What would be a good contact manager to use with Outlook?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jos
  • Start date Start date
J

Jos

Hi all,

I'm looking for a good tool for personal relation management, combined with Outlook XP. I
use OXP for my contacts and email, but I need more:

1. I want to be able to create notes on messages (f/e: I called them concerning this
message, and then XYZ).
2. I want to see history, tasks related to messages or to contacts, in an easy way (the
"flag"-functionality is nothing for me).
3. I want to see, again in an easy way, who did not respond to my mail within a certain
(message-dependent) deadline.

So, I've been looking around for some sort of personal CRM-application. I tried Act 6, but
that's hardly stable (crashes constantly). I tried Goldmine, but is is not very
user-friendly, and beside that: it seems the demo has very limited functionality (I
imported 600 contacts from OXP but the program only lets me play with the one sample
record provided ... Beside that, it's using *.dbf as the databaseformat, and I'm not very
thrilled with that format).

Does anybody know of a solution for my problem?

Thanks a lot & kind regards,

Jos

--
 
Jos said:
Hi all,

I'm looking for a good tool for personal relation management,
combined with Outlook XP. I use OXP for my contacts and email, but I
need more:

1. I want to be able to create notes on messages (f/e: I called them
concerning this message, and then XYZ).
2. I want to see history, tasks related to messages or to contacts,
in an easy way (the "flag"-functionality is nothing for me).
3. I want to see, again in an easy way, who did not respond to my
mail within a certain (message-dependent) deadline.
Click to expand...

You can do all these with the Journal function. Possibly not in QUITE the
way you would like, but certainly pretty close.
 
"Gordon Burgess-Parker" <[email protected]> schreef in bericht
| Jos wrote:
| > Hi all,

Hi Gordon,

Beside the fact that I hate that functionality (:-( ) I don't see how that enables me to
create notes on messages in my inbox or in my sent items, or how this relates to tasks, no
reply within specified deadline, etc (?)

Regards,

Jos
 
I've never heard of anything that does what you want. A message is almost
always just an item that can be indexed to something else but not
vice/versa. You can drag a message to tasks in OL and create a task based on
it, but the task does not become part of the message. Everything is linked
to a contact, not to another item. OL does half of what you want in #2;
links history, etc. to a contact. It does not link history to an item like a
message. You can easily follow message threads, even in "inbox". As for
seeing who did not respond to a message, I think this kind of thing is
limited to OL using Exchange Server. In that mode, you can assign things to
others and track progress. That would be pretty much within your own
organization, though. Is that what you are trying to do?
 
Beside the fact that I hate that functionality (:-( ) I don't see how that
enables me to create notes on messages in my inbox or in my sent items, or
how this relates to tasks, no reply within specified deadline, etc (?)
Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with too many other PIM's, so i don't know how many will allow
you to create notes on your sent messages - you could add notes to messages
(edit, edit message), but that "destroys" the original item, should you need it
as proof of what was really said. Using Journal or even Outlook's yellow Notes
is better.

However, i think if you learn to use all of Outlook's features and give Journal
a chance, it might do the job.

Drag a message to the journal folder (r-click and do it as attachment) then
make notes in the journal entry. The journal entry is associated with the
senders address and if you have a contact for them, it's listed on the
activities tab in contacts.

If you use Outlook's Notes, you can associate a contact with the note but not
link it to a message. You can drag the original message to the notes folder to
create a note too.

You can drag messages to tasks and set reminders on them - you can actually set
reminders on any item but need extended reminders (slovaktech.com) to fire them
in other folders besides your default folders. You can add the task to journal
items or link it to the contact so you can see it on the activities tab.


--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours

http://www.poremsky.com - http://www.cdolive.com

Expert Zone http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone

Search for answers: http://groups.google.com
Most recent posts to the Outlook newsgroups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_ugroup=microsoft.public.outlook.*&num=30
 
Jos said:
Hi all,

I'm looking for a good tool for personal relation management, combined with Outlook XP. I
use OXP for my contacts and email, but I need more:

1. I want to be able to create notes on messages (f/e: I called them concerning this
message, and then XYZ).
2. I want to see history, tasks related to messages or to contacts, in an easy way (the
"flag"-functionality is nothing for me).
3. I want to see, again in an easy way, who did not respond to my mail within a certain
(message-dependent) deadline.

So, I've been looking around for some sort of personal CRM-application. I tried Act 6, but
that's hardly stable (crashes constantly). I tried Goldmine, but is is not very
user-friendly, and beside that: it seems the demo has very limited functionality (I
imported 600 contacts from OXP but the program only lets me play with the one sample
record provided ... Beside that, it's using *.dbf as the databaseformat, and I'm not very
thrilled with that format).

Does anybody know of a solution for my problem?

Thanks a lot & kind regards,

Jos
Click to expand...

Our company uses something called SalesOutlook, that might be worth looking
into. It appears to be part of Outlook, but it's an add-on product, has
folders for accounts, notes, bunches of other stuff. I personally don't use
it, so I can't tell you if it's a good product or not, but I don't hear much
whining from the people who do use it.

