What do I need to buy?

[Cimbian]

I use Goldmine today (an old BDE version) and am considering changing as it
doesn't communicate well with peripherals.

My need is for my desktop PC (connected to my SBS 2003 server) to
communicate and share data with my laptop. On both machines I have a common
login name and password. Both machines use XP Pro SP3 and office 2003 small
business edition.

I also want to synchronise the data with my phone (contacts and calendar)
and my IPAQ (contacts, calendar, notes and history.

Given the above what do I need to purchase

 

[Pino]

I use Goldmine today (an old BDE version) and am considering changing as it
doesn't communicate well with peripherals.

My need is for my desktop PC (connected to my SBS 2003 server) to
communicate and share data with my laptop. On both machines I have a
common
login name and password. Both machines use XP Pro SP3 and office 2003
small
business edition.

I also want to synchronise the data with my phone (contacts and calendar)
and my IPAQ (contacts, calendar, notes and history.

Given the above what do I need to purchase

Take a look at google apps

 

[Cimbian]

Pino,
I do already use Google docs in one of my businesses to share docs with my
business partner but it is not suitable for my other needs.

I use the sales tools of Goldmine a lot (forecasts etc.) and the history
functions, both of which finally seem to be functions in BCM.

What I don't know is how many seats I need to buy and how I organise the
structure (database on SBS and accessed via desktop and laptop with a remote
copy on the laptop or local on desktop and shared out to the laptop...) Both
PCs have the same login and use a common My Documents folder on the server
with offline folders on the laptop.

I need something easy to configure and share but that aso syncs to my phone
and PDA.

 

[Pino]

Pino,
I do already use Google docs in one of my businesses to share docs with my
business partner but it is not suitable for my other needs.

I use the sales tools of Goldmine a lot (forecasts etc.) and the history
functions, both of which finally seem to be functions in BCM.

What I don't know is how many seats I need to buy and how I organise the
structure (database on SBS and accessed via desktop and laptop with a
remote
copy on the laptop or local on desktop and shared out to the laptop...)
Both
PCs have the same login and use a common My Documents folder on the server
with offline folders on the laptop.

I need something easy to configure and share but that aso syncs to my
phone
and PDA.

Lets try.
For each PC running outlook you will need a outlook with BCM licence (BCM
can't be bought seperatly)
A tool to sync to your PDA (windows mobile) is available for free
A tool to install th edatabase on a server is available for free (you will
need th eenglish office version for it to work)
All data is stored in a SQL database, which can be hosted on on eof your
client computers or an a server
It should be possible to take a copy of the database with you on your
laptop and to sync later when you get back home.

Be ware: BCM contacts are completly different from outlook / exchaneg
contacts (different databases)

 

[Cimbian]

Thanks, I know that the data is separate. The problem is what to sync with.

I can have my BCM database sitting on my desktop (or a server folder). When
I connect or disconnect my laptop from the system the data on that machine
needs to synchronise with the master dataset so that I have full contact,
scheduling, history and e-mail on the laptop for OFFLINE use.

I use offline folders today for my general documents ad this works well but
offline folders does NOT synchronise databases.

BCM seems to be the tool I need and seems okay on price but this facility is
paramount to me and I cannot see how I would configure the setup and have the
right tools to provide it... That is what I need help with.