BCM Accounts, Contacts Relationships

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tom
  • Start date Start date
T

Tom

I upgraded to Outlook 2003 for the Business Contact
Management feature. I intend to use the BCM for managing
the sales pipeline process for my construction/remodeling
company. I thought I would assign a specific project,
i.e. "Smith Kitchen Remodel" to an Account status and
then assign Mr. and Mrs. Smith each a Contact status.
Next I would import all of my subcontractors and
suppliers as contacts. Herein lies the
problem........you can have a one (account) to many
(contact) relationship, however you cannot have a one
(contact) to many (account) relationship. For example,
Joe Salesperson, my lumber vendor, as a Contact can only
be associated to one project Account. In reality he
would be associated with many projects.

I realize that BCM wasn't specifically designed to run a
construction company but I still feel that I can adapt it
to do so. I didn't go with other contact manager
software because they aren't fully integrated with
Outlook from the inside.

Any thoughts?

Tom
 
I wonder if a category-based approach would work: Each vendor (supplier or subcontractor) and each homeowner would be an Account, with the individuals each listed as Contacts. Apply the "Smith Kitchen Remodel" category to everyone involved in that project. You can then use the By Category view to see everyone involved in a particular project.

One problem that immediately comes to mind is that eventually, you'll overwhelm the Categories field, but maybe some aging process for removing the category from vendors would take care of that issue. It would probably also require some different reporting to roll up the sales pipeline.

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Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
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