ACT! vs. Outlook

I'll write that contact management is not in Outlook.

But BEWARE using Act in a shared database mode. Unless you have some version that can link to a MySQL (or other SQL) database, you will suffer.

At least someone told you.

Bob

Kayr,

If Outlook was all you needed for CRM, Microsoft wouldn't sell Microsoft CRM, would they. The fact that they do contains the answer to your question.
You might like to compare Act! with the latter product. That might be a fair comparison.

But the description of your need is so vague that there might be quite other solutions that are better suited for you. All I can say is that it seems that is has to be based on a database. Then the issues to consider are:
- what items do I need in the database
- how do we update the database
- what do we want to do with it
- what output is necessary for us
I would advise you to hire a qualified CRM consultant.

Hope this helps.


Kees

Have used both ACT! and Outlook for many years, and make the following choices as to which one to use.

Do you need to easy access, letters, emails, and documents from within the particular access point i.e. Fred Smith's info, if so go with ACT! It is v. easy to customize, re arrange the fields etc.
Easy to set up dialing, and email features. I have never set up faxing from within; the versions I used did not have this feature, had to use WinFax. But I imagine the latest would have this feature built in.
So for a busy business data base ACT! with perhaps Word as your default word processor, the ACT! one was a little - well - basic.
Outlook if you wish to use a basic, but easy to use database, with a v. small learning curve.
I used ACT! since ACT! 1 came out, but only for business at home, and in a home business I now run OutLook for the easy of intergration.
If I increase my work load, or database requirments I would have no hesitation in migrating over to ACT!.
Really the only way to out for you is to run the two systems, and compare your requirments, make YOUR OWN decision based on usage and requirements.
Hope this stimulates some thought and discussion. PK..