a contact database

[Guest]

I work for a small company (10 employees) and we all use Outlook contacts in
a pretty random way: usually our own private folder but sometimes - if we
remember - in a public folder. We use a mixture of laptops, desktops and
blackberries. It would be great if we could organise these contacts into a
sensible, shared contact database. We've looked at other applications, like
Access, and these are great but I know that no one's going to bother to use
anything except Outlook. Can anyone give me any pointers as to how we can
organise our Outlook contacts into something we can all share and use?
Problems we have include the fact are that duplicates creep in so easily and
that searching seems rather primitive unless one goes into Advanced Find
which is too hard for most of our users. Also, could a public folder be
accessed remotely?

Bit of a tall order perhaps but any pointers gratefully received!

 

[Judy Gleeson \(MVP Outlook\)]

Hi Martin

Firstly have you read any articles about using Public folders? There are a
few around - a search will bring them up.

I think you should consider corporate policies for data storage and not just
what's technically possible. If the database is important to your business,
then promote the effective use of it. This line concerns me: "we all use
Outlook contacts in a pretty random way"

Using Public Folders works for small teams - make sure to set effective
permission levels. We use Outlook Web Access to access ours remotely.
That's OK.

Be clear about the fields that are crucial to your business - maybe that's
Company, Category and Profession - maybe you need to make some additional
fields. Insist your team use the fields according to corporate policy and
that they fill in the mandatory fields!

Your team could also make manual notes of conversation in the white Notes
space of a Contact - this means you can see who last chatted to that client
and what was asked/agreed etc.

There's no need to use Advanced Find - there's a built in Find A Contact
function in Outlook - it's a window on the toolbar. Just make sure that the
Public Folders are set to be Outlook Address books - you do this by right
clicking it, properties, Outlook Address Book, tick the box to show it as
one.

There are duplicate checkers for Outlook. Try a search at www.slipstick.com
for these.

I hope this helps a bit. If you're in Oz, I could give you a great demo!

Judy Gleeson, MVP Outlook
Acorn Training and Consulting
www.acorntraining.com.au

 

[Guest]

Thanks for that Judy - sadly I'm in London, not Oz (enjoying the start of
summer!). All good advice and I'm very grateful.
Martin