Pros & Cons Of Contact Management Software
 By B.J. Addington

There may be more contact management software varieties than any other business application. They range from merely recording elementary information to highly integrated and powerful e-mail administration, information recording, customer tracking, spreadsheet analysis and database management.

Higher prices generally mean greater capability, but there are bargains, and even good free products. Here are some leaders, dark horses and their features.

Outlook
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX010857931033.aspx

The ubiquitous Microsoft Outlook provides basic contact management with its address book, e-mail and scheduling. Share a centralized contact list with others if you use Microsoft Exchange server.

Businesses needing to coordinate employees’ information may require the more sophisticated Microsoft Outlook Business Contact Manager, included with Microsoft Office Professional Edition and Small Business Edition 2003. The Business Contact Manager integrates as a separate Outlook contact list to track contacts, accounts and sales opportunities; log telephone calls; and generate reports.

Outlook is widely enhanced with third-party add-ons. It sells separately for about $100, but it comes as part of the Microsoft Office suite.

Act!
http://www.act.com/

Best Software’s Act! 2005 at $129 is a veteran leader for CRM (customer relationship management). The latest version added more than 30 new or improved functions such as the ability to create records to view entire business relationships and organize data into 15 subgroup levels. Users can attach presentations and proposals to records for activities, notes and histories, which can be shared between contacts. If a note is changed, it is automatically updated in all locations.

Act! stores complete contact information, including e-mail, notes, history and attachments. It imports data from Microsoft Outlook and Palm Desktop. Users choose from 60 standard contact fields or can customize new ones. Act! meets most small-business demands.

Maximizer 8
http://www.maximizer.com/

For about $159 Maximizer tracks individuals and companies, customers, prospects and suppliers with a straightforward, list-based form. You can track customer interests from first contact through payment and follow-ups. CNET’s review found Act! “easier to use; however, we think the similarly priced Maximizer 8.0 is a better choice if you’re looking to grow your business and you think you may need to track sales in greater depth with a more CRM-oriented contact manager.”

Maximizer is easy to use and features Crystal Reports report-writing. It includes good documentation and links to third party accounting software. Says CNET, “Maximizer is one of the most full-featured contact managers we’ve seen, suitable for growing small businesses that also need customer relationship management tools.”

Salesforce
http://www.salesforce.com/

Salesforce is a Web-based product, which some regard as the best of so-called on-demand CRM systems. It received InfoWorld Test Center’s only perfect 10 score for products of its type. Although designed for online access by multiple employees, its tools for tracking leads and customers, sales reporting and document management also are available in a free, single-user Personal Edition.

The Personal Edition manages contacts, tasks and calendar events online as well as synchronizes with PDAs and Outlook for offline access – all without purchasing software. You get five megabytes of online storage for contacts, accounts, etc. and another five megabytes for documents. Upgraded capacity is available for a fee. Lead management and integration with your own Web site are unavailable in the free edition.

EverNote
http://www.evernote.com

If you want to store and retrieve contact information, EverNote will accomplish that for you, even though it’s not designed as contact management software, per se. Its greater appeal is that it is free.

EverNote’s powerful search and categorizing features are good for keeping data in a single repository, while maintaining links to original sources. EverNote’s notes are displayed as a long tape that can be scrolled. It date-stamps entries, and a “Time Band” makes jumping to a particular time period a snap.

Create notes by typing information into a template or free form, or pull information directly from another source such as Microsoft Word. You can even drag images into the list and categorize notes as they are created.


(Posted August 2005)

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