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gopalpatel

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Outlook 2003 with BCM vs ACT 6.0 and other CRM

Hi All!

Just wondering what the differences are between outlook 2003 with Bcm and Act 6.  And wether one of them is more ideally suited to a one man operation lifestyle management company or if anyone has any better solutions.

Best Regards

Gopal
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JoshFink
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Would love to know this as well.

Thanks

Josh
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bkpchs237

gopalpatel,

I figured by now someone would've provided you with some assistance, but I'll try to explain
what little I know of these two.  First, understand I have no idea what BCM means.
However, Act! is a contact management database.  The salespersons that I know who use it
seem to swear by it, even better than or on an equal par to that "don't leave home without it"
card.  It manages virtually all their contact with the persons listed in their database, from logging
calls, keeping notes and histories, meetings, addresses for home and away, nicknames,
spouses information, etc. etc.  In addition, it allows for mailings to these persons
automatically and synchronization of the database to a central location or between co-workers.

Outlook does pretty much the same thing except it is a different kind of primary application.
It generally is used for the sending and receiving of email, but allows for tasks, calendar functions,
journaling of all activities performed on the machine among other things.  There's a good deal of
information out there that describes what Outlook does so I won't go into further details.

Act! interfaces with MS Word for mail merges and has its own editor as well.  It also interfaces
with Lotus Notes and Outlook for mail capabilities.  I find its templates easy to make and work
with, but those who work in Outlook work with the forms just as easily.  Of course, Outlook
has the usual look, feel and logic of most Microsoft products.  Act! has changed hands so much
that it is sometimes as hard to find ways to do things as it is to figure who owns it this time.

It all depends on how you work and what you would do with the programs in the end.
I'd take the time to read up a bit on what each claims they can do and talk to those who use
each or peruse the net and read descriptions of use and problems.  I realize this is probably
more vague than you desired, but it's about all I can offer.

Hope this helps.

Avatar of gopalpatel

ASKER

Hi
Thanks for your feedback, was feeling a bit neglected there :P
BCM is Business Contact Mananger, a new feature of outlook 2003, so basically I was wondering if using this new feature do I get something comparable to ACT, or is ACT still the best way to go in this situation.  Reason being as I already have Outlook and just need to know if I'm missing out.


Regards

Gopal
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TommyTupa

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Thanks for the info Tommy