Correspondence History

[Sue C]

I need to be able to produce a report (for an individually selected Contact)
which at the top shows the Contact's contact details, but then listed
underneath shows all of the historical communication - this may include the
details of phone calls, brief notes from meetings etc.

How do I design such a report (or does one already exist, if so where)? And
to facilitate this, am I better off entering the communication history items
in the Communication History Log menu, or the Comments section of the Details
menu?

To help explain what I want, the purpose of this report is to hand to
Salesmen when they visit a customer, so they can sit with a comprehensive
list of all previous activity in front of them (they don't carry laptops or
PDAs).

Thanks for any advice.

Sue

 

[Lon Orenstein]

Sue:

Start by selecting Activity for the Type of report. Then run the Activity
by Business Contact. The first time you run it will take a few minutes
because it will give you all Communication History for all contacts. You
can then click on Filter Report and create a filter (like for one contact),
Save the filter, and save the report. Next time, go to Saved Reports for
Type of report, and choose that one, then change the filter to the contact
you want.

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
800.238.0560 x6104 Toll Free (U.S. only) +1 214.905.0401 x6104
www.pinpointtools.com

 

[Sue C]

Hi Lon

This isn't achieving what I want - it doesn't provide the person's contact
details at the top, and also it only shows the Item Type from the
Communication History Log (what I need is the actual content of what was said
during the conversation / at the meeting etc).

Any suggestions?

Thanks.
Sue

 

[Lon Orenstein]

In a word, No. Reporting is one of the weakest areas in BCM... I've got
some ideas on improving it but not much time right now.

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
800.238.0560 x6104 Toll Free (U.S. only) +1 214.905.0401 x6104
www.pinpointtools.com

 

[Sue C]

Hmmm, I appreciate your honesty, even if the content isn't what I wanted to
hear!

This seems a rather obvious oversight on Microsoft's behalf - surely we're
not the first company who like to take a page of relevant notes and history
into a meeting with a client as an aide memoire.

This omission may see us jumping ship back to ACT!

Thanks for your help.

Sue

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

Seamless, integrated "real world" usage in acton!

-THP

Hmmm, I appreciate your honesty, even if the content isn't what I wanted to
hear!

This seems a rather obvious oversight on Microsoft's behalf - surely we're
not the first company who like to take a page of relevant notes and history
into a meeting with a client as an aide memoire.

This omission may see us jumping ship back to ACT!

Thanks for your help.

Sue

In a word, No. Reporting is one of the weakest areas in BCM... I've got
some ideas on improving it but not much time right now.

[quoted text clipped - 74 lines]

 

[Nikolai Tchekan]

Sue, you are 100% correct - I also need the same format of a report. The
reporting is indeed poorly done in BCM.

Question for MS: Can such a report be created manually? if so, what software
package is required for report customization/design?

Thx,
Nikolai

 

[Sue C]

IT GETS WORSE!!!!!

I'm just discovering that the guys can't even copy this information onto
their PDAs.

What's the point???

 

[Johnny G]

Sue,

I am trying to migrate my company from ACT to BCM 2007, but the poor
reporting (we used the Notes & History report every month for reports) and
the slowness of Outlook 2007 has forced me to postponed and possibly abandon
my plans. A shame...

 

[Sue C]

So much for discussion groups, the need seems to be more for a self-help
counselling forum ...

"My name is Sue, and I am despondent and down-trodden microsoft user".

12 Step plan anyone?????

;-)