Phone Journal

[Charles Banks]

Is BCM suppose to track phone calls in it's history? By default, all
contacts come up with "Create Journal Entry......" deselected. Unlike
Outlook Contacts, I can't find a way to change that. In addition, the
information goes into the Journal Folder; shouldn't it go into Account
History?

Thanks
Charles

 

[Tim P via OfficeKB.com]

Charles,

BCM shares Outlook's interface and the record objects intentionally appear
very similiar, there are a few workflow differences with respect to creating
and tracking phone call history. Under the BCM folder tree is the folder
titled "Business History" which is the cousin to native Outlook's Journal
folder. Within an open Business Contact Record you can just click on the NEW
button in the bottom section titled Business Contact History Items. Select
Phone Log and then make your entry. Another way is to click on the "New
Phone Log" icon in the BCM toolbar at the top of your screen and after
entering your log just click "Link to Record" at the top toolbar and select
accordingly. Once a Phone Log is "journaled" into the Business History
Folder it also displays within the Business Contact record's history items
section that you linked it to. If that Business Contact is also linked to an
Account record your phone log will also display there and indicate which
contact it is linked to. To answer your question, this phone log goes into
all of these history areas at once.

I am not sure if you are new to BCM or not but there is very helpful Quick
Start Guide available that should further clarify. In your Outlook
Navigation Pane's folder list, click on the main Business Contact Manager
folder and then click on Read Quick Start Guide. You can then select from a
wide number of topics to review. There are some helpful diagrams which
outline how to link items and how linked items relate to each other.

Hope this helps.

-THP

 

[Charles Banks]

Tim,
I am a Network Consultant and have used Outlook extensively for years. One
issue that I always run into is most of my accounts have several people who
I have contact information on. In addition, various people will call me
from an account or I need to call them. All of these contacts were
defaulted to Journal phone calls and I would be able place the call and
start the timer. At the end of the call I would stop the timer and make
notes about the call. If I was being called from someone I would still go
through the motions of placing the call to get to the point of starting the
timer. The two advantages to doing it this ways is you start the journal
along with the phone call and link the journal to the contact.

The reason I wrote all this is to clearify what I am trying to accomplish.
I am new to BCM but have reasearched it for while. I use an Exchange Server
so it was a non-issue until now. Being a consultant, I went through the
quick start and even some of the tutorials. I did see the option to create
a phone log from either the business contact, business account or history.
I also understand and have linked the calls to an account. I guess what I
am asking is, isn't there an easier way to track phone calls? I thought
maybe I missed a setup somewhere that would allow me to do the same thing in
contacts becuase this seems like a lot of work to make my job easier.

Tim, now that I wrote all of this, would you please let me know if this is
the only way and I cannot just click 'call..............' like you do in
contacts.

Thanks
Charles

 

[Tim P via OfficeKB.com]

Charles,

If I understand your comments correctly, you are making Journal Phone Call
logs in Outlook from within an open Outlook Contact Record via clicking on
the ACTIONS button of the toolbar and then selecting "Call Contact" from the
picklist which concurrently creates a completed Phone Log. Then all you do
is start and stop the timer accordingly. This is a standard Outlook Call Log
workflow procedure and you CAN also do this exact same step procedure from
within a Business Contact Record if you are willing to live with some
navigation issues. What you will end up with by doing this however is
originating a link FROM a native BCM item (The Business Contact Record) TO a
native Outlook item (The Phone Log Record within the Outlook Journal). This
resulting link will only be 1 way navigatable "FROM" the Contact indicated in
the link field located in the lower left corner of the Journal Record to open
the linked Business Contact Record by clicking on it. This is an "Outlook
item link" only and will display in the various Outlook Journal views but
there will be no trace of this link in order to navigate back to the Outlook
Phone Call log FROM the Business Contact Record. The linked item does not
reside within the BCM MSDE db but rather it resides of course within the
Outlook Journal folder. That is why in order to create a similar Business
History record (Journal's cousin) you have to create a native BCM history
item titled "Business Phone Log." (You will note of course that this record
item is a simpler form with fewer fields to populate and also contains a
static date & time stamp that cannot later be modified) In order for any
Business Contact or Account linked phone logs to be displayed and fully
accessed inside of the BCM data base, you have to use the Business History
Folder in BCM rather than the native Outlook Journal folder. This will
enable 2 way navigation between these linked items.

You can track your phone calls either way but one way has more (dare I even
say this at the risk of seeming negative?) "limitations" than the other way.
You have to work with what this db add-in program gives you to work with. I
do hope this isn't too confusing of a post and I would reccommend trial &
error experimentation to clarify and determine what works best for you.

-THP

Tim,
I am a Network Consultant and have used Outlook extensively for years. One
issue that I always run into is most of my accounts have several people who
I have contact information on. In addition, various people will call me
from an account or I need to call them. All of these contacts were
defaulted to Journal phone calls and I would be able place the call and
start the timer. At the end of the call I would stop the timer and make
notes about the call. If I was being called from someone I would still go
through the motions of placing the call to get to the point of starting the
timer. The two advantages to doing it this ways is you start the journal
along with the phone call and link the journal to the contact.

