training for business contact manager

[Praytel]

Is there any training available for for business contact manager ? How can
you import products from excel or access for BCM to keep information on
customers buying trends ? Are there any accounting links available for
non-microsft products.

 

[Luther]

From excel or access you can export to a csv file,
and then import that csv file into BCM.

But would only make the product list available in BCM,
to add products to Opportunities.

To track customer buying trends your best bet would
be to generate reports from your accounting info.

The BCM connection to accounting is through an
API so any accounting software should be able
interface to BCM, if they implement the interface.
They could at a minimum have the same level of
integration as the accounting package that was
included in the BCM v2 beta.

 

[Praytel]

Hello Luther , can I save the products in excel format instead of csv ? Also
I have 4 sales people for which I want to share the same customer and product
database is that possible. Please explain what is an API..

Thanks Ivor

 

[Luther]

With BCM v2 your best bet for sharing data is to export your data in
BCM format and send/email the file to the 4 sales people to import into
their BCMs. The BCM file will have all the contact and product data in
it.
If the BCM file grows too big to email, you can shrink them
substancially
by compressing them to zip files.

You can't export to Excel format, but Excel can read CSV files.

 

[Praytel]

Luther thanks for your assitance , i should have told you that I am about to
install the program and I just downloaded the update. perhaps you can help me
throught he installation. I have Microsft 2003 server with XP stations. I
want to share the data with all my sales people. Do I need to install the
program on the server? Is there any documentation for this installation ?

What I really want to do is to keep only one customer file and one product
file so that I can update those files when needed , can that work ?

Thanks
Ivor-Kingston Jamaica

 

[Tim Peterson via OfficeKB.com]

I too would like to see more training books, etc. specifically dedicated to
BCM. While this add-in seems pretty simple and straight forward to use to
many, there remain a lot of confusing options regarding business process and
methodology for use (vs. technical "how-to-do" commands). As a former ACT
user the contrast is stark. You can easily purchase numerous publications
for every version of ACT. Better educational support for small business
users such as myself who are not the most tech saavy (nor want to be) would
be very helpful to expand adoption of BCM among its intended target user base.
From a more public perspective, no one seems to know much about this product
regarding both its very existence and also how to use it well.

-THP

 

[Bob Cooley [MSFT]]

I recommend checking out the Help inside BCM - there are walk-thru steps on
how to import, share, and track data once you get it into BCM. A lot of
work has been done to beef up the Help files to assist users in getting the
most out of BCM. Give it a try, please - I think you'll find it very
helpful.

--
Regards,

Bob Cooley, [MSFT]


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