Contact Manager

[cacatous]

I noticed on the US Site that they have a new product called Contact Manager.

After reading the features it is exactly what I am looking for to replace ACT.

Unfortunately it is not available in the UK and the UK office doesn't have a sales contact in the US I can email to find out more...

Does anyone have any experience with dealing with the US or a contact I can email?

[Oleg]

I have no contact you can e-mail to. However, I do have a phone number of Intuit US Sales dept.
800-446-8848
If you are not able to call 800 numbers, here is the local one:
520-901-3220
I would personally recommend you before buying the QB Customer Manager make sure it's going to work with your version of QB.
Good luck

[cacatous]

Well I don't use Quickbooks but this software is able to run standalone so that is why I'm interested!

Is there anyone in the US that can make the call for me and ask -

1. Can I buy it from the US for use in the UK?
2. Is there any regional specific reason why I can't use it here (like Zip Codes and Dial Codes and $ not £)

Otherwise I don't see why not!

[Oleg]

I was doing beta testing of QB CM. I do not see any reason why you won't be able to use it in UK. :)
Good luck

[cacatous]

Ah brilliant! Why oh why don't they make it available in the UK eh?

Think I'll call them and place an order!

Have you used ACT? Can you compare them at all?

[Oleg]

I have not used ACT. Thus, I can't compare 'em at all.
The problem you might get yourself in is since you can't buy QB CM in UK, you might not be able to get tech support, unless intuit will offer chat- or e-mail support. You might want to check it up

[cacatous]

Not sure why people really need technical support.

Unless something goes hideously wrong in which case I will send it back.

Users experience is worth 1000 times more than any tech support anyway!

[Oleg]

:))))))))))))))

[cacatous]

Their contact page wasn't very useful. They just pointed me to the UK page!

Grrrr. Is there anywhere else apart from Intuit directly that I can buy this software?

[Oleg]

I do ont think so. Most likelly not yet, because it is fearly new software. Here is their sales department phone number:
520-901-3220
You can contact them directly.

[cacatous]

Damn they're helpful!

Should be expecting a copy in the next few days!!

Their sales team had never heard of Customer Manager though! Maybe some product awareness is in order eh?

Also $79.95 is a launch price. It will be going up to $249.99 soon!!

[Page]

Keep us posted on what it's like

[Oleg]

Well, good thing you are buying it now. Time to save some money
:)

[pmlinc]

Software support is important with Intuit software as problems are often critical but subtle and often dont appear until after the 30/60 days are up. The QB VAT tussles documented elsewhere on this forum is a prime example.

That said when Intuit software is fully working its very good.

[cacatous]

It's only been released a week so no wonder no ones heard of it!

If it really is that good then I'm gonna push for it to be available here and try and get some kickback for it ;)

They said that I could order online and they would take care of it for me but having issues as I only have the choice of US or Canada and I don't want them to screw it up!

Will let you all know what it's like. Having a good feeling about it!

PS. If it's not what I thought then they said I could return it!

[hartford]

Hi cacatous
I use ACT and I find it pretty comprehensive. Why are you replacing it?

[cacatous]

It's ok but it's very team sales oriented.

I deal with individuals who own shops, not corporates etc...

Therefore I don't have a sales pipeline etc, I need to manage a marketing list,

I like a dashboard so I know exactly whats going on with each customer -

And a per customer to do list!

http://quickbooks.intuit.com/commerce/common/images/quickbooks/screenshots/customer_manager_1.gif

[cacatous]

Woohoo! It is now ordered and should arrive within the next two (?!?!?!) weeks.

Why does a parcel take 2 weeks to get to the UK? Is it coming by speedboat?

[cacatous]

I have finally received Customer Manager ver.1!!

Here is a quick run down of the features with PROs and CONs to each...

Yes it is a little buggy but it is a version 1 release!


IMPORTING:

PROs:
Quick
Many sources of import (Outlook, csv etc).
Can create new fields to suite!

CONs:
Files all contacts by name when I like them as Company and doesn't give you the choice before importing.
Will not let you create an Address 3 field.


SCHEDULING:

PROs -
Easy to use.
Can use Outlook Calendars.

