Is anyone happy with BCM?

[Guest]

I've been struggling with setting up this system for the last week. I want to
know, before I decide to uninstall and use something else - Is anyone out
there happy with the way it performs, and actually using it to maintain their
business contact data?

Thank you for your responses, they will be greatly appreciated.

 

[William Lefkovics [MVP]]

It's certainly mixed. Out of the gate, the product was not what someone
might call 'the market leader' or anything. I know folks who plug away with
it each day, and others too frustrated to hear the acronym (mostly from the
initial release). It is really a small business product and enterprise CRM
is at another level.

Yes, there are people who like and use the product. Plus it is free to
licensed users of Office.

Did you want to address issues you've been having?

Between you and me, if an application took me a week to deploy, I'd be
sending the vendor an invoice for my time and making sure all my peers were
aware of its downfalls and moving on to a better product.

 

[Guest]

I would like it to work, mainly I only really want to work out of one place
and right now that place is Outlook. The initial release I swtiched off real
quick - it continually broke Outlook. I have tried again with the update and
the two service packs applied. I also installed Error Nuker which I run
every night. At last my PC, including Outlook with BCM is stable. However I
think Microsoft is just spread too thin to get this right. They are doing
themselves a disservice with BCM. It is SUCH an important part of any small
business, it is crying out to be done right, Microsoft have the opportunity
but BCM is so poorly constructed, full of flaws and unsupported that it is to
limiting and too frusrating to use seriously. Why would I consider another MS
product when this one is so bad. Next month when I have the space I will go
looking elsewhere. It will not be for a Microsoft product however and I have
been loyal for 15 years to MSFT! If anyone from MSFT reads this and wants
some feet-on-the-ground input on how BCM ought to work, give me a call....

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov]

I would like it to work, mainly I only really want to work out of one place
and right now that place is Outlook. The initial release I swtiched >
been loyal for 15 years to MSFT! If anyone from MSFT reads this and wants
some feet-on-the-ground input on how BCM ought to work, give me a call....

You know. I like the product and I use it daily for sales management for my
business. It links with my SBA 2006 etc. Then again, I know how it works and
its limitations. The phone log incompability is one frustrating limitation,
for example.

I am confident the next release will be truly great. I unfortunately can't
get my hands on it before the public beta2 of Office 2007 is released next
month. :-(

Right now, the product seems to have been designed by a sales manager for a
sales manager who primarily needs to track business opportunities and where
he is in the sales cycle. That's really all it does, and that's perfect for
me. I can also deal with the concept of assigning multiple leaf objects
(business contacts) with multiple categories to a container object
(accounts). However, I think that this concept is probably foreign to users
who didn't have to deal with things like Active Directory or NDS design.

Now, from database developer's perspective, that's done right. However, what
needs to happen is to make that model hidden. Users shouldn't have to learn
elaborate category-based filtering or to have to create multiple contact
cards when a set of extra fields for the second contact on the same form
would do. That second set of fields might well create another business
contact in the DB that's associated with the account, but that would be
hidden from the user.

It does not provide customization options necessary to make it more flexible
and that is what limits its functionality.

I think CRM 3.0 Small Business is a good example of how it should work.

 

[Guest]

This will certainly make anyone who is having a bad day with BCM laugh.

I only had problems setting up BCM...but that wasn't completely Microsoft's
fault. It was mostly Dell's. My office purchased brand new Dell laptops that
were shipped to us 2 weeks ago. When I received mine, I kept all of the
CDs/disks that came with it. However, silly me assumed that all of the
CD/disks/programs that came with the laptop were already installed.

BCM in Outlook was indeed already installed on the computer. What I did not
know was that the SP2 upgrade for BCM was on a CD that Dell had given me. Why
they didn't install it? I DON'T KNOW!

So I get my laptop, and start using the old version of BCM, not knowing I
was using an old version. My boss, by the way, had appointed me with the tast
of learning the program for the entire office, setting up the database, and
teaching everyone how to use it.

After copying all contacts to Business Contacts, I plugged away for 16
hours manually creating Accounts and linking them to the Business Contacts,
because that is what you have to do in that old verision........the address,
etc. doesn't automatically copy to Accounts from Business Contacts.

