WHY OH WHY?

[Guest]

WHY OH WHY is it not possible to email a client regarding an opportunity
directly from the opportunity window with the new history item button?

WHY OH WHY can I not see the contact information of the client for which
that opportunity exists directly in the opportunity window?

This is driving me crazy! When I have an opportunity open and I want to
call the client, I have to look up their contact informaition, then email
them, then go back to my sent items folder and then click to link the email
to the opportunity after finding the opportunity from a ling list! This is
so time consuming I want to bang my head against a brick wall! If I'm
dealing with a number of clients simultaneously I'll have 10 windows open and
no idea what to do next!

Can someone save me from my eventual brain dammage! I must be missing
something, I'm sure it can't be BCM's intent to make it so hard to eamil a
client about an opportunity. Making a phone call is relatively simple,
although I still have to look up the client's number.

 

[Guest]

BY the way I'm using Outlook 2007.

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

Colin911,

Emailing someone using the NEW history item button on an Opportunity record
used to be possible back with BCM v.1. For some reason, this workflow
feature was removed from the BCM Update (v.2) and remains the case also for
the new v3. I believe the thinking may be that you only send an email to a
person. Initiating the workflow process of sending an email via the
Opportunity Record rather than via the Business Contact record is probably
just a navigational choice made by the designers of BCM.

To your other question, you can click on the (1 only) Business Contact record
that is linked to the Opportunity record in order to navigate to that
Business Contact. This used to NOT be a hot link in previous BCM versions
and was an extremely annoying navigational limitation. I used to rail on
about how it always seemed like the designers of BCM never displayed any
evidence of their actual USING this app on a daily basis or else they would
actually be able to detect such navigational snafus. Fortunately this link
field is now a navigatable hotlink in BCM v.3.

For the sake of maintaining simplicity, my main wish is for there to be a
further design improvement that allows the Opportunity record to hotlink to
more than just 1 only Business Contact or Account record at a time. This
multiple item linking functionality does exist with BCM's new Project record
but for some reason this linking restriction remains a limiting navigational
oversight on the BCM Opportunity record.

It is repeatedly stated on this newsgroup that all comments are read and
taken into consideration so one can only hope with the passing of more time
that such basic improvements will eventually come to pass.

-THP

BY the way I'm using Outlook 2007.

WHY OH WHY is it not possible to email a client regarding an opportunity
directly from the opportunity window with the new history item button?

[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]

client about an opportunity. Making a phone call is relatively simple,
although I still have to look up the client's number.

 

[Guest]

Thanks THP,

But how hard would it really be for BCM to look up the various contacts from
the linked account and give you an option if you wanted to email all or just
one of them. Every other solution I have seen give this option. It just
boggles my mind that while there are some great parts to BCM, this part of it
make it SOOOOOO time consuming to use. At lest give us the option of turning
this facility on or off. Any software that make you do things repetitively
should just not reach the market.

Colin911,

Emailing someone using the NEW history item button on an Opportunity record
used to be possible back with BCM v.1. For some reason, this workflow
feature was removed from the BCM Update (v.2) and remains the case also for
the new v3. I believe the thinking may be that you only send an email to a
person. Initiating the workflow process of sending an email via the
Opportunity Record rather than via the Business Contact record is probably
just a navigational choice made by the designers of BCM.

To your other question, you can click on the (1 only) Business Contact record
that is linked to the Opportunity record in order to navigate to that
Business Contact. This used to NOT be a hot link in previous BCM versions
and was an extremely annoying navigational limitation. I used to rail on
about how it always seemed like the designers of BCM never displayed any
evidence of their actual USING this app on a daily basis or else they would
actually be able to detect such navigational snafus. Fortunately this link
field is now a navigatable hotlink in BCM v.3.