CONs -
30 minute incremements only (not configurable to 10mins etc).
Always starts time at 12am.
Does not let you go to the contact when appointment reminder dialogue pops up
Can't schedule calls (Just appointments).
Have to use American date system otherwise it lets you schedule, then if you go back it says appointment is in the past :(


CORRESPONDENCE:

PROs:
Can track all correspondence such as letters, emails and CALLS!

CONs:
Current bug doesn't track email history.
Can't email to a group.

[cacatous]

Is no one interested in this?

Oleg, I have sent of a ton of feature requests and bugs to the Intuit response form but haven't heard anything back like an aknowledgement or thank you.

Is there someone at Intuit I can email to see if these bugs/features are being worked on or are known?

[Oleg]

As far as I know you can email to beta@intuit.com
How do you like QB CM?

[cacatous]

I like it a lot!

They just need to add a few features which would help to tie things up and track stuff.

Nothing major so they should be achievable!

There are a number of bugs but that is to be expected.

Also it runs a bit slow butI'm sure that will speed up with further optimisation and database tweaking...

I'll email beta@intuit.com and see what they say!

[Oleg]

I am interested in what are you going to get as an answer from them. Could you post it here, please?

[cacatous]

Sure no problem!

Why are you interested then? Do you not think they will answer or something?

[Oleg]

I was doing the beta testing of QB CM for them. I think they're very open-minded. I would like to see how they work with regular users

[cacatous]

You missed a few things ;)

[Oleg]

Well, I found over 20 problems and submited about 15 suggestions during the beta period. most of those problems were resolved

[Oleg]

But I definitely missed a few things :)

[cacatous]

Not many bugs but...


When I send an email

Doesn't update the history box

--------------------------------

When I choose the names view and sort by Company, leave the screen then return

Everything is sorted by names again.

--------------------------------

When I click on up and down arrows for the appointment times

Sometimes crashes QBCM

--------------------------------

[cacatous]

and for the requests...


To be able to able to add fields to the names view screen and move fields to suit.

e.g showing company first then name etc...

---------------

To be able to change the calendar to have smaller time increments so I can schedule calls every five or ten minutes instead of having to manually adjust the times.

---------------

To be able to specifically add a new 'call' instead of having to schedule them as Appointments or To Do's..

---------------

To be able to send an email to a group or do a look up based on contents of a field (e.g if there was a checkbox and it was ticked)

---------------

A 'Go To Contact' button on the reminder dialogue box for appointments. Also it would be useful to have the phone number there too..

---------------


When making an appointment, can it not automatically take the current time and start the appointment time from that? Otherwise it keeps starting from 12am!

---------------

To be able to click on the web address of a customer so it opens a Web Browser window..

---------------

[Oleg]

When I click on up and down arrows for the appointment times

Sometimes crashes QBCM



What error are you getting?

[cacatous]

An unhandled exception has occured in your application. If you click continue, the application will ignore this error and attept to continue. If you click Quit, the application will be shut down immediately.

Handle is not initialized

************** Exception Text **************
System.InvalidOperationException: Handle is not initialized.
at System.Runtime.InteropServices.GCHandle.Free()
at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.set_Enabled(Boolean value)
at DevExpress.XtraEditors.Controls.XtraScrollBar.OnMo useUp(MouseEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage (Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(M essage& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

[Oleg]

I had that error too and I never was able to figure out the exact cause of that problem :(

[cacatous]

Looks like there was a an event relalted to clicking or double clicking the scrollbar but it hasn't been defined hence the message.

I'm sure if someone opened it up again in Visual.NET it would become clear...

Still no reply from beta@intuit...

[Oleg]

Any news?

[cacatous]

nope... I thought they were very customer oriented?

[Oleg]

They are. But they finished QB CM beta and now they are dunning multiple (but different) beta projects. They are not replying to each bug or suggestion submittion even during Beta tests - that's not something they're promissed to do. I was just hoping you will be contacted for some additional information. If they won't contact you, that most likelly means they are aware of that issues

[cacatous]

Well I have made a list of about 20 features that would make it a lot better. Not big features that would take months but small features like automatically adding an email send history instead of the cumbersome drag and drop method, being able to select which email address for a contact you want to send to etc...

