Custom Fields

[Guest]

Is it possible to create custom fields for accounts in Business Contact
Manager. For example - a lot of my clients are hospitals so I would like to
create a field that lets me enter the number of beds for each facility.

 

[Tim P via OfficeKB.com]

Mark,

Customizing forms is not supported in the current (v2) BCM. This "one-size-
fits-all" reality has existed since BCM's initial release in 2003. This is
"lame" indeed but you'll have to live with it or use another application for
your needs. If my comments sound a bit jaded it is just that I have seen SO
MANY posts of this fundamental nature and it just continues to amaze (and
annoy) me that such a limitation exists. It's kind of like designing a car
and leaving the steering wheel off yet thinking that the car will be good
enough for those who buy it.

We may yet see basic functional customizability of BCM sometime within the
next decade but who knows?

-THP

 

[Guest]

Mark,

Customizing forms is not supported in the current (v2) BCM. This "one-size-
fits-all" reality has existed since BCM's initial release in 2003. This is
"lame" indeed but you'll have to live with it or use another application for
your needs. If my comments sound a bit jaded it is just that I have seen SO
MANY posts of this fundamental nature and it just continues to amaze (and
annoy) me that such a limitation exists. It's kind of like designing a car
and leaving the steering wheel off yet thinking that the car will be good
enough for those who buy it.

We may yet see basic functional customizability of BCM sometime within the
next decade but who knows?

-THP

 

[Guest]

Tim, Thank you for the information microsoft wouldn't put on the SALES site.
I am now convinced NOT to buy the office small business management suite. It
is amazing that microsoft can't do better. What good is a contact manager (
like Outlook ) if you can't add custom fields?

 

[Tim P via OfficeKB.com]

Great question! The best (lame) answer I have ever been able to decipher is
that apparently they want us to believe that BCM is intended for only "small-
single-users" who would never have such needs to customize fields like a
"large-multi-user-enterprise-level" organization would. Of course this
excuse is just a bunch of marketing spin nonsense to make excuses for
something so ill thought out.

Apparently the next version 3 which is in Beta will have some degree of
customization allowed but who knows how much or limited and also whenever
this next version will be released? It will probably be late summer '06 when
Office 12 comes out. If you want to do customization currently you have to
get into the full Microsoft Dynamics CRM application. It's too bad that you
are forced into this all or nothing option.

-THP

Tim, Thank you for the information microsoft wouldn't put on the SALES site.
I am now convinced NOT to buy the office small business management suite. It
is amazing that microsoft can't do better. What good is a contact manager (
like Outlook ) if you can't add custom fields?

Mark,
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
Manager. For example - a lot of my clients are hospitals so I would like to
create a field that lets me enter the number of beds for each facility.

 

[Luther]

This stuff about custom fields not being in the product because
Microsoft doesn't think BCM users need custom fields is incorrect.

The spin here is not Microsoft but Tim's. Only Tim knows his motives
for posting misinformation, but the reason BCM does not have custom
field support has been discussed in this newsgroup many times.

The first beta of BCM v1 had custom fields and picklists.

BCM removed the feature because customizing forms triggered the forms
corruption bug in Outlook 2003 too regularly to make shipping the
feature practical. The number of posts on this newsgroup from people
who are still running into the forms corruption bug today, years after
it was fixed in Outlook 2003 SP1, is a good indication of why yanking
that feature was a reasonable decision.

 

[Raul]

Nice touch ........... .However like earlier mentioned this is being
considered for upcoming version so lets all be hopeful !!!

With Regards

Raul Thomas

 

[Tim P via OfficeKB.com]

I will return to my previous analogous example in an above post regarding the
car and the steering wheel. You are presented with sales promotional
information to buy a car and you have a pretty good idea in your mind about
just what types of functions that a car can reasonably be expected to perform
in order to meet the criteria of being defined as a "car." You then actually
acquire the car and go for a drive only to learn to your great dismay that
the steering is way out of alignment and the car's steering ability just has
too many bugs in it and that you cannot drive it at all. This car entirely
lacks steering functionality as a feature. So what do you do? You remove
the steering wheel entirely from the car to remove the "corruption bug"
affecting the steering problem and then re-present a new version of the car
now without a steering wheel and yet explain away and apologize to the buyer
that they should buy this car now anyway and consider that the yanking of
this feature was "reasonable."

