Will the real Contact Manager please stand up !

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I continue to look for a Contact Manager / PIM / CRM / or whatever you want to call it. While there appears to be a lot to choose from, I have not found "the one".

I bought and used many but none has completed the task. The closest include My Data Works (a FileMaker effort that fell behind with FM 7), CRM4Mac (which holds promise but when), Action Items and Personal Organizer. The ideal solution rests with taking pieces of the above and blending them into the perfect Manager.



There are some mega apps like DayLite and other pretenders but they all go way to far in an effort to be all things to all people.



What I want is an address book/scheduler that allows me to keep records of my correspondence (with customizable stationery), email, meeting and phone conversations. Forget group syncing, invoicing, inventory, etc. Keep it simple for one, not a group.



Is there such an app?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    kcmackcmac Posts: 1,051member
    I have Daylite and yes it is a pretty mega app but a good one none the less. I quit using it for awhile but have changed jobs and now find myself going back to it.



    I am interested in what Tiger will bring. Spotlight could do quite a few things for you very well in this regard. Doing a search on a person, you should be able to instantly find all correspondence and meetings with them.



    Don't know about the customizable stationary you are talking about but if the person's name is on it, Spotlight should be able to find it. You can save that search and use it again and again as needed.



    Short of Daylite, I couldn't find anything I really liked. CRM4Mac could be quickly trumped with spotlight or they could use the technology and make it even better. That is a long ways off. Project Center with Office 04 appears to require a lot of setup.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    Sounds like you have done the same research as I, with similar conclusions. I also used DayLite for a while but it is just too heavy for what I want.

    All the developers seem to think the market wants an all-in-one to serve individuals and enterprise users at the same time. I contend there are more individuals than there are corporate users.

    MyDataWorks was clearly the closest to date but thye developer seems to have been scared off by the glut of competition described above. The fact is, nobody is really looking after the individual with the possible exception of CRM4Mac. However, I think changes to OS X and upcoming additions under Tiger seem to be holding them back too.

    I'll keep looking but I guess I should stop holding my breath.
  • Reply 3 of 3
    kcmackcmac Posts: 1,051member
    The thing that bothers me most about Daylite is not really its size. You can use as little or as much of it as you want and filter down pretty quickly to find things. For me, I really like how you can create projects (opportunities) and attach people and ongoing notes/progress to them. You can also tag files to the project or contact. (I have the Business edition so I can't remember the limitations on the personal edition.) I don't even come close to using the entire app and I don't think that is necessarily bad.



    What I don't like is that Daylite doesn't really hook into Addressbook, iCal and Mail. The developers feel that these apps are basically too simple and they more importantly don't trust Apple to really update them as fast as Daylite might need. Plus they stated that there are/were issues with these apps that created shortcomings/conflicts.



    For me, I only want to have one source of contacts, meetings, mail. If I change something in Daylite, I want that to be changing / updating Addressbook, iCal and Mail. I don't want some other database floating around on my harddrive that I have to physically sync together. Daylite syncs nicely but I have to make it happen.



    CRM4Mac is totally dependant on Apples apps and this could be a problem for them. I also find it fairly busy to find info quickly. I just can't get it to set up for me the way I can with Daylite for what I do.



    I was a user of ACT so this probably explains some of my comfort with Daylite.



    If nothing else, you may see what AddressBook can do for you. If you include enough in the notes and customize it for you, you might be surprised at how quickly and easily it can organize things for you. It has a great search feature already. Type a name, phone number, note etc and it will find the contact instantly.



    I still think Spotlight might be big for most of us.
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