-karen
 
"Diane Poremsky [MVP]" <[email protected]> schreef in bericht
| > Beside the fact that I hate that functionality (:-( ) I don't see how that
| > enables me to create notes on messages in my inbox or in my sent items, or
| > how this relates to tasks, no reply within specified deadline, etc (?)
|
| I'm not familiar with too many other PIM's, so i don't know how many will allow
| you to create notes on your sent messages - you could add notes to messages
| (edit, edit message), but that "destroys" the original item, should you need it
| as proof of what was really said. Using Journal or even Outlook's yellow Notes
| is better.
|
| However, i think if you learn to use all of Outlook's features and give Journal
| a chance, it might do the job.
|
| Drag a message to the journal folder (r-click and do it as attachment) then
| make notes in the journal entry. The journal entry is associated with the
| senders address and if you have a contact for them, it's listed on the
| activities tab in contacts.
|
| If you use Outlook's Notes, you can associate a contact with the note but not
| link it to a message. You can drag the original message to the notes folder to
| create a note too.
|
| You can drag messages to tasks and set reminders on them - you can actually set
| reminders on any item but need extended reminders (slovaktech.com) to fire them
| in other folders besides your default folders. You can add the task to journal
| items or link it to the contact so you can see it on the activities tab.
|

Thanks for trying to help me out. Every tip you give is a tip that works, but it's not
very handy all together (I'm from an ERP background, so probably I'm spoiled). It's
typical for MS: loads of megabytes and hardware needed, for very basic functionality :-(.
 
"karen" <[email protected]> schreef in bericht
|
| "Jos" <Reply in newsgroup please> wrote in message
| | >
| > Hi all,
| >
| > I'm looking for a good tool for personal relation management, combined
| with Outlook XP. I
| > use OXP for my contacts and email, but I need more:
| >
| > 1. I want to be able to create notes on messages (f/e: I called them
| concerning this
| > message, and then XYZ).
| > 2. I want to see history, tasks related to messages or to contacts, in an
| easy way (the
| > "flag"-functionality is nothing for me).
| > 3. I want to see, again in an easy way, who did not respond to my mail
| within a certain
| > (message-dependent) deadline.
| >
| > So, I've been looking around for some sort of personal CRM-application. I
| tried Act 6, but
| > that's hardly stable (crashes constantly). I tried Goldmine, but is is not
| very
| > user-friendly, and beside that: it seems the demo has very limited
| functionality (I
| > imported 600 contacts from OXP but the program only lets me play with the
| one sample
| > record provided ... Beside that, it's using *.dbf as the databaseformat,
| and I'm not very
| > thrilled with that format).
| >
| > Does anybody know of a solution for my problem?
| >
| > Thanks a lot & kind regards,
| >
| > Jos
| >
| > --
| >
| >
| >
|
| Our company uses something called SalesOutlook, that might be worth looking
| into. It appears to be part of Outlook, but it's an add-on product, has
| folders for accounts, notes, bunches of other stuff. I personally don't use
| it, so I can't tell you if it's a good product or not, but I don't hear much
| whining from the people who do use it.
|
| -karen
|
Tried it: doesn't deliver what I need. Thanks for your tip though.
 
If you are interested in a native .NET scheduling component, please look at
Gravitybox Schedule.NET. It is a most comprehensive .NET component. The
source is even available if need be.
http://www.gravityboxschedule.net

If you have any questions please let me know.

Thank you for your interest,
Christopher Davis

email: (e-mail address removed)
website: http://www.gravitybox.com
phone: 1.866.GRAVBOX
 
"Christopher Davis" <[email protected]> schreef in bericht
| If you are interested in a native .NET scheduling component, please look
at
| Gravitybox Schedule.NET. It is a most comprehensive .NET component. The
| source is even available if need be.
| http://www.gravityboxschedule.net
|
| If you have any questions please let me know.
|
| Thank you for your interest,
| Christopher Davis
|
| email: (e-mail address removed)
| website: http://www.gravitybox.com
| phone: 1.866.GRAVBOX
|

Hi Chris,

Thank you for your reply. It seems your product is not what I need; it is
about scheduling appointments etc, and that's not what I'm looking for.

Regards,

Jos
 
"Mark Wilson" <[email protected]> schreef in bericht
| Most people that I know who have had difficulty with Goldmine have
| really liked My Success System. More information can be found at
| http://quincom.softnetsolutions.net or
| http://www.mysuccesssystem.com
|

Hi Mark,

Thank you for your reply. I don't know if you are behind this product. If
so, don't feel offended :-).

This website is one of the worst sites I've seen; it tries to persuade you
to buy a product without providing detailed information about what the
product can, and can not do. You are invited to download and install a
demo/trial, without knowing if that would be worth it, and with the risk of
messing up your system. The FAQ is also very impressive ...

I hope their product is better than their sales techniques, but since the
product is related to sales activities, I'm wondering ...
 
Back
Top