's a one-to-many
relationshiop with contacts.
G
Guest
You are right, I am using Business Contact Manager, key information that I left out.
It seems very warped. I understand that they need a key for the company, but why not just use "company" for the key field. All the other contact manager that I have used do (especially the simply one, like this one is trying to be). I guess I will always just have to duplicate the account into the company.
I am getting a very uneasy feeling about business contact manager. It they go out of their way to limit its usefullness by deinstalling it if you use exchange, how else are they going to limit it. They obviously want us to install their full fledged CRM system.
----- Rob Schneider wrote: -----
I guess you are talking about Business Contact Manager where you
associated contacts with "accounts". I perceive "accounts" in BCM's
context as the collective noun for business contacts of whom are or not
part of the same company. Generally one account is for one company, but
I can see the situation also where youcould have an account name "Big
Worldwide Corporation", and have individual contacts inside that account
with different company names (divisions or affiliates in different
countries, for example).
From a computer program perspective, I think BCM uses "account" as the
key field to make each account name unique. It's a one-to-many
relationshiop with contacts.
It seems very warped. I understand that they need a key for the company, but why not just use "company" for the key field. All the other contact manager that I have used do (especially the simply one, like this one is trying to be). I guess I will always just have to duplicate the account into the company.
I am getting a very uneasy feeling about business contact manager. It they go out of their way to limit its usefullness by deinstalling it if you use exchange, how else are they going to limit it. They obviously want us to install their full fledged CRM system.
----- Rob Schneider wrote: -----
I am trying to understand what is the difference between an account and a company. I would assume that they are the same but when I enter a contact it also asks me for an account and a company.
I guess you are talking about Business Contact Manager where you
associated contacts with "accounts". I perceive "accounts" in BCM's
context as the collective noun for business contacts of whom are or not
part of the same company. Generally one account is for one company, but
I can see the situation also where youcould have an account name "Big
Worldwide Corporation", and have individual contacts inside that account
with different company names (divisions or affiliates in different
countries, for example).
From a computer program perspective, I think BCM uses "account" as the
key field to make each account name unique. It's a one-to-many
relationshiop with contacts.
S
Sue Mosher [MVP]
Not all contacts related to an account will be working for the same company. Here's an example: I've been using BCM to track sponsors for my web site. The account is the company that wants to advertise their product on the site. I usually also have one or more contacts at that company that I deal with for editorial content about their products. But sometimes they buy their advertising through an agency. I don't set up a separate account record for their agency, because I deal with them only in the context of the company that actually produces the advertised product. Instead, I set the agency contacts up in Business Contacts and link them to the sponsor record in Accounts. The agency obviously is a different company.
A more serious limitation that some people are running into is that it is not possible to link a contact to multiple accounts.
Microsoft is very interested in your feedback on BCM, so send suggestions to (e-mail address removed).
More BCM answers at http://www.slipstick.com/bcm/bcmfaq.aspx
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
A more serious limitation that some people are running into is that it is not possible to link a contact to multiple accounts.
Microsoft is very interested in your feedback on BCM, so send suggestions to (e-mail address removed).
More BCM answers at http://www.slipstick.com/bcm/bcmfaq.aspx
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers