Outlook Vs Business Contact Manager

[nre503]

I am a Realtor, self-employed, one person show. I do not need to share
calendars, nor track inventory. I do like to track my closed sales for
reports.
I have Office 2007 with BCM, but do i need it? Will Outlook without the
add-in meet my needs? What is the difference?
Thanks
Nanci

 

[Luther Blissett]

I am a Realtor, self-employed, one person show.  I do not need to share
calendars, nor track inventory.  I do like to track my closed sales for
reports.
I have Office 2007 with BCM, but do i need it?  Will Outlook without the
add-in meet my needs?  What is the difference?
Thanks
Nanci

Perhaps the most helpful thing in BCM are Opportunities. You can use
an Opportunity for each sale, and track all the associated documents,
emails, etc., through the opportunity. BCM also has built in reports,
that may be good enough for your purposes.

Note that BCM uses more computer resources than just Outlook. If you
have a slow machine, BCM may run too slow to be offset the advantage
of the added features over plain Outlook.

BCM doesn't track inventory, nor share calendars.

 

[Kenneth]

Hi Nanci,

I too am a Realtor. I have used MS Outlook for about 8 years, before that I
use ACT. I cannot find anyone at my company using BCM, nor does our IT Staff
have much of a clue. Anything you can offer would be appreciated.

 

[EmilyL]

What about using the Marketing Campaigns to track who you emailed your open
house announcements, feature sheets, newsletters, and other e-mail blasts to?

Use the History to keep track of all appointments, tasks, and phone
conversations you've had with a contact.

Have you tried to customize your BCM contact form to include information
such as Housing Preferences, Action plan etc.? Then, running your reports
based on these customized fields?

I'm trying to use BCM as a realtor too.