Outlook 2003 and Business Contact Manager - sharing contacts

[sudwa]

We are a small business and we have MS Exchange Server and Office
Professional 2003. I came across the Business Contact Manager update. Is it
possible for us to use Business Contact Manager for sharing contacts in the
office (15 users)? Also, how is this different for a traditional cotact
manager? I saw some articles but they seem to apply to Outllok 2007.

Thanks

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

sudwa,

Business Contact Manager is a separate add-in SQL db that shares the Outlook
user interface. Data inside of BCM can only be shared via a peer-to-peer
configuration. There are some users here who have reported that they have
rigged BCM to share data via a server based configuration but this is not
officially supported by MS. While BCM can co-exist on an Outlook client
within an Exchange environment, BCM does NOT utilize Exchange for any data
sharing. Any native Outlook object items such as the regular Contact items
along with any other native Outlook record items can only be shared via the
Exchange server. BCM record items are stored in a separate db eventhough
they appear to be similar to other Outlook data within the Outlook UI. It
appears that Outlook & BCM 2007 will operate similarly.

MS has proudly designed BCM based upon the limited design perspective that
most or all small business do not use servers to share data. There are some
very good small business Outlook-Centric alternatives to BCM whose data can
easily be shared using Exchange server. Here are a few links to consider:

www.avidian.com
www.mxcontact.com

-THP

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov]

We are a small business and we have MS Exchange Server and Office
Professional 2003. I came across the Business Contact Manager update. Is
it
possible for us to use Business Contact Manager for sharing contacts in
the
office (15 users)? Also, how is this different for a traditional cotact
manager? I saw some articles but they seem to apply to Outllok 2007.

Hello Sudwa,

BCM will in fact be sufficient for what you require. Should you find your
needs exceed BCM's capabilities, there is a migration path to Microsoft CRM
3.0

I link to all the relevant downloads on my website. Please let us know if
you have additional questions.
--
Leonid S. Knyshov, CEO
Crashproof Solutions, LLC - http://www.crashproofsolutions.com
MCP Exchange 2003/Small Business Server 2003
Microsoft Small Business Specialist Partner
See the tips and tricks section on my website for video tutorials on BCM
Send a smile to Microsoft (Office 2007 Beta feedback tool)!
http://tinyurl.com/m4omy

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

sudwa,

Back to your original question about whether it is possible to use BCM to
share contacts in your office among 15 users. The answer depends upon HOW
you need to share your data. If you need remote access for users outside of
your office, BCM will present limitations to this. BCM's intended peer-to-
peer networking capability will share data from one host machine to others in
the network. I could be wrong but I don't believe that you will be able to
share out to among 15 different machines as this could provide user access
issues depending upon the load placed upon the SQL db. You may wish to
provide more details about your needs because with BCM, one size does not fit
all. You may be a candidate for a more fully featured CRM tool such as MS
CRM v.3.

-THP

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov]

sudwa,

Back to your original question about whether it is possible to use BCM to
share contacts in your office among 15 users. The answer depends upon HOW
you need to share your data. If you need remote access for users outside
of
your office, BCM will present limitations to this. BCM's intended
peer-to-
peer networking capability will share data from one host machine to others
in
the network. I could be wrong but I don't believe that you will be able
to
share out to among 15 different machines as this could provide user access
issues depending upon the load placed upon the SQL db. You may wish to
provide more details about your needs because with BCM, one size does not
fit
all. You may be a candidate for a more fully featured CRM tool such as MS
CRM v.3.

SQL server will not have any problems with 15 users and there is a migration
path to CRM 3.0 built-in.
--
Leonid S. Knyshov, CEO
Crashproof Solutions, LLC - http://www.crashproofsolutions.com
MCP Exchange 2003/Small Business Server 2003
Microsoft Small Business Specialist Partner
See the tips and tricks section on my website for video tutorials on BCM
Send a smile to Microsoft (Office 2007 Beta feedback tool)!
http://tinyurl.com/m4omy