To make a long story short, after numerous posts on this web site I finally
figurued out that I didn't have the same menu options as other people posting
messages on this site...Then someone said "Maybe you don't have Service Pack
2 installed!"

After I finally downloaded SP1, then SP2 and all of the other updates from
the MS website, I got error messages when I tried running reports. Moreover,
when we tried downloading SP2 on my coworkers computer, none of the new
features in his Outlook were updated but Outlook said that he was running
SP2...And then we couldn't reinstall SP2 on his or my computer because the
Microsoft web site kept saying we already had SP2 installed...So I had this
database that I had spent 2+ days working on that I could not share!

The posts on this web site said we had to back up our BCM, unstall it and
then reinstall it to fix all of the errors/bugs. I did not want to do that
because when I tried to export my BCM Contacts and Accounts to my coworkers
computer, it changed all account names to first-name-last-name format, so
Hilton Head Island became, "Island, Hilton Head" and the links to the
Business Contacts were severed. I did not want to have to risk losing 2+ days
of work linking everything again.

So I decided to dig into the Microsoft CDs that came with my laptop and
reinstall the OLD verions of BCM that came with my laptop, then go back to
the web site, update, and pray that the update was okay.

What do you know!! When I popped in the Outlook BCM Update CD it said I was
installed SP2......and the install worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Dell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do you know how much fricken time I have
wasted on BCM for nothing?!!!!

P.S. Thank you Leonid, cause you have replied to several of my questsions
that I have posted on this web site...hahahaha. I know you can sympathize
with me for that!!!!! It also doesn't help that there is a novice online
tutorial and Program Guide giving an overview of BCM.........but no User
Guide on how to customize database fields in BCM or use BCM. So relying on
the web site is soo time consuming when you're trying to figure out how to do
stuff!

 

[JJ]

I am confident the next release will be truly great. I unfortunately can't
I didn't know about the public beta. Where can I sign up?

I too think this market niche is a huge opportunity for MS not only
because of its size, but because of the problems with ACT! 2005 & 2006
and some uncertainty as to what is happening with GoldMine.

The requirements for MS CRM are too much for me, a single user.

I'm currently looking at SugarCRM which is free. The forums are very
active and you get immediate response from other users when you make a
post.
John "J.J." Jackson

 

[Boe]

I think it has tremendous potential but consider ever version an alpha since
it does not allow for OWA access or contact sync with WM5.

 

[Guest]

No.

Like so many, a thousand plus contacts, starting with boxes of 3X5 index
cards, thru cheap organizers, Sharp handhelds (nice), Visors, Palms. Using
Outlook more and more over the years, and it's a beautiful thing.

"Tight intergration with Office"...not. Throw away all your histories.
Cumbersome transport of Contacts. No synching with Outlook. Inferior Journal.
Integration with SBA does not match hyperbole. Straighjacket mentality with
both of these new apps.

They took a beautiful thing, promised much, and broke it instead. Marketing
will say anything. Updating will be a very hard sell here after thi$ update.
Kill BCM and fold it into Outlook. Period.

Sorry MS. I know it doesn't look like it, but I am not among your haters.
Better homework, better product, and please inject massive quantities of
reality into marketing.

 

[Guest]

Jeebuss, but that was harsh. I'm really sorry-at least it's buried a bit. But
it is the way I feel, and valid points. I have described this situation to a
number of people with varying experience with numbers and contacts, and
obviously I'm a bit biased now. They may even be just along for the ride when
I pre-amble with what a huge asset it has been having everything in one place
(actually several, so it's never, ever lost) and it's now split-"unnhuh, that
suks". But when I get to the punchline, that once seperated, they may never
synch again, true shock and alarm shows..."impossible!" "broken". Still, in
my book words like that have to be backed up. Time is always an issue, but I
will try to revisit this, as I keep trying stuff out. That's the way I
learned Outlook, just started using more and more, never read a book, and the
help files were half broken by the time I got into it heavy and then turned
off the way ms does that...ewww...icky, thx so much-for softie I paid for
just didn't get around to using much for a while. I did learn some Exel VBA
stuff a while back because I didn't like any of the Palm trip/expense report
dumps available...getting off track and not enough time to go into that. But
I do want to mention to me that's the beauty of Outlook/Office-a much more
open ended system with so much less of the straight-jacket mentality. But I'm
no programmer anymore, but I do remember making punch tape, and I wrote some
decent stuff a while after that. Then I revolted and have this huge hole (in
my head!

