Do you Recommend BCM?

[Talal Itani]

Hello,

I need to add sales functionality to Outlook, for a single user. I was told
about BCM. Do you use BCM or a similar product? I would appreciate any
recommendation on this. Thank you very much.

Talal Itani

 

[Guest]

BCM has very very limited "sales" functionality. At least I could not find it
useful. Using BCM mainly for tracking contact details and history of
correspondence. Remember, there's no chance to connect any accounting program
to BCM (except Office Accounting which is for US market only)

 

[Talal Itani]

BCM has very very limited "sales" functionality. At least I could not find
it
useful. Using BCM mainly for tracking contact details and history of
correspondence. Remember, there's no chance to connect any accounting
program
to BCM (except Office Accounting which is for US market only)

Thank you for your reply. I plan to use Accounting Express, by Microsoft,
since my accounting needs are minimal. Do you know if Accounting Express
integrates with BCM?

 

[Raul]

Yes it does.

--
Regards

Raul Thomas

Thank you for your reply. I plan to use Accounting Express, by Microsoft,
since my accounting needs are minimal. Do you know if Accounting Express
integrates with BCM?

 

[Guest]

Yes, it does. But you know the problem of small business which needs a little
of everything in one solution.
Office Accounting is totally non-flexible solution, so if you ever need -
you have no chance to tweak it.
E.g. Office Accounting is dividing all your partners into "Vendors" and
"Buyers" (or something like that). What is going to happen then, if you sell
something to "Vendor" is a mistery of Microsoft - they think if you buy
something from a company you never sell anything to that same company.

There's also no chance to make even simpliest tracking of how much goods you
bought and how much left after sales, not even most primitive solution.

So for the moment it seems to me easier and more practical to make separate
database of products, services, purchases and money flow using any database
program, like one in OpenOffice (or MS Access if you can afford), and use BCM
purely for contact management, syncing BCM and DB from time to time.
Unfortunately this requires some fair digging into database construction
issues.

 

[Talal Itani]

Yes, it does. But you know the problem of small business which needs a
little
of everything in one solution.
Office Accounting is totally non-flexible solution, so if you ever need -
you have no chance to tweak it.
E.g. Office Accounting is dividing all your partners into "Vendors" and
"Buyers" (or something like that). What is going to happen then, if you
sell
something to "Vendor" is a mistery of Microsoft - they think if you buy
something from a company you never sell anything to that same company.

There's also no chance to make even simpliest tracking of how much goods
you
bought and how much left after sales, not even most primitive solution.

So for the moment it seems to me easier and more practical to make
separate
database of products, services, purchases and money flow using any
database
program, like one in OpenOffice (or MS Access if you can afford), and use
BCM
purely for contact management, syncing BCM and DB from time to time.
Unfortunately this requires some fair digging into database construction
issues.

Thanks for your input. I plan on downloading Microsoft Accounting Express,
and try it with BCM. I hope this solution will be good for my needs.

 

[Guest]

Talal Itani: I just spent about 6 hours last night working with OUTLOOK 2007
and BCM 2007 along with ACCOUNTING 2007 Express.
I was not happy with any of the "results" and I finally REMOVED both BCM and
ACCOUNTING from my system (well, almost... OUTLOOK continues to look for BCM
when it starts up and thereafter the overall performance of OUTLOOK is
severely slowed down).

The Microsoft "concept" of having an integrated CONTACTS - BUSINESS CONTACTS
and ACCOUNTING CUSTOMER system, is commendable. However, the integration is
cumbersome at best! A key challenge is that my OUTLOOK CONTACTS does not
integrate with my BUSINESS CONTACTS which does not integrate with my
ACCOUNTING CUSTOMERS. Yes, I can IMPORT and EXPORT my OUTLOOK CONTACTS or
"drop them" into from the OL Contacts to the BCM Contacts -- but integrating
the Accounting Express CUSTOMER list in 2007 was a challenge I could not
solve.

In short, it would appear to me that I would essentially have to
simultaneously run 3 sets of CONTACTS/CUSTOMERS.

I am very, very disappointed with this latest effort of MICROSOFT.

