Books and Videos on Business Contact Manager

[Boe]

It seems like BCM is one of the best add on products for Outlook I've seen in
a long time but it has such poor documentation/information that I don't know
if it will ever really catch on. On the home page for BCM, they should have
videos available on line and links to books on the topic. They should also
post about upcoming features - I can't find anything on wireless synchs with
WM5 using activesync - if this can be done - it would really help WM5 AND
Outlook BCM.

The videos could include - How to integrate it in an Exchange 2K3. What is
available using OWA. What the interface and functionality is for BCM on WM5.

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http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...-4e6b981f32f4&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.bcm

 

[Tim P via OfficeKB.com]

The next time that you hear PR comments from the likes of Steve Ballmer
discussiing how Microsoft is committed to more aggressively reaching out to
the Small Business Sector remember the sad state of BCM. I believe that
Microsoft's push will largely be in the full CRM arena. BCM will likely be
the neglected step child left behiind in the dust as a token bone available
for limited add-in to Outlook.

-THP

 

[Luther]

I think the effort Microsoft puts into the products depends on the
returns. BCM is free, so it's probably intended to encourage existing
Office users to upgrade to the latest version.

CRM costs real money.

 

[Tim P via OfficeKB.com]

Luther,

Your comments are well taken in a certain context but BCM is only "free" to
those who have already purchased (not free) either the Small Business or
Professional editions of Office and this certainly softens the pain of the
users who eventually discover its unfortunate design limits. I would gladly
pay a decent price for BCM if it was a more feature rich add-in with far more
real world adaptaptability than it currently has. I believe that a lot of
folks would. Microsoft seems to have an all or nothing approach with their
CRM. Something more modestly priced but more flexible in its features would
provide such an excellent entry application for users to eventually evolve to
the CRM as needed as they grew. BCM wouldn't compete with CRM as much as
provide a nice starter for CRM. In its current state of development though
BCM barely can be useful for even this type of entry use due to so many built
in workflow limitations.

-THP

 

[boe]

That sounds about right. I certainly did pay for Office Pro - I haven't
ever payed for MSN messenger yet they've improved it every year that it has
been out. I wouldn't say they've "improved" bcm - just worked out some
major kinks.

Improving it might include
1 WM5 sync - wirelessly
2 OWA access w/ Exchange 2003 - and OH yes, we PAYED for Exchange 2k3
Enterprise.
3 at least a synch with regular contacts so 1 and 2 would work to some
degree - what would this take about 5 hours of a decent programmer time?
4 an option to replace the contacts button in Outlook2k3 - this must take
about 5 whole minutes of a programmers time.