Is there another way?

[Guest]

Besides using business manager can I use Act to work together with outlook,
i.e whatever contact info, documents and history notes, etc, is there a way
to view the same information from "outlook". I called Act and they told me
there is a software called "Double Look" cost $79.95 it's a third party
program that allows you to view the same information from both programs. Is
there another way to do this without paying for another program?

 

[Guest]

Barb, I discovered that I could run Outlook BCM and ACT! same time, at a
minimum, reporting gets all messed up, and I had to run the BCM Update exe
twice to fix and manually associate my BCM reports to a MSFT application like
Word.
Outlook is NOT the same as Outlook BCM - I had running both together, not
sure if anyone did.
SusanG

 

[Guest]

Susan, thanks I will keep looking my colleague believe there is a way. If the
only way is to use both Act and outlook is by using BCM then I will let him
know. Do you have to buy BCM, it stated that office doesn't include it?

 

[Guest]

I should have written I CANNOT run BCM and ACT together, it messes up
reporting, sorry! Forgot that all important Not word.
BCM is part of Win Office Pro 2003 or SBS 2003, I believe, it's on the CD
for the install of Win Office Pro 2003, that's what I used.
Susan

 

[Guest]

Susan: That's ok, haha. So when you say windows office you mean the disc that
has "Access, Excel etc? If that is the case I already have it installed but
can not locate BCM on outlook.

 

[Guest]

Office Professional 2003, not vanilla Office, that might be the problem. A
two CD set is what I have, one CD for Office, one CD for BCM. And the install
is separate from Office, have to run it from the 2nd CD, doesn't happen
automatically.
S

 

[Guest]

Oh! Ok great, now I have to ask if they have that CD. I have a feeling BCM
and outlook together will give him what he is looking for. I don't mean to be
repetitive but just to confirm - You can not run Act and outlook together,
you need BCM to work with outlook, correct?

 

[Guest]

I could not run ACT and Outlook BCM together, ACT messed up my BCM reports.
But I also reproduced this error without ACT, so I don't think it's only ACT,
but it is ACT. And I don't know if other problems occurred with ACT and BCM
open same time, I'm using a test database, well, several of them, so I'm
missing errors that I might uncover if I used the same DB each day.

You have to install BCM component of Outlook from the Win Office Pro 2003
CDs, and yes it's an add-on to Outlook. It does not run on the same database
backend as Outlook, so how Contacts are handled for example is very different
in the BCM, it's a different form. There are fields for Contacts that you
don't get with BCM. You can't create Dist Lists in BCM, you would use
Categories instead. If you're used to ACT!, you won't have groups in BCM,
again Categories are used.

You really need to see this product in action, I'd go to here
http://www.microsoft.com/office/outlook/contactmanager/prodinfo/default.mspx

and check out the demo, etc. And because this is really a beta product,
still in development, you have to be willing to take the good with the badly
developed.
S

 

[Guest]

Thanks a bunch! We will give it a try.

I could not run ACT and Outlook BCM together, ACT messed up my BCM reports.
But I also reproduced this error without ACT, so I don't think it's only ACT,
but it is ACT. And I don't know if other problems occurred with ACT and BCM
open same time, I'm using a test database, well, several of them, so I'm
missing errors that I might uncover if I used the same DB each day.

You have to install BCM component of Outlook from the Win Office Pro 2003
CDs, and yes it's an add-on to Outlook. It does not run on the same database
backend as Outlook, so how Contacts are handled for example is very different
in the BCM, it's a different form. There are fields for Contacts that you
don't get with BCM. You can't create Dist Lists in BCM, you would use
Categories instead. If you're used to ACT!, you won't have groups in BCM,
again Categories are used.

You really need to see this product in action, I'd go to here
http://www.microsoft.com/office/outlook/contactmanager/prodinfo/default.mspx

and check out the demo, etc. And because this is really a beta product,
still in development, you have to be willing to take the good with the badly
developed.
S

 

[Bill Rodgers]

Hi Barb,

I cannot imagine why you would want to run ACT and BCM together. They
basically do the same thing.

BCM will communicate with Outlook MUCH better than ACT. There are other
products out in the market that help ACT interface better with Outlook. Go
to www.actaddons.com and visit the email section for your version of ACT to
see a list. Try as they might, the programmers at ACT have never gotten
their "act" together regarding the Outlook interface. It is slow and clunky.

You do not state what version of ACT you are using. If it is ACT 2005/2006,
it is SQL based and you are probably using MSDE to run it on your PC. That
is the same engine that BCM uses which might contribute to the issue of
running both ACT and BCM on the same machine.


While Version 2 of BCM is not nearly as good at managing contacts as ACT is,
Version 3 included in some editions of Office 2007 will be much more ACT
like and unlike ACT, it will be easy to use, faster and have features that
are useful, IMHO. BCM uses the familiar interface of Outlook, so if you know
Outlook, you will pick up BCM much faster.

Bill Rodgers
ACC
Pinpoint Tools
Dallas, TX

 

[Guest]

Check out the solutions at act-to-outlook.com or at act-to-bcm.com

TH

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

There is definitely another way! If you want the most "ACT-like" experience
using Outlook, check out this option as an alternative to using BCM:

www.avidian.com

Prophet does not require a separate contact db like BCM does in its design.
There are no synching issues, etc. There is much more customizability.

-THP