Same Contact in Different Projects BCM 2007

[Guest]

There is a history to this question in previous versions...

I want to know how to have the same contact in a number of projects. I have
various projects, and some of them have common personnel.

How can I make this happen?

Dave

 

[Guest]

I have the same issue. Hopefully there'll be an easy solution.

 

[Guest]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't understand what the issue is.
With BCM 2007 anyway, I can link multiple Business Projects to the same
Contact, and I can add the same Contact as Related in any number of Projects.
Isn't that what you want to do?

Regards.....Bill Kratz

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

I sure wish the Opportunity Record incorporated this multi contact linking
feature like the new BCM Project record does. What is interesting is that
both the BCM Opportunity and Project Records are derived from the same core
native Outlook Task data item. It is therefore not a question of whether
this CAN be done.

-THP

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't understand what the issue is.
With BCM 2007 anyway, I can link multiple Business Projects to the same
Contact, and I can add the same Contact as Related in any number of Projects.
Isn't that what you want to do?

Regards.....Bill Kratz

There is a history to this question in previous versions...

[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]

Dave

 

[Guest]

Hi Tim -- Can you give a few more details in how you might use this
mutli-linking for Opportunities? Is it primarily that you would like to see
a list (clickable) on the Opportunity form that would show various people
that might be involved in some way with the Opportunity, or is there more to
it. Thanks.

Regards.....Bill Kratz

I sure wish the Opportunity Record incorporated this multi contact linking
feature like the new BCM Project record does. What is interesting is that
both the BCM Opportunity and Project Records are derived from the same core
native Outlook Task data item. It is therefore not a question of whether
this CAN be done.

-THP

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't understand what the issue is.
With BCM 2007 anyway, I can link multiple Business Projects to the same
Contact, and I can add the same Contact as Related in any number of Projects.
Isn't that what you want to do?

Regards.....Bill Kratz

There is a history to this question in previous versions...

[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]

Dave

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

Bill,

Thanks for asking.

In my business I very often have several secondary decision making
influencers involved in the sales process. These influencers are both
individual contacts and sometimes they are an organization. I like to be
very "Opportunity-centric" in my workflow so it is very convenient to have a
clickable list of related contacts or account records for both viewing and
easy navigation. The way that this is set up on the new Business Project
record would also be perfect for the Oppportunity record as well. This
section on the General tab of each Project Record is titled "Related Accounts
and Business Contacts." I would love to see this section duplicated on the
Opportunity record.

When you analyze the comparable functions, successfully managing a Sales
Opportunity process to a successful close is actually in itself a "Project"
to be completed that involves several others with related tasks, meetings,
correspondence, etc. Some 3rd party Outlook CRM programs even use the same
identical record form for both Opportunities and Projects and you just have
to click on a radio button to indicate which way you are going to use the
record and a few displayed field changes are automatically altered
accordingly.

I have long felt that the Opportunity Record should be at the heart of BCM's
effectiveness as a tool. This record has languished as the neglected step
child when in contrast it should be the most feature rich piece of the BCM
puzzle. Making your opportunity record tracking ever more powerful is all
good in my book.

-THP

Hi Tim -- Can you give a few more details in how you might use this
mutli-linking for Opportunities? Is it primarily that you would like to see
a list (clickable) on the Opportunity form that would show various people
that might be involved in some way with the Opportunity, or is there more to
it. Thanks.

Regards.....Bill Kratz

I sure wish the Opportunity Record incorporated this multi contact linking
feature like the new BCM Project record does. What is interesting is that

[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]

 

[Lon Orenstein]

Well said, Mr. Tim... I second his emotion!

Lon

___________________________________________________________
Lon Orenstein
pinpointtools, llc
(e-mail address removed)
Author of Outlook 2007 Business Contact Manager For Dummies
Author of the eBook: Moving from ACT! to Business Contact Manager
800.238.0560 x6104 Toll Free (U.S. only) +1 214.905.0401 x6104
www.pinpointtools.com

Bill,

Thanks for asking.

In my business I very often have several secondary decision making
influencers involved in the sales process. These influencers are both
individual contacts and sometimes they are an organization. I like to be
very "Opportunity-centric" in my workflow so it is very convenient to have
a
clickable list of related contacts or account records for both viewing and
easy navigation. The way that this is set up on the new Business Project
record would also be perfect for the Oppportunity record as well. This
section on the General tab of each Project Record is titled "Related
Accounts
and Business Contacts." I would love to see this section duplicated on
the
Opportunity record.

When you analyze the comparable functions, successfully managing a Sales
Opportunity process to a successful close is actually in itself a
"Project"
to be completed that involves several others with related tasks, meetings,
correspondence, etc. Some 3rd party Outlook CRM programs even use the
same
identical record form for both Opportunities and Projects and you just
have
to click on a radio button to indicate which way you are going to use the
record and a few displayed field changes are automatically altered
accordingly.

I have long felt that the Opportunity Record should be at the heart of
BCM's
effectiveness as a tool. This record has languished as the neglected step
child when in contrast it should be the most feature rich piece of the BCM
puzzle. Making your opportunity record tracking ever more powerful is all
good in my book.

