ACT 6.0 vs. BCM 2003

[Dick T.]

I've used OL and ACT for about three years and it seems to me that each one
has their strengths and weaknesses. ACT's email is not as good as OL while
OL seemed to me, at least, to be designed for the corporate world.

I'm wondering if any side by side comparisons have been made between BCM and
ACT 6.0? For a group of say five people which program would be the most
useful for communicating with customers?

I didn't get the Office beta and therefore haven't used BCM. I assumed that
it would trounce ACT since it was a MS product and MS had the advantage of
studying ACT, talking to customers during the design stage of BCM and having
a better email program. After reading some articles on the Web and seeing
some of the posts here I'm not so sure. I'd sure like to hear some opinions
before I go through all the pain of relearning one or the other. Thanks.

 

[Patricia Cardoza - [MVP Outlook]]

Well, the thing about BCM is that there's no sharing. So each person in your
organization would have their own contacts/accounts/opportunities with no
interaction between them. That said, I expect some third party tools to
become available to help wtih BCM synchronization over the next 6 months or
so, but no guarantees.

What do you like about ACT and what does it lack for you? I've worked a lot
with BCM and I can answer specific questions if you have them.

 

[Dick T.]

Maybe I'm just used to using ACT to track appointments, look up customers
and make groups in so I think it's more user friendly than OL 2000 which I
also use for email. My complaint with OL is just that it looks to me that
it's designed for corporate use. ACT's email features are terrible.

 

[Magnus]

Hi Dick,

I have used Act 2000 for a while (think its the same as
6?) and have now tried BCM. You can read my
comments/questions below your question...
I dont think I will start to use BCM to track customers
ans sales activitiesn, at least not yet. There are a
number of things with planning and viewing activities
that I'm not comfortable with. I will start using OL 2003
though. An improvement.

/magnus