The point that keeps getting missed is that a car without an effective
steering mechanism is not a very effective tool for travel in that to do so
requires customizable course corrections when going down the road. You can't
really call it a car in the classic sense of its intended use. Likewise, a
real world usable Contact Management application needs a functional steering
mechanism in order to customize its use for various business purposes. There
is no spin here coming from me. What is apparent for all to see contained
within Luther's well intended previous comments is a continuing apologist
mindset on display which (if it exists within the programming ranks of
Microsoft) prevents the world's largest software manufacturer from being able
to bring forth 1990's functionality into a 21st century application version
release. I have read many a post here from frustrated users who bought in
to the hype and sales spin that BCM could be customized for use by a small
business only to find out the sad reality of this later after a lot of brain
damage.

Whether or not the first beta of BCM v1 ever had the intent to customize
fields or not seems entirely irrelevant to almost everyone currently
interested in the potential of BCM's value for their unique business data
requirements. Very few even really care about such a triviality. The
reality is that customizability is an entirely reasonable and practical
feature to expect to be built into an app like BCM. It's just seems like
BCM's designers need to get out of the lab and abandon this assumed "one-size-
can-fit-all" approach to its assumed usage adoption.

It is positively embarrassing for so many alternative apps such as Sage's ACT
to display this feature of customizability over so many previous years
already and yet we have to somehow believe that this just can't be done by
the mighty Microsoft without there being just too many bugs?? How can anyone
even get up in the morning with such a laughable "It-just-can't-be-done"
attitude that is so in defiance to so much evidence to the contrary. As a
committed end user my recommended advice to Microsoft could be summed up very
easily in the following no-spin manner ... 'PLEASE FIND A WAY TO PUT A
STEERING WHEEL INTO THE CAR SO THAT IT WORKS TO ALLOW THE CAR TO BE
EFFECTIVELY DRIVEN IN THE REAL WORLD OF BUSINESS!!" I trust that my intended
metaphorical example used here is not too abstract to follow and understand.

If I have presented the appearance of any spin at all in this newsgroup it
could only be my misconstrued speculation and marvel as to just why BCM
remains so limited in function for so long. It defies "reasonable"
explanation other than it was possibly done by intention. What other reason
is there? After 3 years since BCM's initial release, I am all ears to hear
of a good reason from those more in the know than I. Perhaps some of my
speculation over Microsoft's marketing incentives with respect to BCM's
relationship to their fuller featured CRM are a bit off the mark at times but
my motives have nothing to do with misinformation. My motive is simply to
encourage real world feedback to the decision makers and designers who have
control over BCM in order to make it better. BCM just does not cut it yet by
a long shot and most real world users can relate directly to what I mean by
that. There is nothing misinformed in my intent.

Come on Luther. I enjoy reading your helpful posts here which provide many
solutions to a lot of people. You seem like a real bright guy. You don't
have to attempt to make me the issue. I can be a bit noisy and pointed
around here at times but I really just would like to see Microsoft do a
better job of realizing the potential of some of their applications which
hold importance to me and certainly a lot of others.

There is no need for defensesiveness. Whenever I sound off about something
that irks me about BCM always remember that I'm still on your side.

-THP

 

[Luther]

The problem with the analogy is that there is no steering-wheel-less
car on the market with anywhere near as many users as BCM.

Custom fields are clearly the most requested feature, but BCM v1 and 2
have been good enough for the Outlook users that use BCM.

 

[Tim P via OfficeKB.com]

BCM v1 & 2 have indeed been good enough for a LOT of Outlook users in the
sense that out of curiousity they load the app, attempt a test drive by
trying to get the car out of the driveway, then proceed to push the car back
in the garage and either look for alternatives or await long in hope for
improvements to come along that will let them really use this for their
business in a more effective manner. V1 & 2 are not completely useless. The
auto email linking is kind of nice. Settling for "good enough" and being
underwhelmed by having to make unnecessary compromises with a pretend toy
car that currntly offers lots of style but very limited substance just isn't
as much fun as being able to take a robust real vehicle out onto the open
road and going for a cruise.

-THP

 

[Luther]

So they wanted a beamer and they got a bug. Not bad for a free add-in.

With any product it's not about settling for good enough, but doing as
much as possible given the available constraints. Good enough is the
minimum bar required to get enough users to justify funding the next
version, and adding features to grow the installed base.

BTW, I understand that the most popular feature (reason most users
"endure" BCM instead of sticking with straight Outlook) is the history
grid on the Contact forms.

 

[Guest]

Luther - your wrong on this one...what you don't know is just how many
thousands of people like me will walk away from what's supposed to be a crm
solution - this software is a joke - it's unfriendly, inefficient, and
unusable in it's current form...it's not the choice between a beamer and a
bug - it's the choice between a ford and a junk that won't run - I never
expected a beamer but I certainly expected to be able to use this product,
and I can't.

