Newbie BCM questions...

[George]

I just upgraded to Outlook 2003 BCM, and wondered if anyone could help with
this elementary question:

1) Do I need to "import" my Outlook contacts? Down the left side under "My
Contacts", it has several things like "Contacts", "Accounts in BCM", and
"Business Contacts in BCM"....but when I click on the last two, they are
empty. What are selections to make after File > Import > ????

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

You can Ctrl+drag your contacts to the Business Contacts folder to copy them
into the BCM database.

 

[BigDog]

Now it would be nice that I could use ActiveSync to sync my contacts in
the BCM contacts and the ones in my default contacts for Outlook to one
device. This way I would not have to copy them into two different
folders.

Sue, do you know if this will be addressed?
Thanks
Mark

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Microsoft is well aware of the need and apparently plans to add it. See
http://blogs.officezealot.com/cardoza/archive/2004/11/17/3412.aspx

 

[George]

Thank you Sue,

Does this mean that, under 'My Contacts' in Outlook, I will now have TWO
databases...one for "Contacts" and one for "Business Contacts in BCM?"

If so, isn't that sort of a violation of the database rule...the same info
in TWO places? It looks like if I update Sam Jones' phone number in
Contacts, it DOES NOT get updated in "Business Contacts in BCM". Am I doing
something wrong? So that's really two separate databases.

I just wondered, if this is the case, how others manage this delima. One of
reason's I got BCM was to *consolidate* my papers, ACT!, Outlook, Palm...
all into one ...and the idea is that the *one* would be Outlook along with
BCM's capability to also record things like business notes, accounts,
opportunities, etc.

Thanks,
George

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Yes, exactly. You can use it however you like -- putting all the data in one
or the other; or part in one, part in the other; etc.

I'm not consolidation is BCM's strong suit. Tracking, yes, but not
consolidation.

 

[BigDog]

Then It is almost totally useless. I will not manually keep two
databases updated. This is just not exceptable. What were the
developers of this product thinking? What were the managers of this
product thinking?

If I designed "integrated solutions" like Microsoft did my company
would be out of business.

I hope they fix this bad design soon.