Perhaps in time MICROSOFT will figure out how to streamline such integrations.
Meanwhile, I am chagrined at having spent the money for MICROSOFT ULTIMATE,
when its claimed capabilities of all of its programs are marginal at best.

 

[Talal Itani]

wow, thank you very much. Today I spend 5 hours at the bookstore, learning
Outlook 2007, BCM, and MS Accounting Express. I did not try to integrate
them yet, and I appreciate you are sharing your experience with me. So,
what is the way out for You and I? Your problem seems related to existing
contacts. I am starting from scratch, no contacts anywhere yet. Maybe
Outlook/BCM/Accounting Express will work for me. I investigated other
options, including Act, GoldMine, Maximizer, QuickBooks, QuickInvoice.

Thanks again.

 

[Guest]

Talal Itani:
In your original post, you wrote that you were looking for "sales
functionality" with OUTLOOK. I don't know what you mean by that term. At
the same time, you indicate in later posts that you are looking for some
minimal level of accounting or bookkeeping.
If you are looking for sales contact management, I have found that Maximizer
is probably the best program out there -- especially if you are a stand-alone
user.
MY CHALLENGE, is that I must integrate with a larger office of OUTLOOK
users, and, thus, I cannot use Maximizer because no one else in my company is
using it (although it presumably does integrate with OUTLOOK).
For simple, basic accounting, I would stay with QUICKEN or MICROSOFT MONEY.
Quickbooks is a much broader accounting program.

Alas, I am very chagrined that MICROSOFT's latest attempt to create an
integrated contact management, time-keeping, accounting bundle of software,
appears to have been more fluff than substance.

Good Luck!

 

[Talal Itani]

Talal Itani:
In your original post, you wrote that you were looking for "sales
functionality" with OUTLOOK. I don't know what you mean by that term. At
the same time, you indicate in later posts that you are looking for some
minimal level of accounting or bookkeeping.
If you are looking for sales contact management, I have found that
Maximizer
is probably the best program out there -- especially if you are a
stand-alone
user.
MY CHALLENGE, is that I must integrate with a larger office of OUTLOOK
users, and, thus, I cannot use Maximizer because no one else in my company
is
using it (although it presumably does integrate with OUTLOOK).
For simple, basic accounting, I would stay with QUICKEN or MICROSOFT
MONEY.
Quickbooks is a much broader accounting program.

Alas, I am very chagrined that MICROSOFT's latest attempt to create an
integrated contact management, time-keeping, accounting bundle of
software,
appears to have been more fluff than substance.

Good Luck!

I work alone. I prospect, sell, and invoice. For prospecting, I wish to
record what goes on between me and the prospect client. I also do the
marketing, so I have a data base for people to contact. I want to record
which customer bought what. I looked at Maximizer in the past, I loved it,
because it is simple and clean. It did not integrate with Outlook Express,
which is the email client I use. I am starting this project, so I do not
know very well what my needs are, nor do I know very well what is out there
to help me. So, I am searching around. Thanks for mentioning Quicken and
Microsoft Money, I think there is a 'business' version for each, and it may
be part what I need. I will look them up.

 

[Guest]

Talal Itani:
I would suggest you switch from Outlook Express to Outlook, and, then use
Maximizer.

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

I have an even better recommendation for pure Outlook based "sales
functionality." Go to: www.avidian.com This solution is very clean and
simple and is contained totally within Outlook.

-THP

Talal Itani:
I would suggest you switch from Outlook Express to Outlook, and, then use
Maximizer.[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]

Microsoft Money, I think there is a 'business' version for each, and it may
be part what I need. I will look them up.

 

[Guest]

Tim Peterson:
Thanks for the heads up on "Prophet"; looks interesting!
--
Steve R

I have an even better recommendation for pure Outlook based "sales
functionality." Go to: www.avidian.com This solution is very clean and
simple and is contained totally within Outlook.

-THP

Talal Itani:
I would suggest you switch from Outlook Express to Outlook, and, then use
Maximizer.

Talal Itani:
In your original post, you wrote that you were looking for "sales

[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]

Microsoft Money, I think there is a 'business' version for each, and it may
be part what I need. I will look them up.

 

[Guest]

that's fine, but probably has no integration with any accounting?