Using Outlook 2003 with BCM for Real Estate?

[Guest]

Is anybody Using Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager as a Realtor? I am wondering if anybody knows of any customization form templates that are available for using this program for Real Estate Sales & transaction management?

I am looking for anything that could help me get up and running faster if I upgrade to this software?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Guest]

Kenny:

BCM is not officially customizable, so at this point what you see is pretty much what you get.

This guy (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/casestudies/CaseStudy.asp?CaseStudyID=14491) is (or was) using BCM as a Realtor, you could call him and ask him how he's doing with it now.

There are also companies that have created Real Estate-specific modifications to Outlook. You can check one out here - http://www.virtualsoftware.com/Prod...REMS)-for-Microsoft-Outlook-software-download

John

 

[Patricia Cardoza [Outlook MVP]]

I provide instructions for customizing BCM forms here.

http://blogs.officezealot.com/cardoza/archive/2004/05/12/652.aspx

--
Patricia Cardoza
Outlook MVP
Author - Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Lead Author - Access 2003 VBA Programmer's Reference
Author - Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft OneNote 2003

http://blogs.officezealot.com/cardoza

Is anybody Using Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager as a Realtor?

I am wondering if anybody knows of any customization form templates that are
available for using this program for Real Estate Sales & transaction
management?

 

[Guest]

Patricia:

Do you have any idea if customizations made to BCM forms will propogate to a newer version of BCM (if, in fact, one ever comes out)? My concern is that if I add some fields and accumulate a lot of data in them I might not be able to easily incorporate that data into a hypothetical, newer version of BCM.

Thanks,
John

 

[Patricia Cardoza [Outlook MVP]]

John,

As far as I know, you should still be able to use your customized forms with
a newer version of BCM (should one come out). However, it's very likely that
you'd need to save those customized forms off somewhere safe (in a Personal
Forms Library under another name) BEFORE you installed the new version of
BCM. The part I'm really not sure of would be the data.

A form is just a shell. Think of it as a coat of paint on your car. You
could paint flames on your car hood and that doesn't change what's under the
hood. However, if you changed what was under the hood, you might need to get
a new larger hood, which would require repainting.

Assuming there is a new version of BCM coming, I believe there would be
people who would write utilities for migrating that data from V.1 to a
future version, database changes in all.

--
Patricia Cardoza
Outlook MVP
Author - Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Lead Author - Access 2003 VBA Programmer's Reference
Author - Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft OneNote 2003

http://blogs.officezealot.com/cardoza

Patricia:

Do you have any idea if customizations made to BCM forms will propogate to

a newer version of BCM (if, in fact, one ever comes out)? My concern is
that if I add some fields and accumulate a lot of data in them I might not
be able to easily incorporate that data into a hypothetical, newer version
of BCM.

 

[John Christian]

Patricia:

Thanks. My fear is that since I would be putting data into a database that
isn't *officially* designed to accomodate it, I would then be taking the
chance that, when and/or if a new version of the database comes along, I
wouldn't be able to move that data to the new database easily. Oh, how I
!!!HATE!!! to re-type things or spend days trying to export/import data from
one database to another. I mean, I really HATE it. Did I mention that I
HATE it? HATE, HATE, HATE! Detest, loathe, dislike, despise, nauseated,
horrified, abhor...

On a more positive note, I do like your OL2003 book and the chapter on BCM.
Now that we're speaking of BCM again, do you know of a newer version coming
to which you can admit? Since you wrote the book and you mention in the
introduction about working with the BCM program manager on the BCM chapter,
you have an 'in' that the rest of us don't. I was really hoping for
something significant in SP1, but alas was disappointed. The complete
dearth, or, if you will, paucity of any public information on a newer
version of BCM leaves me wondering if there will in fact be a newer one any
time soon, if at all. If there is not going to be one sometime soon, I may
decide to stop using it and go to either generic OL (which I can customize
and program to suit my needs), or to a 3rd party program like Prophet or
TabTag...

Thanks,
John

 

[Patricia Cardoza [Outlook MVP]]

John,

I understand your frustration. Microsoft hasn't confirmed anything yet about
the existence of another version of BCM. I would be really surprised if they
didn't have one planned, but I can't say when it might be coming.

I can say, that if you customize BCM, I think it's likely (although not
guaranteed) that there will be ways of getting that data from V.1 BCM to V.2
BCM (again, if such a thing exists). I doubt they will be Microsoft ways,
but there will be ways (insert evil laughter here).

Thanks for buying the book and I'm glad you like it.

--
Patricia Cardoza
Outlook MVP
Author - Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Lead Author - Access 2003 VBA Programmer's Reference
Author - Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft OneNote 2003

http://blogs.officezealot.com/cardoza

 

[John Christian]

Patricia:

Well, thanks for the reply. Again, the complete lack of any information on
a possible V.2 leads me to believe that it is at least 6 months away, and
more likely a year, if they are doing it at all. I can certainly understand
from MS's point of view the reluctance of spending resources to
significantly upgrade a *free* product which could then compete somewhat
with their *not-free* product - CRM. Still, there are some things BCM
*really* needs to be useful as just a stand-alone tool. Sigh.

As for your book, I didn't actually buy it - I won it in a contest over at
Slipstick. There were many books to choose from, though, and I happily
chose yours

John

 

[Patricia Cardoza [Outlook MVP]]

Well, thanks!

--
Patricia Cardoza
Outlook MVP
Author - Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Lead Author - Access 2003 VBA Programmer's Reference
Author - Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft OneNote 2003

http://blogs.officezealot.com/cardoza