For the sake of maintaining simplicity, my main wish is for there to be a
further design improvement that allows the Opportunity record to hotlink to
more than just 1 only Business Contact or Account record at a time. This
multiple item linking functionality does exist with BCM's new Project record
but for some reason this linking restriction remains a limiting navigational
oversight on the BCM Opportunity record.

It is repeatedly stated on this newsgroup that all comments are read and
taken into consideration so one can only hope with the passing of more time
that such basic improvements will eventually come to pass.

-THP

BY the way I'm using Outlook 2007.

WHY OH WHY is it not possible to email a client regarding an opportunity
directly from the opportunity window with the new history item button?

[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]

client about an opportunity. Making a phone call is relatively simple,
although I still have to look up the client's number.

 

[Guest]

I share your pains.
One way I found was to double-click on the contact in the " linked to"
field, then right click on the contact's e-mail address. However, this does
not work (obviously) for opportunities linked to an account. It seems only
natural to initiate a contact process from the opportunity window, as that is
what I check first thing every day to refresh my memory on what is open.
Click on an opportunity, send a reminder/update email, move on to the next
opportunity, RIGHT?

Thanks THP,

But how hard would it really be for BCM to look up the various contacts from
the linked account and give you an option if you wanted to email all or just
one of them. Every other solution I have seen give this option. It just
boggles my mind that while there are some great parts to BCM, this part of it
make it SOOOOOO time consuming to use. At lest give us the option of turning
this facility on or off. Any software that make you do things repetitively
should just not reach the market.

Colin911,

Emailing someone using the NEW history item button on an Opportunity record
used to be possible back with BCM v.1. For some reason, this workflow
feature was removed from the BCM Update (v.2) and remains the case also for
the new v3. I believe the thinking may be that you only send an email to a
person. Initiating the workflow process of sending an email via the
Opportunity Record rather than via the Business Contact record is probably
just a navigational choice made by the designers of BCM.

To your other question, you can click on the (1 only) Business Contact record
that is linked to the Opportunity record in order to navigate to that
Business Contact. This used to NOT be a hot link in previous BCM versions
and was an extremely annoying navigational limitation. I used to rail on
about how it always seemed like the designers of BCM never displayed any
evidence of their actual USING this app on a daily basis or else they would
actually be able to detect such navigational snafus. Fortunately this link
field is now a navigatable hotlink in BCM v.3.

For the sake of maintaining simplicity, my main wish is for there to be a
further design improvement that allows the Opportunity record to hotlink to
more than just 1 only Business Contact or Account record at a time. This
multiple item linking functionality does exist with BCM's new Project record
but for some reason this linking restriction remains a limiting navigational
oversight on the BCM Opportunity record.

It is repeatedly stated on this newsgroup that all comments are read and
taken into consideration so one can only hope with the passing of more time
that such basic improvements will eventually come to pass.

-THP

BY the way I'm using Outlook 2007.

WHY OH WHY is it not possible to email a client regarding an opportunity
directly from the opportunity window with the new history item button?
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
client about an opportunity. Making a phone call is relatively simple,
although I still have to look up the client's number.

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

bwbob,

The stated logic you have posted about your opportunity workflow process
certainly sounds very familiar to me in the real world. I too often check my
opportunities and then will logically navigate from there to initiate a
necessary next action item required for the opportunity. Making workflow
navigation more easy to do from the opportunity record rather than less so
sure makes sense to me.

-THP

I share your pains.
One way I found was to double-click on the contact in the " linked to"
field, then right click on the contact's e-mail address. However, this does
not work (obviously) for opportunities linked to an account. It seems only
natural to initiate a contact process from the opportunity window, as that is
what I check first thing every day to refresh my memory on what is open.
Click on an opportunity, send a reminder/update email, move on to the next
opportunity, RIGHT?