Ok, I'm going to keep trying some, alongside Outlook. And in my first words
to "back this up", I am instead going to point out one part that does work
very well-the email auto-link. Yes! Now that's the kind of thinking that
really works. But on the other hand, in my industry only one of my
customers is advanced enough that this works to any useful degree (but there
it work wonderfully!). And it is unlikely to change a whole lot, because of
the nature of the backbone extraordinarily mobile workforce so often in rural
areas and furthermore with a sizable (most likely a big majority from my
personal experience, and I have quite a chunk of it) percentage that simply
will never ever use a computer, though they may have some at home for the
family. So, for example, far more useful would be automatic fax linking here.
But then you'd make it only work within your own stuff, and again I would be
uninterested in it.

You know, things could be a lot different like that, now. You must yourself
imagine how different it could be if things were more open. But it's been a
terribly rough road for you in some ways ms, and not impossible to understand
how things got this way.

Hmmm...I wonder if I can use this history Reports thingee...it could solve
one particular problem...

-Oggy

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

Hey everyone,

Why fight with the hassles of using BCM when you don't have to?

Here are some very workable alternatives:

http://www.outlookwise.com/Products/MXContact/index.htm

http://www.teamscope.com/

http://www.salesoutlook.net/

http://www.avidian.com/

-THP

 

[Guest]

Timing seems awfully important lately.

Outlook is, really is, a jem. I use it very heavily every day, with several
other proggies.

Paperport, and it's wonderful "send to" bar...

Think...of the promise of computerdom in our SciFi lore.

Let your fine proggies stand up proud next to any other, they can do it.

Your job as OS is to enable any "call" to any prog from any prog. Embrace
it. Even within. Most importatantly within.

Timing, and precipice. The future. Write.

-Oggy

 

[Guest]

Thank you! I may just have my office buy one of those products!

 

[Guy]

I use it daily and I am very happy with it. Could it be better, sure. The
product is still in its infancy and can only get better.

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

Guy,

Your positive opinions and high regard for BCM are well taken. I want to add
however that BCM has been in its "infancy" now for 3 years. I am someone in
the real world that is no longer able to await yet another 8+ months to yet
again be needlessly underwhelmed when BCM version 3 is released. BCM indeed
can only get better. We do agree on that. The great questions are when and
by how much?

The limited, rudimentary design functions of BCM thus far have been entirely
without merit in my opinion and it reflects a low level of interest or
commitment by MS to this application. Maybe that will change someday. Until
then, I have moved on to other alternatives. I continue to read posts here
with interest and wish all BCM users (new and old) the very best.

-THP

I use it daily and I am very happy with it. Could it be better, sure. The
product is still in its infancy and can only get better.

I've been struggling with setting up this system for the last week. I want
to

[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]

Thank you for your responses, they will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Guy]

I agree with you. I'm just lucky I guess in that the design fits me very
well. I am sure that is not the case with everyone, however. I was very
annoyed with version 1 - particularly the cache problems. Since the update
I've been very happy and it has been very stable for me. There are a few
things I would change and some things could be refined.

--
Guy
Forefront Business Solutions
www.forefrontbusinesssolutions.com
www.forefrontbusiness.com

Guy,

Your positive opinions and high regard for BCM are well taken. I want to
add
however that BCM has been in its "infancy" now for 3 years. I am someone
in
the real world that is no longer able to await yet another 8+ months to
yet
again be needlessly underwhelmed when BCM version 3 is released. BCM
indeed
can only get better. We do agree on that. The great questions are when
and
by how much?

The limited, rudimentary design functions of BCM thus far have been
entirely
without merit in my opinion and it reflects a low level of interest or
commitment by MS to this application. Maybe that will change someday.
Until
then, I have moved on to other alternatives. I continue to read posts
here
with interest and wish all BCM users (new and old) the very best.

-THP

I use it daily and I am very happy with it. Could it be better, sure. The
product is still in its infancy and can only get better.

I've been struggling with setting up this system for the last week. I
want
to

[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]

Thank you for your responses, they will be greatly appreciated.