And funding the next version is a requirement to generate an installed base?
please, MS could buy every competitor and still purchase Washington
State...this is a bad product, poorly designed, too late to market, and
unfriendly ... and all regardless of price...it's unusable in its present
form - the pain level is too high to justify it! Bill should fire every one
of the knuckleheads who ever thought this thing could be successful...they
are only reinforcing what everbody knows already - to wait until version 3 or
later before buying a ms product. I desperately wanted it to be better as
with SBA - I hate intuit and their arrogance -- about as much as I hate ms
and their incompetence with the first 2 versions of every product.

 

[Guest]

one last thing: do you want to take a guess at how many millions of man
hours have been lost by businesses across the country who thought this would
work? and only now are finding out that it can't be customized? how many
sales would BCM have if it said clearly on the box or on the site: " you
can't customize this for your business".? Most people will NEVER find this
site and are still scratching their heads like I did for 10 hours thinking:
"nah....they really couldnt' have screwed it up that badly, could they?!" ...
sadly, they did.

 

[Tim P via OfficeKB.com]

Wow Max,

And some think that I am the opinionated one around here on this newsgroup!
I have just been de-throned as the king of rants. For me anyway, this is all
less a matter of winning an argument and more about contributing to an
accurate and loud enough user feedback loop regarding the maddening realities
of BCM. BCM app could really rock and they just don't seem to get how much
of a glaring need there is for improvement in this sub mini-CRM space.
Rather than believing that posts like yours are the rantings of a noisy few,
I tend to believe that a silent majority of users (or at least those that
attempt to be users) just give up and go away to some other solution for
their needs. It is smug and dangerous for MS to interpret otherwise. It is
good fun for many to always bash the big boys in Redmond but the frustration
expressed here is very real and should be heeded (rather than dismissed) with
as much empathy as possible by those in a position to effect change with
future releases of BCM. To the degree that this type of change is a priority
with MS we will all see or not see over a hopefully short time to come.

-THP

one last thing: do you want to take a guess at how many millions of man
hours have been lost by businesses across the country who thought this would
work? and only now are finding out that it can't be customized? how many
sales would BCM have if it said clearly on the box or on the site: " you
can't customize this for your business".? Most people will NEVER find this
site and are still scratching their heads like I did for 10 hours thinking:
"nah....they really couldnt' have screwed it up that badly, could they?!" ...
sadly, they did.

Luther - your wrong on this one...what you don't know is just how many
thousands of people like me will walk away from what's supposed to be a crm

[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]

 

[Guest]

Hi Tim / Luther,
I wanted to add a couple of comments to this one;

1. I accept the limitations of BCM as it stands and we have lived with and
thus far worked around the weaknesses.

2. We are now at a stage stage in our business where we need customisable
forms and true multiple user functionality (all very plausible and reasonable
so far).

3. What really annoys me is that we have absolutely no view or idea as to
when or if BCM will be able to achieve what we want.

Put simply, if MS would let us know what's happening and when, we can either
gain confidence in future releases or make the decision to go elsewhere.
Either way, please don't give us false impressions or mislead us into hanging
on in uncertainty.

We may be small business owners but our business are important to us (too
important to waste time like this). We like to look after our clients long
term. That way, we may one day become larger businesses. We will also have
wonderful memory retention....for times like these.

Ian

Wow Max,

And some think that I am the opinionated one around here on this newsgroup!
I have just been de-throned as the king of rants. For me anyway, this is all
less a matter of winning an argument and more about contributing to an
accurate and loud enough user feedback loop regarding the maddening realities
of BCM. BCM app could really rock and they just don't seem to get how much
of a glaring need there is for improvement in this sub mini-CRM space.
Rather than believing that posts like yours are the rantings of a noisy few,
I tend to believe that a silent majority of users (or at least those that
attempt to be users) just give up and go away to some other solution for
their needs. It is smug and dangerous for MS to interpret otherwise. It is
good fun for many to always bash the big boys in Redmond but the frustration
expressed here is very real and should be heeded (rather than dismissed) with
as much empathy as possible by those in a position to effect change with
future releases of BCM. To the degree that this type of change is a priority
with MS we will all see or not see over a hopefully short time to come.

-THP

one last thing: do you want to take a guess at how many millions of man
hours have been lost by businesses across the country who thought this would
work? and only now are finding out that it can't be customized? how many
sales would BCM have if it said clearly on the box or on the site: " you
can't customize this for your business".? Most people will NEVER find this
site and are still scratching their heads like I did for 10 hours thinking:
"nah....they really couldnt' have screwed it up that badly, could they?!" ...
sadly, they did.

Luther - your wrong on this one...what you don't know is just how many
thousands of people like me will walk away from what's supposed to be a crm

[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]

"endure" BCM instead of sticking with straight Outlook) is the history
grid on the Contact forms.

