MS Business Contact Manager Questions

[Geoffry]

I recently upgraded to MS Business Contacts in Office
2003. It has corrupted and crashes regularly and now no
longer loads with Outlook.

My questions are:
1. Is MS Business Contact Manager a stable product?

2. Can anyone give a guesstimate as to the functionality
compared to standard contact managers such as ACT and
Maximizer. i.e. 50%

3. Can you use BCM standalone without an exchange server
and expect MS updates? I noticed the only update
requires Exchange and Server 2003.

4. How do I correct the corruption? Is there a regular
update for BCM?

Thanks Geoffry

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

1) In my experience, yes, once you get it installed and running, except for
forms cache corruption. Clearing the cache usually fixes it. Choose Tools |
Options | Other | Advanced Options | Custom Forms, then click Manage Forms,
then Clear Cache. If simply clearing the cache doesn't fix the issue, try
the other steps detailed at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;836558

2) Can't say. Haven't used the other products. The important question is
really whether it provides enough of the functionality *you* need.

3) BCM is designed as a standalone product. The update made BCM available to
Small Business Server 2003 users. BCM will get service packs like all other
Office products.

4) What corruption are you referring to?

More BCM answers at http://www.slipstick.com/bcm/bcmfaq.aspx
More discussions in the microsoft.public.outlook.bcm newsgroup

 

[Patricia Cardoza - [MVP Outlook]]

1. Relatively. There are problems with it. The most common problem is a
simple one to fix, a forms cache corruption. To fix that go to Tools,
Options, click the Other tab. Click Advanced Options. Click Custom forms,
Manage Forms, Clear Cache.

2. I don't have a true comparison, but ACT is more full featured and has
sharing capabilities. BCM does not currently support sharing. BCM has the
benefit of working within Outlook.

3. Yes, actually BCM doesn't work with an Exchange account. It does work
with SBS (small business server) which has an Exchange component. The update
you're seeing is the update to allow BCM to work with SBS Exchange. There
will be updates to BCM. When Microsoft releases SP1 for Office 2003, there
may very well be a BCM component (although to my knowledge, no definite
information is available on this).

4. See above if you're having a forms cache issue (where the history field
is populated with your Inbox contents). If that's not your issue, post back
with the problems you're seeing. There is a database backup and restore
feature that I highly recommend using at least weekly. No Microsoft updates
have been released for BCM (other than the patch to make it work with SBS)
but I'm sure it would be updated much like other products.

--
Patricia Cardoza
Outlook MVP
www.cardozasolutions.com

Author, Special Edition Using Microsoft Outlook 2003
Author, Absolute Beginner's Guide to OneNote 2003

***Please post all replies to the newsgroups***

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

1. Is MS Business Contact Manager a stable product?
it is for me - but as a v1 product, it may be less stable then you would
expect.

2. Can anyone give a guesstimate as to the functionality
compared to standard contact managers such as ACT and
Maximizer. i.e. 50% no idea

3. Can you use BCM standalone without an exchange server
and expect MS updates? I noticed the only update
requires Exchange and Server 2003.

yes, in fact it won't work with an exchange server, without hacks.

4. How do I correct the corruption? Is there a regular
update for BCM?

no updates yet, although one is expected in SP1. We can't address the
corruption without knowing more - also there is a FAQ at slipstick.com and a
newsgroup for BCM at microsoft.public.outlook.bcm.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)

 

[Geoffry]

First let me say thanks I am honored to have 3 MVPs
respond to my questions. Let me make my comments to all
3 below.

Obviously, I didn't do enough research before installing
BCM, but I thought true integration with Outlook would
really make sense.

1. Ok the consensus seems to be that BCM is not quite
ready for prime time. I don't know if I am ready for the
hassle yet, but I will try a little bit longer before I
give up.

2. I wouldn't expect BCM to have the features of any of
the products that have been in the market for many years,
I was just trying to understand if it did the basics.
After doing a bit more research and it seems that while
it covers the basics, it doesn't quite have the
flexiblity you would expect with Outlook integration.
hopefully SP1 makes a big improvement here.

3. It is good that exchange is not required. It is bad
that there is uncertainity whether there will be an
update for BCM soon. With the instability I have seen, I
don't see how anyone could really use it and not spend
more time fixing it.

4. I actually have not put any data in yet, the problem
I have is that the Business Tools Menu has disappeared.
The Slipstick FAQs describes how to fix it, but it seems
more complicated than I am interested in, but I have no
choice so I will do the steps.

Thanks.

Geoffry

-----Original Message-----

1. Is MS Business Contact Manager a stable product?

it is for me - but as a v1 product, it may be less stable then you would
expect.

2. Can anyone give a guesstimate as to the functionality
compared to standard contact managers such as ACT and
Maximizer. i.e. 50% no idea

3. Can you use BCM standalone without an exchange server
and expect MS updates? I noticed the only update
requires Exchange and Server 2003.

yes, in fact it won't work with an exchange server, without hacks.

4. How do I correct the corruption? Is there a regular
update for BCM?

no updates yet, although one is expected in SP1. We can't address the
corruption without knowing more - also there is a FAQ at slipstick.com and a
newsgroup for BCM at microsoft.public.outlook.bcm.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)


Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com

I recently upgraded to MS Business Contacts in Office
2003. It has corrupted and crashes regularly and now no
longer loads with Outlook.

My questions are:
1. Is MS Business Contact Manager a stable product?

2. Can anyone give a guesstimate as to the functionality
compared to standard contact managers such as ACT and
Maximizer. i.e. 50%

3. Can you use BCM standalone without an exchange server
and expect MS updates? I noticed the only update
requires Exchange and Server 2003.

4. How do I correct the corruption? Is there a regular
update for BCM?

Thanks Geoffry

.