To get the 3 powerful capabilities of a grown-up (well developed) Contact Manager, you first must know what these capabilities are. Then add them to the top of your requirements list when looking for the right Contact Manager.
I have seen a great many Contact Management Systems and some excellent ones. However, it is rare that you find one affording you growth, mobility and multilevel protection. What does this mean! Well, let's look at the first of these powerful capabilities.
Scalability
Let me ask you this? Are you in business to work every hour of your life for all of your life? or are you working towards growing your business so that pretty soon you "manage" your business - that is work on it and not in it - so you can have more free time and a much higher income too?
Of course the latter. Then you must make sure every tool, product and service you assess and purchase for your business, including your Contact Manager, is "scalable" as far as possible. This is more important in the case of a Contact Manager because transition from one system to another is often a long and very painful process.
Scalability means the ability for your Contact Manager to:
* handle more data records
* more simultaneous users
* more data processing
* more backup systems and functionality
* more security levels
* etc
... when your business needs them. That also includes a graded cost structure so you don't pay for a large scale system until you are ready. Here is an education money cannot buy you:
Only a year ago, I wanted to outsource my telemarketing operation to a small company that was only about 50 miles from my location. I needed a Contact Manager so I could work with the external telemarketing team.
The team's tasks were to make the calls, book appointments for me, record requests for sales brochures, etc. I'd then check the tasks they'd assign to me such as go to the appointments and my secretary would send out sales brochures etc.
After a lengthy search, I found a leading system that, kind of ticked all the boxes. It cost only $125 per person ... so I thought I needed 3 licenses! Boy was I wrong.
The vendor said, because the software was to be used in multiple locations, even their "site license" at $25,000 didn't cover my need. They "offered me" their enterprise license at around $45,000! They didn't have a per-user license for multiple locations even though I was prepared to pay much more than $125 for each license.
Here is what you must remember: You "do" want scalability - it is really important. But you shouldn't pay for it until you need it and then, only in proportion to your needs. Hopefully, by now you realize the value of scalability as a powerful feature of your Contact Manager.
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What is the average salary for senior management ...
By: ranshahor | 11-05-2007
What is the average salary for senior management position for mid size company in India
Alternative Software for Outlook
By: Aby | 26-04-2007
I'm looking for a good alternative software to manage my calender and tasks. I have been using Outlook for a long time. I am looking for something new which I can also manage a couple of profiles at once. If someone can post a link to where I can download it I would be very greatful.
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What software would you use for heavy construction - Construction software packages that include job costing, project management, inventory tracking - all in one package?
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What are the best techniques you know about making estimations how long a task would take?
(The question refers to the two different situations - (1) we have already done a similar task and (2) we are doing the task for the first time.)
Looking for a project managament solution
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At my company I need to track the working hours of employees and the materials they use on a daily basis. We handle several projects simultaneously and every employee works on more than one project a day. Within each project there are tasks which require different kind of work. The different kinds of work are paid differently. This is why I need to know how many hours an employee worked on which project and did what kind of work.I tried some project management applications but those were made on the assumption that an employee works on a single project, the same amount of time every day. Furthermore I need to make some reports:(1) project -> employees: I need to have the project divided into kinds of work; then the people who worked on a given kind of work - days + how many hours each day;(2) employee -> project: I need a summary of all the projects an employee worked on for any period of time. I need to see for each projects, on what kind of work he worked, how many days and how many hours each day;'(3) project -> materials used: I need to know what material and how much of it was used by an employee on a daily basis;(4) employee -> materials used.Currently I am using MS Excel to do all this but it requires too much manual work on my side to make the reports (or I simply do not know how to automate it). I have been considering making a MS Access database or using a project management program such as MS Project. However, I have never used those before (except for the few simple project management programs I already tried). What is the most appropriate type of application for my purpose and what is the best software of that type?
Looking for a hosted blog service
By: at2004 | 03-08-2006
I am looking for a hosted blog service with the following characteristics:1. Free or low cost (really).2. WordPress support or other high-end platform.3. Accepting any kind of template with minimum restrictions (this is why i don't care for WordPress.com service).4. Supporting categories (this is why i don't use Blogger, and i know there are hacks for that, but i don't like them either). 5. That doesn't require me to code anything but simple HTML/JS.
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