Ed:
Thanks -- sorry for the delay in posting.
I wish I had a crystal ball or even a vocal source into the BCM Team and I
could tell you what their plans are for the next version of BCM. But, I
don't... I hope they continue to expand its functionality and integrate it
further into the Microsoft "stack" of software (like Exchange!!!) but one
never knows, does one?
When you ask if "BCM is headed in a direction of rapid development to catch
up to the
customizability and easy mail merges that Act has", I would guess No. That
said, I don't think it has to. Yeah, I agree that BCM needs a better mail
merge function. Yeah, I wish BCM showed the contact name in the task list.
But, over the last couple of years I've come to realize that people spend
too much time worrying about how many clicks it takes and less about
accomplishing what they have to do. Sure, it's more efficient to use less
clicks but that's not a reason to abandon a product like BCM.
I used ACT for 18 of its 20 years and it was great. However, most of that
time was before email ruled my business life. Managing my contacts was
important and it was an easy place to link all the notes, documents, emails,
et al to be able to find out everything about a contact. It was a LOT
better than Willy Loman's 3x5 index cards. Now, most of the information
about my business is embedded in emails. Slogging through history to find
something about a contact is far less efficient than SEARCH. Search is MUCH
more productive than looking through history and opening 7 emails before
finding the right one. Same thing goes for documents or notes about a
conversation. I've been using MS OneNote for the last year and love it. If
I had the time to program a better interface with BCM, I'd never write
another Business Note in BCM again. Managing contacts has really become
"managing relationships" and the contact data is secondary. Now, that's my
business -- yours may be different. But, I think yours, and everyone
else's, is moving to that model also. And, Microsoft owns Outlook, arguably
the best email program out there -- not perfect, but pretty damn good. So,
I'm dug into Outlook which makes me infinitely more productive than ACT ever
did.
ACT's stated direction is to 25-50 user implementations at $300+ per user
and I wish them luck. I think Microsoft CRM is a MUCH better value for
those kinds of businesses. For the 1-10 user market, ACT has become more
difficult to manage and administer, and bottom line, it still doesn't link
to Outlook as well as BCM does and never will, by definition -- it ain't
part of Outlook!. Without getting off on another rant, I believe that if a
small business can't run their business using BCM, they won't be able to use
a more complicated system. The problem with business isn't the software,
it's the humans. BCM is a good basic CRM system for small business. Master
that and then grow into MS CRM or other program more specific to your needs.
ACT only has contact management, a great letter writer, and the ability to
add hundreds of fields that no one puts data into.
And finally, I have no faith in Sage compared to Microsoft. Sage isn't in
the technology business (they're in the subscription business), they're not
going to be a leader in new functionality, and every year you'll get a
couple new features and a few bug fixes to keep you around. Given what's
going on in the technology world and where the market is going, look at the
end of the line for Sage's products.
Did I answer your question?
HTH,
Lon
___________________________________________________________
Lon Orenstein
pinpointtools, llc
(e-mail address removed)
Author of Outlook 2007 Business Contact Manager For Dummies
Author of the eBook: Moving from ACT! to Business Contact Manager
www.pinpointtools.com
I've watched your great contributions for soe ime, especially regarding
your (exit?) from Act! in favor of BCM, or at least helping those who
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