 

[Guest]

Hi Tim / Luther,
I wanted to add a couple of comments to this one;

1. I accept the limitations of BCM as it stands and we have lived with and
thus far worked around the weaknesses.

2. We are now at a stage stage in our business where we need customisable
forms and true multiple user functionality (all very plausible and reasonable
so far).

3. What really annoys me is that we have absolutely no view or idea as to
when or if BCM will be able to achieve what we want.

Put simply, if MS would let us know what's happening and when, we can either
gain confidence in future releases or make the decision to go elsewhere.
Either way, please don't give us false impressions or mislead us into hanging
on in uncertainty.

We may be small business owners but our business are important to us (too
important to waste time like this). We like to look after our clients long
term. That way, we may one day become larger businesses. We will also have
wonderful memory retention....for times like these.

Ian

Wow Max,

And some think that I am the opinionated one around here on this newsgroup!
I have just been de-throned as the king of rants. For me anyway, this is all
less a matter of winning an argument and more about contributing to an
accurate and loud enough user feedback loop regarding the maddening realities
of BCM. BCM app could really rock and they just don't seem to get how much
of a glaring need there is for improvement in this sub mini-CRM space.
Rather than believing that posts like yours are the rantings of a noisy few,
I tend to believe that a silent majority of users (or at least those that
attempt to be users) just give up and go away to some other solution for
their needs. It is smug and dangerous for MS to interpret otherwise. It is
good fun for many to always bash the big boys in Redmond but the frustration
expressed here is very real and should be heeded (rather than dismissed) with
as much empathy as possible by those in a position to effect change with
future releases of BCM. To the degree that this type of change is a priority
with MS we will all see or not see over a hopefully short time to come.

-THP

one last thing: do you want to take a guess at how many millions of man
hours have been lost by businesses across the country who thought this would
work? and only now are finding out that it can't be customized? how many
sales would BCM have if it said clearly on the box or on the site: " you
can't customize this for your business".? Most people will NEVER find this
site and are still scratching their heads like I did for 10 hours thinking:
"nah....they really couldnt' have screwed it up that badly, could they?!" ...
sadly, they did.

Luther - your wrong on this one...what you don't know is just how many
thousands of people like me will walk away from what's supposed to be a crm
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
"endure" BCM instead of sticking with straight Outlook) is the history
grid on the Contact forms.

Add me to the list of frustrated individuals. One of our sales people sold
BCM as an affordable CRM solution to a small business with 10 users after he
read that it now supported an SBS03 environment. I billed a whole day's worth
of work installing, importing, and training...then I noticed the simple,
(like SS#', etc...nothing complicated), custom fields in their public folders
did not transfer. I thought "ok...I'll modify the default form and
reimport..."

Another gripe is that it took too much effort to find out very little
information on BCM. "Update for SBS03" doesn't mean you can install it on
your server and run...it simply means it will coexist in the environment.

What about automated backups?

Now I'm here...wondering if I should tell our customer they paid a lot to
test drive something that does not fit their needs.

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

Can anyone say "limited design?"

Here are some great alternatives to consider until this turkey (BCM) is
brought up to speed with the rest of the real world:

http://www.outlookwise.com/Products/MXContact/index.htm
http://www.teamscope.com/
http://www.salesoutlook.net/
http://www.avidian.com

-THP

Hi Tim / Luther,
I wanted to add a couple of comments to this one;

[quoted text clipped - 57 lines]
Add me to the list of frustrated individuals. One of our sales people sold
BCM as an affordable CRM solution to a small business with 10 users after he
read that it now supported an SBS03 environment. I billed a whole day's worth
of work installing, importing, and training...then I noticed the simple,
(like SS#', etc...nothing complicated), custom fields in their public folders
did not transfer. I thought "ok...I'll modify the default form and
reimport..."

Another gripe is that it took too much effort to find out very little
information on BCM. "Update for SBS03" doesn't mean you can install it on
your server and run...it simply means it will coexist in the environment.

What about automated backups?

Now I'm here...wondering if I should tell our customer they paid a lot to
test drive something that does not fit their needs.

 

[Guest]

I have read all the postings on this subject and quite frankly after first
spending 1/2 day trying to customize the BCM form only to discover that MS
does not allow it leads me to uninstall this module and resume my use of ACT.
What a dissapointment. I dont care for ACT's email capabilities, but if you
have a need for contact managment and history what is the choice?

 

[Guest]

If anyone has any ideas please let me know. I dont like using more programs
than I need to

 

[Raul]

Hi

Customization of form is not supporetd in BCM V2 however you can check the
following link that does offer a workaround

http://blogs.officezealot.com/cardoza/archive/2004/05/12/652.aspx


I would also want to let you know that customization of forms is being
considered in BCM V3,and it your own says as to whether
you want to use it or not