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MS Business Contact Manager Questions
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 |
#2
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MS Business Contact Manager Questions
1) In my experience, yes, once you get it installed and running, except for
forms cache corruption. Clearing the cache usually fixes it. Choose Tools | Options | Other | Advanced Options | Custom Forms, then click Manage Forms, then Clear Cache. If simply clearing the cache doesn't fix the issue, try the other steps detailed at http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;836558 2) Can't say. Haven't used the other products. The important question is really whether it provides enough of the functionality *you* need. 3) BCM is designed as a standalone product. The update made BCM available to Small Business Server 2003 users. BCM will get service packs like all other Office products. 4) What corruption are you referring to? More BCM answers at http://www.slipstick.com/bcm/bcmfaq.aspx More discussions in the microsoft.public.outlook.bcm newsgroup -- Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP Author of Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx "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 |
#3
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MS Business Contact Manager Questions
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 |
#4
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MS Business Contact Manager Questions
1. Is MS Business Contact Manager a stable product?
it is for me - but as a v1 product, it may be less stable then you would expect. 2. Can anyone give a guesstimate as to the functionality compared to standard contact managers such as ACT and Maximizer. i.e. 50% no idea 3. Can you use BCM standalone without an exchange server and expect MS updates? I noticed the only update requires Exchange and Server 2003. yes, in fact it won't work with an exchange server, without hacks. 4. How do I correct the corruption? Is there a regular update for BCM? no updates yet, although one is expected in SP1. We can't address the corruption without knowing more - also there is a FAQ at slipstick.com and a newsgroup for BCM at microsoft.public.outlook.bcm. -- Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook] Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide) Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide) Outlook Tips: http://www.outlook-tips.net/ Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com "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 |
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MS Business Contact Manager Questions
First let me say thanks I am honored to have 3 MVPs
respond to my questions. Let me make my comments to all 3 below. Obviously, I didn't do enough research before installing BCM, but I thought true integration with Outlook would really make sense. 1. Ok the consensus seems to be that BCM is not quite ready for prime time. I don't know if I am ready for the hassle yet, but I will try a little bit longer before I give up. 2. I wouldn't expect BCM to have the features of any of the products that have been in the market for many years, I was just trying to understand if it did the basics. After doing a bit more research and it seems that while it covers the basics, it doesn't quite have the flexiblity you would expect with Outlook integration. hopefully SP1 makes a big improvement here. 3. It is good that exchange is not required. It is bad that there is uncertainity whether there will be an update for BCM soon. With the instability I have seen, I don't see how anyone could really use it and not spend more time fixing it. 4. I actually have not put any data in yet, the problem I have is that the Business Tools Menu has disappeared. The Slipstick FAQs describes how to fix it, but it seems more complicated than I am interested in, but I have no choice so I will do the steps. Thanks. Geoffry -----Original Message----- 1. Is MS Business Contact Manager a stable product? it is for me - but as a v1 product, it may be less stable then you would expect. 2. Can anyone give a guesstimate as to the functionality compared to standard contact managers such as ACT and Maximizer. i.e. 50% no idea 3. Can you use BCM standalone without an exchange server and expect MS updates? I noticed the only update requires Exchange and Server 2003. yes, in fact it won't work with an exchange server, without hacks. 4. How do I correct the corruption? Is there a regular update for BCM? no updates yet, although one is expected in SP1. We can't address the corruption without knowing more - also there is a FAQ at slipstick.com and a newsgroup for BCM at microsoft.public.outlook.bcm. -- Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook] Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide) Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide) Outlook Tips: http://www.outlook-tips.net/ Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com "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 . |
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