Sharing Business Contact Manager Solution

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MikeGTGI - 25 Mar 2008 00:44 GMT

Hi,
We have offices across the country but do not have a common server. I want
to take my current BCM database and share it with others so they can input
their clients/contacts and make updates. I also want to send tasks or have
our customer care to send referrals to specific employees. I can't believe
how hard this his to accomplish.

I found options:
1. allow others to share on my computer which is not going to happen.
2. use BCM admin tool to set up on a server (not sure what kind of server is
needed)... we do not have a server
3. I looked at Office Live SB but BCM is not compatible..this would be great
if office would automatically upload BCM and i think this would be the best
option. ARe there plans? The sharepoint in outlook removes all the BCM
inputs such as phone logs, tasks, emails, etc. If outlook connection can
just do BCM with office live, life would be great.
4. Exchange is not compatible

Does anyone have any ideas on how to solve this? What is the best, easiest,
and cheapest way to share BCM with others that are in remote locations?
Thanks for your help..

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Luther - 25 Mar 2008 15:36 GMT

> Hi,
> We have offices across the country but do not have a common server. I want
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> and cheapest way to share BCM with others that are in remote locations?
> Thanks for your help..

Export your full database, to a BCM file, zip it up, and email to
another user. They can unzip it and import it into bcm. They'll now
have a snapshot of your database. After that you''ll have regularly
select all the item that have changed since the last time, export
them, and send them to the user. They'll import it with merge changes.
They can do the same and send you their changes.

That's not as efficient as having shared Exchange and BCM servers, but
variations on the Export/Import process has worked for others on this
newsgroup.

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MikeGTGI - 25 Mar 2008 17:26 GMT

HI Luther,
Thanks for your input. I thought of this but i think the problem we will run
into is if i have two people managing one client and both of them make inputs
to the client, there won't be a way to merge both updates. I think it will
overwrite if i am not mistaking. If it will merge the updates and amend
instead of overwriting, let me know but i don't think it will work that way
with import/export.

Can anyone tell me what would be the ideal solution for our requirement?
Local Sharepoint Sever so remote sites can log into?

Thank you all for your assistance.

>> Hi,
>> We have offices across the country but do not have a common server. I want
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>variations on the Export/Import process has worked for others on this
>newsgroup.

Reply to this Message

Lon Orenstein - 26 Mar 2008 20:50 GMT

Mike:

Like any database, the last change to data wins. If two people are managing
one client and both write Business Notes or Phone Logs, then both of those
would be added. If they both change the main phone number, the last entry
would win. As long as the users stick to established procedures, this
scenario might work OK. One tough part of this is the assigning of tasks
since that's controlled by Exchange. You could use Business Project Tasks
instead - they would synch with BCM.

You might also look at MS CRM Live -- it's a hosted model similar to Office
Live but they can use Outlook as the client and link to both your Exchange
server and MS's CRM Live server.

HTH,
Lon

___________________________________________________________
Lon Orenstein
pinpointtools, llc
Lon@pinpointtools.com
Author of Outlook 2007 Business Contact Manager For Dummies
Author of the eBook: Moving from ACT! to Business Contact Manager
www.pinpointtools.com

> HI Luther,
> Thanks for your input. I thought of this but i think the problem we will
[quoted text clipped - 30 lines]
>>variations on the Export/Import process has worked for others on this
>>newsgroup.

Reply to this Message