Contacts in Personal Contacts sync with those in Business Contacts

[mmullin]

I'm having a hard time understanding the difference between Contacts sitting
in my Personal Contact folder and those in the BCM Contact folder. In my
case, almost EVERY contact is a potential client so my first step was to
export ALL Perconal Contacts over to the BCM.

My question is about any new contacts I add to the Personal Contact folder.
Will those contacts automatically be added to BCM at the same time or do I
have to manually add those new contact to BCM?

 

[JanK]

mmullin schreef:

I'm having a hard time understanding the difference between Contacts sitting
in my Personal Contact folder and those in the BCM Contact folder. In my
case, almost EVERY contact is a potential client so my first step was to
export ALL Perconal Contacts over to the BCM.

My question is about any new contacts I add to the Personal Contact folder.
Will those contacts automatically be added to BCM at the same time or do I
have to manually add those new contact to BCM?

Understanding isn't so hard. BCM is a completly different database then
the personal contact folder. Ther's no automatic sync. Import export
from/ to bcm is simpel. But as for your question. It has to be done
manually.

 

[mmullin]

JanK - you are correct. It's not that hard understanding that they are two
seperate databases. What I'm finding hard is the thought process on how to
USE BCM. Now I'm thinking that I'm better off created ALL contacts in BCM.
Is there any functionality I lose by having all contacts in BCM and not in
Personal Contacts?

 

[bBoz]

I have the same questions. Guess I thought BCM was an enhancement to
Outlook. If not, how do we keem them sync'd? If my Blackberry synchronize's
with Outlook and not BCM, then I need to somehow sync the BCM info back to
Outlook prior to sync with my Blackberry, correct?

What about changes I make on my Blackberry? As it stands, when I sync any
changes made to either BB or Outlook, the changes will then update the other
database with the most recent changes replacing and older different data.

Where should new contacts be created? I certainly want all contacts in my
BB and in my Contacts (which I guess will be either Outlook or BCM), and like
mmullin, my contacts are prodominately clients or potential clients. But I
keep one database as I do not wish to have to switch between databases when
moving from personal to business contacts.

I am moving away from Goldmine, a product similar in function as Act. In
the past I created all new contacts in Goldmine as it would sync to Outlook
with no problem. Once Outlook updated, then I would sync with BB. When I
created a new contact in my BB, it would then sync upstream to Outlook, which
in turn sync with Goldmine.

But your response seems to indicate that Microsoft does not have a two-way
sync mechanism to keep any changes updated in both BCM and Outlook. I have
tried to query the Microsoft Office and BCM website to further explain this
issue, but have not found anything. It would be hard for me to believe these
questions do not arise for many if not most users, who are tired of the sync
issues with third-party sales & contact management systems, and thought using
a Microsoft product might remove some of the issues. Of course, thinking any
MS product will solve more problems than it creates is a bit naive on my part.

 

[Kalim]

Perhaps the best way to explain is to think of Outlook Contacts and BCM
Contacts as two separate entities. Your Outlook contacts folder becomes your
“personal†contacts while BCM holds your “professional†contacts. You’ll want
to use BCM for any contacts you want to share with other members of your
company. If you separate it out this way it will enable you to maintain one
database which essentially has two folders (Outlook and BCM). Keep in mind
that you can click and drag your contacts between each as you see fit.

Syncing with your Blackberry or other phone device is a whole different
ballgame. My users also use Blackberries and we had to purchase CompanionLink
software as an add-in to the BB Desktop Manager. If you maintain your
contacts as I stated above, you may end up doing multiple syncs to pull
everything into your phone. You also have to be mindful of the individual
user settings as you could potentially cross pollute Outlook and BCM with the
data stored in each (i.e. duplicates). Please understand this is not an
endorsement of that software, just the path my company took. I recommend
doing some research on the BB forums and etcetera before deciding the best
application for your phone.

One other piece of advice I can give you both is that categories can be your
friends. They are probably the easiest way to classify your contacts as they
can be used for reports and customized views.

Kalim

 

[janK]

Ok, here is what I found in "outlook 2007 BCM for dmmies"(for full
explenation, get a hold of this book)

you have to manually copy the changes frombcm to outlook. This creates 2
records, (1 in outlook, 1 in bcm) those records are not linked in anyway!

Dummies reccomends to not update contact infomation on handheld, but to
take a note or make a task and change the contact info in bcm

Microsoft has a free app called Business Contacts for Pocket PC which
syns BCM contact to windows obile pocket pc (but not to a windows
smartphone) you can find it in outlook mnu bar
help >> bcm for outlook >> use bcm for outlook with mobile devices.
the pogamm is called bcmv3pc.exe

hope this of of soem help

 

[Luther]

Ok, here is what I found in "outlook 2007 BCM for dmmies"(for full
explenation, get a hold of this book)

you have to manually copy the changes frombcm to outlook. This creates 2
records, (1 in outlook, 1 in bcm) those records are not linked in anyway!

Dummies reccomends to not update contact infomation on handheld, but to
take a note or make a task and change the contact info in bcm

Microsoft has a free app called Business Contacts for Pocket PC which
syns BCM contact to windows obile pocket pc (but not to a windows
smartphone) you can find it in outlook mnu bar
help  >> bcm for outlook >> use bcm for outlook with mobile devices.
the pogamm is called bcmv3pc.exe

hope this of of soem help

BCM mobile should work with both Pocket PC and Smartphone. Today they
are just different names for the same software, Windows Mobile.