Thanks THP,

[quoted text clipped - 45 lines]

 

[Guest]

Agreed. Ii wonder why MS is not responding to this post? SUrely this has
been brought up before as it is diffferent from any other similar small CRMs
I have seen.

bwbob,

The stated logic you have posted about your opportunity workflow process
certainly sounds very familiar to me in the real world. I too often check my
opportunities and then will logically navigate from there to initiate a
necessary next action item required for the opportunity. Making workflow
navigation more easy to do from the opportunity record rather than less so
sure makes sense to me.

-THP

I share your pains.
One way I found was to double-click on the contact in the " linked to"
field, then right click on the contact's e-mail address. However, this does
not work (obviously) for opportunities linked to an account. It seems only
natural to initiate a contact process from the opportunity window, as that is
what I check first thing every day to refresh my memory on what is open.
Click on an opportunity, send a reminder/update email, move on to the next
opportunity, RIGHT?

Thanks THP,

[quoted text clipped - 45 lines]

client about an opportunity. Making a phone call is relatively simple,
although I still have to look up the client's number.

 

[Guest]

I share the same frustration. I'm bouncing around all over the place. Every
time I send a new email to my opportunity contact, I have to jump over to
Sent items and link the outgoing msg to the opportunity. It's strange to me
that you can easily link incoming emails to opportunities, but you can't link
an outgoing email while you're composing it.

I also agree that new history items should include new email message.

I don't understand the Email Autolink feature at all. It seems to just link
all emails from a person to that same person.

 

[Guest]

A lack of a phone number on the Opportunity screen drives me crazy too. The
only (crummy) solution I've found is to open Outlook twice, half-size each
Outlook on my screen, move them side-by-side, and set one to Opportunity and
one to Contacts.

 

[ScottP]

Forgive me for rehashing a probably over-talked subject, but I am new to BCM
and was never a real user of Outlook except for syncing my schedule with my
pda...

I'm using 2003 BCM and the lack of a phone number on the Opportunity screen
is simply ridiculous IMO. I haven't found a real use for the "Competition"
field, so I started listing a contact phone number in that field, then from
the Opportunities directory I selected "Customize Current View, then
Fields>User-defined fields and added "Competition". Finally, I edited that
column and relabeled it to read "Phone Number". Now at least, the phone
number shows up on the screen.

I am just starting to fully implement BCM. Is there any significant
advantage to upgrade to 2007? Are sent vcards compatible with 2003?

Thanks from a newbie.

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

Scott,

I found both BCM versions 1 & 2 intolerable and impossible to use. Version 3,
though not perfect, is much improved and I can actually use it. It has field
customization and additional folder functions. I would recommend the
upgrade without hesitation.

-THP

Forgive me for rehashing a probably over-talked subject, but I am new to BCM
and was never a real user of Outlook except for syncing my schedule with my
pda...

I'm using 2003 BCM and the lack of a phone number on the Opportunity screen
is simply ridiculous IMO. I haven't found a real use for the "Competition"
field, so I started listing a contact phone number in that field, then from
the Opportunities directory I selected "Customize Current View, then
Fields>User-defined fields and added "Competition". Finally, I edited that
column and relabeled it to read "Phone Number". Now at least, the phone
number shows up on the screen.

I am just starting to fully implement BCM. Is there any significant
advantage to upgrade to 2007? Are sent vcards compatible with 2003?

Thanks from a newbie.

A lack of a phone number on the Opportunity screen drives me crazy too.
The

[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]

 

[ScottP]

Thanks. Can I run BCM v3 without upgrading the rest of the Office Suite to
2007? I've worked with Excel & Word 07 a bit and don't care for it.

Scott,

I found both BCM versions 1 & 2 intolerable and impossible to use.
Version 3,
though not perfect, is much improved and I can actually use it. It has
field
customization and additional folder functions. I would recommend the
upgrade without hesitation.

-THP

Forgive me for rehashing a probably over-talked subject, but I am new to
BCM
and was never a real user of Outlook except for syncing my schedule with
my
pda...

