Before we Migrate to Outlook from ACT...

[ExchangeNewbie]

As a small company without huge resources we are considering migrating from
our old version of ACT! to Outlook with or without BCM. We have 8-10 users
running Outlook on Exchange Server 2003. Importing contacts seems pretty
straight forward, and I'm sure notes and activities will be as well.

Some things we do not like about our version of ACT is that it is not very
customizable in terms of forms and fields. It also has nothing comparable to
OWA.

There are quite a few things about ACT! that we require, which has delayed
our migration, that I am not sure can be done in Outlook. Does outlook have
similar features to those listed below, are there work arounds, add-ins,...

1. There is one database - one contact list, one calender. There is no need
to copy files from a personal folder to a shared folder.
2. Anybody at any time can see everybodies calender and contact - except
those that are hidden. This is a must if we switch over to Outlook.
3. Reporting - We can print a list of notes and activites for each contact
for a defined range of time, or if needed using other filters. In fact ACT
has a ton of reports that can be customized, I have found that in Outlook BCM
really.
4. An activity - call, meeting or to-do - can be cleared as held, not held,
etc with details attached.

I really want to move to Outlook so I am hoping that the above can be
satisfied. Finally if there is a resource online or a book that you would
recommend is
assisting in the migration it would be appreciated (we have no programming
skills).

Thank you!!!!

 

[Lon Orenstein]

Newbie:

There are things you'll love about BCM and a few limitations you won't.
I've written an eBook on Moving from ACT@! to BCM for BCM 2003 and the one
for 2007 will be ready shortly. To answer your questions more directly:

1. Yes, BCM has one database that can be shared by everyone on the LAN.
The calendar is also shared.

2. Everyone can see all contacts -- there are no private ones.

3. Reporting in BCM is OK, not great, but OK... you can use other tools
such as MS Access to do better reporting or export to Excel and slice &
dice.

4. Activities are different in BCM -- appointments (Meetings in ACT!
language) are not marked as Held, Not Held. They just stay on your calendar
and you can write notes/comments about them. They also show up in
Communication History (History in ACT! language) for each contact. Tasks in
BCM (ToDos or Calls in ACT!) are marked as Completed but will show up in
History from the start -- just make sure you link them to a Business
Contact. Yes, you can add details to the task...

I also wrote Outlook 2007 Business Contact Manager For Dummies that is being
printed as I type and will hit the shelves the first part of March...

Hope that helps...

Lon

_________________________________________________
Lon Orenstein
pinpointtools
(e-mail address removed)
www.pinpointtools.com

 

[ExchangeNewbie]

Thanks Lon. I am disappointed by the weak reporting, and that appointments
can't be cleared. I just download the trial version and I'm going to play
with it for a while.

I'm a little confused by the shared and public databases. Isn't BCM a local
database that can be shared?

btw: I'm an old TransACT user that has had to switch to PI.

 

[Luther]

Thanks Lon. I am disappointed by the weak reporting, and that appointments
can't be cleared. I just download the trial version and I'm going to play
with it for a while.

I'm a little confused by the shared and public databases. Isn't BCM a local
database that can be shared?

btw: I'm an old TransACT user that has had to switch to PI.













- Show quoted text -

By default, when you first create a BCM database, it is a private
database. But you can choose to share it with users on your LAN, or on
the same machine if the users have logins.

 

[ExchangeNewbie]

Thanks Luther. So that means that the BCM cannot be stored on the server? And
BCM cannot be used with OWA?