Outlook as CRM for Small Office

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Guest

Any pressing reasons NOT to use Outlook as our Customer Relationship Manager.
Assuming it does what we want: has names and contact info, can create 8 or
so custom fields, can track emails/tasks/events with clients....

We have maybe 10,000 records, let's say it'll double (just to be safe) in
the next 2 years.

We have 3 people in the office and would like to have it synced. One of us
goes out with a laptop and would come back and sync occasionally (does this
work?).

Is this crazy or can we do it? We'd probably end up using Outlook 2003
(can't use Outlook Business Contacts as I understand because we want
multi-user and syncing?).

Thank you all for any info!
 
Thanks for the response.

I forgot to mention that we do have Exchange (supposedly -- we don't use it
but it's there I'm told). We use Small Business Server 2000 and some version
of Exchange.

Regarding BCM, can we have multiple people updating contacts and calendars
(let's say a person in my office has his own calendar and he also adds events
to my calendar -- that I'd pick up or sync when I go to the office and plug
in). Same with contacts: several of us interact/email/speak with a contact
and we'd all like to update and share that info. Is that possible? How or
what do I need to look for for details?

Thanks again!
 
As you might guess from the name, Business Contact Manager doesn't do calendars.

Exchange (which is part of Small Business Server) has features that let you share calendars and contacts, though. YOu might want to start with the information at http://www.slipstick.com/exs/pfshare.htm

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
Thanks Sue. So would we be able to make it work with just Outlook on the
clients and Exchange as the server?
 
Whether you can "make it work" will depend on the details of what "it" is. My experience is that organizations have very widely diverging ideas on what constitutes workable CRM. Since you already have Exchange, I'd suggest that you start with its sharing features and see how far that gets you toward the functionality you want. If it's not 100%, there are many, many CRM tools that leverage Outlook and Exchange and add more features.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
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