About to upgrade to Office 2007 Pro with BCM

[Kenny MacDonald]

Before I drop alot of money on this in my organization, I want to make
absolute sure it will be what we need. I've been using it by myself on my
installation on my desktop and it runs really good and I'm impressed with the
features, mainly the contact management.

Currently we have a public folder contact system that is difficult to
maintain (7000+ contacts), and using BCM seems like it will streamline the
process a little easier by using Accounts and categories the way it does. I
also like the way you can create oppurtunies and follow up on them. The
project management is exactly what I've been looking for as well.

First of all, I'll want to install the BCM database on my production SQL
server and point everyone to the location of it when BCM is installed. I
didnt' have any doubts about this until I read somewhere that BCM is usually
meant for individual use and everyone has their own database locally, this
wouldn't work for us. Is it true? I think they were talking about BCM 2003
at the time though.

Next I notice that if you look at an account, and go to the History window,
it shows ALL emails, tasks, projects, notes, etc... every made for the
account. Does this show up for all users, or do they only see the
communication objects they created? Is there a way to specify who can see
what based on account? How detailed is the security? That's my main
question I'm not sure about.

Thanks!

 

[Luther]

Before I drop alot of money on this in my organization, I want to make
absolute sure it will be what we need.  I've been using it by myself on my
installation on my desktop and it runs really good and I'm impressed with the
features, mainly the contact management.

Currently we have a public folder contact system that is difficult to
maintain (7000+ contacts), and using BCM seems like it will streamline the
process a little easier by using Accounts and categories the way it does. I
also like the way you can create oppurtunies and follow up on them.  The
project management is exactly what I've been looking for as well.

First of all, I'll want to install the BCM database on my production SQL
server and point everyone to the location of it when BCM is installed.  I
didnt' have any doubts about this until I read somewhere that BCM is usually
meant for individual use and everyone has their own database locally, this
wouldn't work for us.  Is it true?  I think they were talking about BCM 2003
at the time though.

Next I notice that if you look at an account, and go to the History window,
it shows ALL emails, tasks, projects, notes, etc... every made for the
account.  Does this show up for all users, or do they only see the
communication objects they created?  Is there a way to specify who can see
what based on account?  How detailed is the security?  That's my main
question I'm not sure about.

Thanks!

A single user with a private database has always been BCM's default
and most popular configuration.

BCM v2 added the ability to share a database with other users.

BCM v3 (2007) added a tool to install the BCM database on a server; so
that you don't have to install Outlook on the server to create the
database.

Although the database has an owner, the only user that can customize
entities, manage users, and do db backups and restores, all the shared
users have access to all the data. So when you look at an account's
history, your seeing all the history items in the database and not
just those you created.

BCM has more security than similar products (e.g. v3 added encryption
to database connections), but it does not have roles and permissions,
so every shared user sees all the data in the database.

 

[Kenny MacDonald]

Ouch, the fact that they can see EVERYTHING related to an account (even
private email from employees) might be a deal breaker.

Thank you for your quick answer! Any other suggestions or ideas would be
great.