-THP

Hi Tim -- Can you give a few more details in how you might use this
mutli-linking for Opportunities? Is it primarily that you would like to
see
a list (clickable) on the Opportunity form that would show various people
that might be involved in some way with the Opportunity, or is there more
to
it. Thanks.

Regards.....Bill Kratz

I sure wish the Opportunity Record incorporated this multi contact
linking
feature like the new BCM Project record does. What is interesting is
that

[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]

Dave

 

[Guest]

Thanks Tim for the thorough reply. With your comments (and Lon's seconding)
in mind, I've done a little thinking about this. One thing is certain...with
customization of the BCM forms not really possible, we're not going to get
linked Contacts and Accounts right on the forms as we do with the Business
Project form (at least not until the BCM team does it for us). However, we
could do the linking and display it on a "secondary" form. It shouldn't be
too difficult (famous last words!) from what I've looked at so far. The
following link displays a very rough mockup of what we might do.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/whkratz/UberLinking.jpg

Comments and/or suggestions?

Regards.....Bill Kratz

Bill,

Thanks for asking.

In my business I very often have several secondary decision making
influencers involved in the sales process. These influencers are both
individual contacts and sometimes they are an organization. I like to be
very "Opportunity-centric" in my workflow so it is very convenient to have a
clickable list of related contacts or account records for both viewing and
easy navigation. The way that this is set up on the new Business Project
record would also be perfect for the Oppportunity record as well. This
section on the General tab of each Project Record is titled "Related Accounts
and Business Contacts." I would love to see this section duplicated on the
Opportunity record.

When you analyze the comparable functions, successfully managing a Sales
Opportunity process to a successful close is actually in itself a "Project"
to be completed that involves several others with related tasks, meetings,
correspondence, etc. Some 3rd party Outlook CRM programs even use the same
identical record form for both Opportunities and Projects and you just have
to click on a radio button to indicate which way you are going to use the
record and a few displayed field changes are automatically altered
accordingly.

I have long felt that the Opportunity Record should be at the heart of BCM's
effectiveness as a tool. This record has languished as the neglected step
child when in contrast it should be the most feature rich piece of the BCM
puzzle. Making your opportunity record tracking ever more powerful is all
good in my book.

-THP

Hi Tim -- Can you give a few more details in how you might use this
mutli-linking for Opportunities? Is it primarily that you would like to see
a list (clickable) on the Opportunity form that would show various people
that might be involved in some way with the Opportunity, or is there more to
it. Thanks.

Regards.....Bill Kratz

I sure wish the Opportunity Record incorporated this multi contact linking
feature like the new BCM Project record does. What is interesting is that

[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]

Dave

 

[Guest]

GAH!!! It did it again; the forum has inserted characters at the end of the
link. Either delete the extra characters in your browser's address field, or
follow this link:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/whkratz/UberLinking.jpg

 

[Lon Orenstein]

Bill:

You're the best, man! The screenshots look great but the problem I see is
the real linking of the items in each record -- the "rollup" of notes,
tasks, phone logs, et al for each contact record. By the time you write
that to display all those records, you've rewritten BCM! Tim's right when
he says that they did this for Projects -- it shouldn't be that hard to do
it for Opps.

Two cents and a quick reaction...

Lon
___________________________________________________________
Lon Orenstein
pinpointtools, llc
(e-mail address removed)
Author of Outlook 2007 Business Contact Manager For Dummies
Author of the eBook: Moving from ACT! to Business Contact Manager
800.238.0560 x6104 Toll Free (U.S. only) +1 214.905.0401 x6104
www.pinpointtools.com

 

[Guest]

Hi Lon -- Thanks for the input. Since we're dealing with Contacts here, I
think we can do this with native Outlook Contacts linking. That approach
will maintain all the "rollup" of related stuff. That's the kind of linking
that my recent BCM Nexus gizmo for Tasks and Appointments is using. This
approach has the little side benefit that you could, if we wanted to set it
up to do so, link Contacts from other folders besides the BCM Contacts or
Accounts folders.

Regards.....Bill Kratz

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

Bill,

You are a braver man than I. I give you high points and full credit for the
creative effort. A secondary form however seems needlessly complex in terms
of yet one more place to navigate toward. It could be an OK temporary
workaround but it would really be nice in the near future to see a BCM
version 3.1 update directly from the BCM team that contained a simpler
display section identical to the Project Record as I have described above.

-THP

Thanks Tim for the thorough reply. With your comments (and Lon's seconding)
in mind, I've done a little thinking about this. One thing is certain...with
customization of the BCM forms not really possible, we're not going to get
linked Contacts and Accounts right on the forms as we do with the Business
Project form (at least not until the BCM team does it for us). However, we
could do the linking and display it on a "secondary" form. It shouldn't be
too difficult (famous last words!) from what I've looked at so far. The
following link displays a very rough mockup of what we might do.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/whkratz/UberLinking.jpg

Comments and/or suggestions?

Regards.....Bill Kratz

Bill,

[quoted text clipped - 41 lines]