The reason I wrote all this is to clearify what I am trying to accomplish.
I am new to BCM but have reasearched it for while. I use an Exchange Server
so it was a non-issue until now. Being a consultant, I went through the
quick start and even some of the tutorials. I did see the option to create
a phone log from either the business contact, business account or history.
I also understand and have linked the calls to an account. I guess what I
am asking is, isn't there an easier way to track phone calls? I thought
maybe I missed a setup somewhere that would allow me to do the same thing in
contacts becuase this seems like a lot of work to make my job easier.

Tim, now that I wrote all of this, would you please let me know if this is
the only way and I cannot just click 'call..............' like you do in
contacts.

Thanks
Charles

Charles,

[quoted text clipped - 40 lines]

 

[Charles Banks]

Tim,
This is very important to me and I really appreciate your time on the
responses. If you don't mind, I would like to ask you to pursue this a
little more.

You do understand my comments and what I am trying to do. I have found that
I can go into "Call Contact" from both the Business Contact or Business
Account Record. The "issue" or concern at this point is I need to keep
checking "Create New Journal Entry...." where as from within Outlook
Contacts I could select contacts to always journal by default. I say
concern because that is what lead to my initial question "Is BCM suppose to
track phone calls..." . In addition, I see that the calls do go into my
journal, but it is the same way as before.

So what you are saying is I use the Contact Link in the phone journal and
Select Business Contacts or Accounts and the name. Then in my Outlook
journal I can view by Contact (the linked info) and keep history that way.
In addition, doing it this way, my history would still be in the Journal but
I will have my grouping by account. The other option is to use the BCM
Phone Log which will keep history in BCM, but requires addition steps to
call and log a phone call.

If all this is correct, then I do understand and have my answer.
Your opinion; does it make sense that calls in BCM are not journaled by
default?

Again, Many thanks for your responses.
Charles

Charles,

If I understand your comments correctly, you are making Journal Phone Call
logs in Outlook from within an open Outlook Contact Record via clicking on
the ACTIONS button of the toolbar and then selecting "Call Contact" from
the
picklist which concurrently creates a completed Phone Log. Then all you
do
is start and stop the timer accordingly. This is a standard Outlook Call
Log
workflow procedure and you CAN also do this exact same step procedure from
within a Business Contact Record if you are willing to live with some
navigation issues. What you will end up with by doing this however is
originating a link FROM a native BCM item (The Business Contact Record) TO
a
native Outlook item (The Phone Log Record within the Outlook Journal).
This
resulting link will only be 1 way navigatable "FROM" the Contact indicated
in
the link field located in the lower left corner of the Journal Record to
open
the linked Business Contact Record by clicking on it. This is an "Outlook
item link" only and will display in the various Outlook Journal views but
there will be no trace of this link in order to navigate back to the
Outlook
Phone Call log FROM the Business Contact Record. The linked item does not
reside within the BCM MSDE db but rather it resides of course within the
Outlook Journal folder. That is why in order to create a similar Business
History record (Journal's cousin) you have to create a native BCM history
item titled "Business Phone Log." (You will note of course that this
record
item is a simpler form with fewer fields to populate and also contains a
static date & time stamp that cannot later be modified) In order for any
Business Contact or Account linked phone logs to be displayed and fully
accessed inside of the BCM data base, you have to use the Business History
Folder in BCM rather than the native Outlook Journal folder. This will
enable 2 way navigation between these linked items.

You can track your phone calls either way but one way has more (dare I
even
say this at the risk of seeming negative?) "limitations" than the other
way.
You have to work with what this db add-in program gives you to work with.
I
do hope this isn't too confusing of a post and I would reccommend trial &
error experimentation to clarify and determine what works best for you.

-THP

Tim,
I am a Network Consultant and have used Outlook extensively for years.
One
issue that I always run into is most of my accounts have several people
who
I have contact information on. In addition, various people will call me
from an account or I need to call them. All of these contacts were
defaulted to Journal phone calls and I would be able place the call and
start the timer. At the end of the call I would stop the timer and make
notes about the call. If I was being called from someone I would still go
through the motions of placing the call to get to the point of starting
the
timer. The two advantages to doing it this ways is you start the journal
along with the phone call and link the journal to the contact.

The reason I wrote all this is to clearify what I am trying to accomplish.
I am new to BCM but have reasearched it for while. I use an Exchange
Server
so it was a non-issue until now. Being a consultant, I went through the
quick start and even some of the tutorials. I did see the option to
create
a phone log from either the business contact, business account or history.
I also understand and have linked the calls to an account. I guess what I
am asking is, isn't there an easier way to track phone calls? I thought
maybe I missed a setup somewhere that would allow me to do the same thing
in
contacts becuase this seems like a lot of work to make my job easier.

Tim, now that I wrote all of this, would you please let me know if this is
the only way and I cannot just click 'call..............' like you do in
contacts.

Thanks
Charles

Charles,

[quoted text clipped - 40 lines]

Thanks
Charles