wfrance3

Has anyone attempted a solution to sync-ing Information in MS Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2003? As far as I know, Microsoft doesn't support pocket PC synchronization via Active Sync, IntelliLink and Companion Link are both dead-ends, although IntelliLink says they are developing something...

Hopefully there is something out ther I have overlooked.

Best,
WF

wfrance3

Ok! -
I hate to answer my own questions, but I found something that is a bit of a work-around. Using Micosoft PCS (free) You can sync (within outlook 2003) the contacts in "Business Contacts in Business Contacts Manager" folder with your contacts folder (the default contact folder) and Viola! it all of your business contacts can now be sync'ed with your pocket PC. Now If I could just shake the Outlook PCS, Business Contacts category. I'd like to be able to sync my contacts with just my category selection, not the additional Outlook PCS, Business Contacts included. Any suggestions?

Best,
WF

Originally Posted by wfrance3

Has anyone attempted a solution to sync-ing Information in MS Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2003? As far as I know, Microsoft doesn't support pocket PC synchronization via Active Sync, IntelliLink and Companion Link are both dead-ends, although IntelliLink says they are developing something... Hopefully there is something out ther I have overlooked. Best, WF

FLGuppie

WFrance3,

I just got Outlook 2003 with my new PC and installed the Business Outlook Manager with the Outlook software. I haven't hooked my PDA to the new PC yet. We aren't using Business Outlook Mgr at work (yet) and it was interesting to see that there are sync problems with this plugin to Outlook.

Have you used it enough to know if it is worth keeping on my new PC? Since it doesn't sync well (without workarounds) with my X50V then maybe I should uninstall it before I hook up the Axim. What do you think?

wfrance3

The Business Contact Manager For Outlook 2003 is a love-hate deal. It works pretty well as a desktop app. It processes info slower (bigger load) than just the standard outlook setup and provides no advantage on your pocket pc. That's the downside. The upside is that it lends itself quite well to my needs. Our business has around 400 different firms and entities in a two-state area that have multiple contacts for each. The Business Contact Mangager is set up so that a company can be the main record, and individual contact are sub-records.

If your business is set up in such a way that a contact system like that would benefit you, I would try (as I am trying) to work with the business contact manager. If not, it's just excess overhead.

I have found it to not be too bad as long as you know the caveats of the work-arounds:
1) If you want to use BCM with a PDA, you need to download Microsoft PCS and use it to populate your default contact folder with business contacts prior to synchronization with the PDA. So far as I can tell, any info you update in a business contact will be updated in the contact in the default contact folder as well.
2) your default contact folder will pick up two new categories that (as far as I can tell) you can't filter out. All this does is provide search results in triplicate, does not actually make three copies of the given contact(s). A pain, but liveable.
3) Outlook doesn't transfer Birthdays/Aniversaries correctly from business contacts to the contacts in your default Outlook contact folder. If you keep this info on any contact, only put it in the contact in the default outlook contact folder, not the business contct folder contacts. If you do both, duplicate calendar entries will be created.

Birthdays/Aniversaries in the contact folder are updated correctly to the Outlook Calendar on your desktop, so if you don't care about having Birthday/Aniversary info on you Axim, you can post Birthdays/Aniversaries to the Business contact, it just won't transfer via Outlook PCS to contacts in the defautlt contact folder.

There may be more bugs/work-arounds than this. This is just what I have found so far. Not that big of a pain, but would be nicer if it worked cleaner. If It's worth it to have contacts presented in the business contact manager format on your pc rather than the traditional outlook format I would keep BCM. If not, remove BCM and save yourself the overhead.

The newest version of ACT! and lends itself (sort-of) to the business contact manager layout. searching for secondary contacts on the desktop is a little clunky but it's nicer on the pocket PC. It doesn't seem like there is a single app that works gracefully in both worlds, so you have to decide which is your priority; pocket pc or desktop.

Best,
WF

Originally Posted by FLGuppie

WFrance3, I just got Outlook 2003 with my new PC and installed the Business Outlook Manager with the Outlook software. I haven't hooked my PDA to the new PC yet. We aren't using Business Outlook Mgr at work (yet) and it was interesting to see that there are sync problems with this plugin to Outlook. Have you used it enough to know if it is worth keeping on my new PC? Since it doesn't sync well (without workarounds) with my X50V then maybe I should uninstall it before I hook up the Axim. What do you think?

FLGuppie

wfrance3;

thanks for the great info. Sorry for the delay in getting back, I continued to try Business Contact Mgr. and finally decided that it wasn't for me. You're right it is a hog and doesn't provide any benefit to my PDA. I removed it from my PC and I'm going to stick with Outlook without all the steroids.

thanks again for all the great info.

stevenator65

I get the impression that Outlook was originally created to be an address book (besides an email client), and then they decided to turn it into a PIM. However, no matter what they add to it, or how they dress it up, it's still a glorified address book.

A perfect example is this: I have 800 businesses in my Outlook. If I try the regular search it just looks for personal names. I have to use the Advanced Search. Another example is you can't customize fields like you can in Act! So adding a simple Account Number field is impossible! All businesses have Account Numbers! I can't even search on that field either!

This Business Contact Manager stuff gives me the impression that they're just trying to dress it up yet again. But as a pda user and a desktop user it seems that it's not an advancement at all.

It's a shame we're forced to use Outlook. Wouldn't it be something if upon performing the first sync a wizard takes you thru the setup process and asks you which PIM you want to use and which email client? You'd have the choice of Thunderbird, Lotus, Act!, and all the others. Ah, but I'm a dreamer.

Well, I gave up using Act! and have started using Outlook. I crossed over to the Dark Side. It's not all bad. It syncs great w/the Ax. But when they add improvements like the Business Contact Mgr, they have to add the capabilities into the pda as well.

Rant over!