1. Relatively. There are problems with it. The most common problem is a
simple one to fix, a forms cache corruption. To fix that go to Tools,
Options, click the Other tab. Click Advanced Options. Click Custom forms,
Manage Forms, Clear Cache.

2. I don't have a true comparison, but ACT is more full featured and has
sharing capabilities. BCM does not currently support sharing. BCM has the
benefit of working within Outlook.

3. Yes, actually BCM doesn't work with an Exchange account. It does work
with SBS (small business server) which has an Exchange component. The update
you're seeing is the update to allow BCM to work with SBS Exchange. There
will be updates to BCM. When Microsoft releases SP1 for Office 2003, there
may very well be a BCM component (although to my knowledge, no definite
information is available on this).

4. See above if you're having a forms cache issue (where the history field
is populated with your Inbox contents). If that's not your issue, post back
with the problems you're seeing. There is a database backup and restore
feature that I highly recommend using at least weekly. No Microsoft updates
have been released for BCM (other than the patch to make it work with SBS)
but I'm sure it would be updated much like other products.

--
Patricia Cardoza
Outlook MVP
www.cardozasolutions.com

Author, Special Edition Using Microsoft Outlook 2003
Author, Absolute Beginner's Guide to OneNote 2003

***Please post all replies to the newsgroups***
"Geoffry" wrote in message
...
I recently upgraded to MS Business Contacts in Office
2003. It has corrupted and crashes regularly and now no
longer loads with Outlook.

My questions a
1. Is MS Business Contact Manager a stable product?

2. Can anyone give a guesstimate as to the functionality
compared to standard contact managers such as ACT and
Maximizer. i.e. 50%

3. Can you use BCM standalone without an exchange server
and expect MS updates? I noticed the only update
requires Exchange and Server 2003.

4. How do I correct the corruption? Is there a regular
update for BCM?

Thanks Geoffry