Some acknowledgement would be nice and perhaps a forum so we can see the progress or further bugs/features can be highlighted...

Oh well =(

[Oleg]

Here is a link you can send those suggestions to Intuit:

http://quickbooks.intuit.com/commerce/common/fragments/feedback.jhtml?priorityCode=0273400000

I like the idea of Beta testers forum - never saw that implemented.

[cacatous]

Intuit provide you with a specific QBCM page for features and bugs...

Maybe you could email them with that suggestion seeing that you were a beta tester in the past?

[Oleg]

The QB CM Beta was over on 9/05/03. They are not accepting anything else from Beta Testers after that date :(

[gibbo]

We have just been approached to solve an issue for a US client. They have purchased Contact Manager and find that if any field that you are trying to import, such as the phone number, is blank, it doesn't import the customer at all. As they have around 15,000 customers in their list, this is a bit much to fix manually. We can extract their list and write "unknown" into the fields that are empty, but has anyone come across this and is there an answer?

[VictoriaE]

Would like to follow Cacatous' lead and order the Customer Manager software, but I am going round in circles (0800 numbers, queues, ten-minute wait times, "only delivered to US and Canada, etc). Was there any success? How was it done? At what time of day? TIA for any suggestions.

[cacatous]

You can buy my copy if you like. I am joining with another company so the software is a bit redundant now :(

I really like the product and I can post it to you!

[VictoriaE]

Hmmm. Having just read all of your (and Oleg's) posts on this subject, it seems that this product has "come before its time into this breathing world scarce half made up". Did Intuit resolve any of your problems/suggestions?

As something to play with and, ultimately, upgrade, it might be useful, but, reading your findings, it could be more trouble than it's worth. Price?

[cacatous]

I'll be honest and say that Intuit haven't fixed any of the problems yet but they are not show stoppers and more related to my workflow.

I will sell it to you for £50

[VictoriaE]

As you don't accept email from forum members and I'm reluctant to broadcast my email address, I asked the administrator to forward a telephone number so that we can finalise the transaction. Did you get it? if not, how can we proceed?

[cacatous]

My email address is steve at wh1 dot biz

[Oleg]

Release 1.0b removes an unwanted software expiration date in QuickBooks Client/Customer Manager Release 1.0
This update may be applied from within the Manager by going to File, update product.
Manual updates and release notes are available at:

http://www.quickbooks.com/support/index/ndxw_qb_customer_mgr_updates.html

[cacatous]

Is that all they fix? Oooh! Worth the upgrade then...

So when are they going to upgrade properly?

[Oleg]

I think they fixed much more than that, but I can't find any information about what exactly was fixed.

[weewillie]

Just to let you know
UK QB does not support ACT
something to do with the SDK in the UK being incompatible with the US version
Now ACT has been bought by Sage, I wouldn't think it likely that integration will happen in the future either

If you need CRM software, ACT is excellent

[bliguy]

I've just downloaded the trial of QB CM, and I've immediately seen a limitation that would be a problem for me. I'm wondering if I'm missing anything, or if the functionality is really not there.

It seems that the database functionality is severely limited and not very customizable. For example, the system will allow you to add custom fields into its "database". To do this, you need to click on the "Add Field" button. Once you do that, you can choose from the pre-defined fields or create your own. I needed to create my own... the problem that I found is the type of field you can create... It is limited to: Text, Checkbox, Date, Phone Number, Email Address, Mailing Address, and Number. This is very limited!

My main concern is this: I will be running a delivery service with repeat customers, usually every week but possibly every other week and sometimes they will not be on a regular schedule and they will call for delivery. I would like to customize a field with a dropdown menu (from what I can see, you can't create dropdown menus ) that says "Weekly", "Every Other Week", or "Call to Schedule Pickup"
I would also like to have another field called "Pickup day", that also has a drop down box that gives you the choice of the days of the work week.

Here is the kicker though: I would like the database to somehow read that information, and automatically put those customers into the calender for me, so every morning I know which customers are scheduled for pickup that day.

I don't think this is an unreasonalbly hard task, yet I'm not finding a software that totally suits my needs. Does anyone have any ideas?