I'm using 2003 BCM and the lack of a phone number on the Opportunity
screen
is simply ridiculous IMO. I haven't found a real use for the
"Competition"
field, so I started listing a contact phone number in that field, then
from
the Opportunities directory I selected "Customize Current View, then
Fields>User-defined fields and added "Competition". Finally, I edited
that
column and relabeled it to read "Phone Number". Now at least, the phone
number shows up on the screen.

I am just starting to fully implement BCM. Is there any significant
advantage to upgrade to 2007? Are sent vcards compatible with 2003?

Thanks from a newbie.

A lack of a phone number on the Opportunity screen drives me crazy too.
The

[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]

client about an opportunity. Making a phone call is relatively simple,
although I still have to look up the client's number.

 

[Luther]

Thanks. Can I run BCM v3 without upgrading the rest of the Office Suite to
2007? I've worked with Excel & Word 07 a bit and don't care for it.

Scott,

I found both BCM versions 1 & 2 intolerable and impossible to use.
Version 3,
though not perfect, is much improved and I can actually use it. It has
field
customization and additional folder functions. I would recommend the
upgrade without hesitation.

-THP

Forgive me for rehashing a probably over-talked subject, but I am new to
BCM
and was never a real user of Outlook except for syncing my schedule with
my
pda...
I'm using 2003 BCM and the lack of a phone number on the Opportunity
screen
is simply ridiculous IMO. I haven't found a real use for the
"Competition"
field, so I started listing a contact phone number in that field, then
from
the Opportunities directory I selected "Customize Current View, then
Fields>User-defined fields and added "Competition". Finally, I edited
that
column and relabeled it to read "Phone Number". Now at least, the phone
number shows up on the screen.
I am just starting to fully implement BCM. Is there any significant
advantage to upgrade to 2007? Are sent vcards compatible with 2003?
Thanks from a newbie.
A lack of a phone number on the Opportunity screen drives me crazy too.
The
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
client about an opportunity. Making a phone call is relatively simple,
although I still have to look up the client's number.

- Show quoted text -

It may be possible to run mixed Office apps, but I suspect that would
fall in the non-supported category. I know BCM v3 has add-ins for Word
and Publisher that probably do not work with versions earlier than 07.

 

[ScottP]

Thanks. Can I run BCM v3 without upgrading the rest of the Office Suite
to
2007? I've worked with Excel & Word 07 a bit and don't care for it.

message

Scott,

I found both BCM versions 1 & 2 intolerable and impossible to use.
Version 3,
though not perfect, is much improved and I can actually use it. It has
field
customization and additional folder functions. I would recommend the
upgrade without hesitation.

ScottP wrote:
Forgive me for rehashing a probably over-talked subject, but I am new
to
BCM
and was never a real user of Outlook except for syncing my schedule
with
my
pda...

I'm using 2003 BCM and the lack of a phone number on the Opportunity
screen
is simply ridiculous IMO. I haven't found a real use for the
"Competition"
field, so I started listing a contact phone number in that field, then
from
the Opportunities directory I selected "Customize Current View, then
Fields>User-defined fields and added "Competition". Finally, I edited
that
column and relabeled it to read "Phone Number". Now at least, the
phone
number shows up on the screen.

I am just starting to fully implement BCM. Is there any significant
advantage to upgrade to 2007? Are sent vcards compatible with 2003?

Thanks from a newbie.

A lack of a phone number on the Opportunity screen drives me crazy
too.
The
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
client about an opportunity. Making a phone call is relatively
simple,
although I still have to look up the client's number.

- Show quoted text -

It may be possible to run mixed Office apps, but I suspect that would
fall in the non-supported category. I know BCM v3 has add-ins for Word
and Publisher that probably do not work with versions earlier than 07.

Thanks again. I upgraded to Office Small Business 2007 over the weekend.
While I still hate Word and Excel 2007, Outlook and especially BCM are far
superior as mentioned. I'm looking forward to using it.