Comments on: While We’re Talking Contact Management…

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:13:25 +0000

I really do think that palm pilot is a very wise investment especially if you buy it via wholesale please note that he password manager Roboform can import contacts from Outlook express.

By: Hana

Hana — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:27:56 +0000

You should take the risk and go with the online crm solution. They usually look way better than the software you download. Seems that you are all about look of the database, so go ahead and check http://www.salesnexus.com

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:36:52 +0000

I was just visiting this contact app. site before landing on your post about contact management. Perhaps you may want to check this site out. I have no affliation, so just something passed along. Good luck. http://www.batchblue.com/index.html

By: Brent Hopkins

Brent Hopkins — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:16:14 +0000

Here’s a little-known ’secret:’ the password manager Roboform can import contacts from Outlook. I use the portable version Roboform2go. It encrypts everything with a master password so no worries if you lose it.

By: sunita

sunita — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 09:16:44 +0000

Well you could not have rounded up better.

Sunita

By: Pamela Poole

Pamela Poole — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 08:36:05 +0000

Hi Tom. Thanks for the tip on Palm Desktop. I wouldn’t have thought of that. It looks like it has potential but for now you have to jump through hoops to export data to an iPhone, which might make me hesitate since I will be going that way in the near future.

Since you can now run Windows on Macs, and the Mac Address Book is so dreamy, I’m pretty convinced that anything Apple is the Holy Grail…

By: Pamela Poole

Pamela Poole — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 08:26:49 +0000

Hi Heather. Lucky girl! Definitely a tasty gadget and nice features too. Something to keep in mind for sure. Thanks!

By: Pamela Poole

Pamela Poole — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 08:23:35 +0000

Hi Fernando. You’re right, somebody could take my bag. It’s giant and orange and probably has “target” written all over it too!

Thanks for the missing features list. Hopefully someone will hear our plea!

By: Pamela Poole

Pamela Poole — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 08:21:04 +0000

Hi Bill. Thanks for your comments. In general, as I said, I have entrusted my personal info to the cloud and its gatekeepers with little or no hesitation because I know you all basically have to offer security to your users if you want to survive!

There’s just the question of other people’s judgment; would you want someone who may not be Internet savvy deciding where to store info about you? You say “many times” the cloud is safer, and I know that, but it’s the few times it may not be that make it wrong (in my view) to make that call for info that you don’t own.

I have a low-level password on my PC. Trusted geeks assured me this was much harder to crack than the Windows password.

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 04:27:18 +0000

Pamela, all I can say is: ME TOO! You may want to check out the free Palm Desktop (even if you don’t use a PDA). It’s definitely not a CRM but it’s a decent address book with plenty of fields for multiple phones etc., plus a Notes field for free-form contact info. (It also has a to-do list and calendar but you don’t *have* to use them…)

Good luck and let me know if you find the Holy Grail!

Tom

By: Heather

Heather — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:54:22 +0000

I recently got CardScan (the honey was listening when I exclaimed over a magazine ad) and I’m loving it. There’s a handy little app that comes with the scanner that’s fairly robust. Categories instead of tags, but they’re editable AND there’s OCR…

By: FernandoG

FernandoG — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:45:25 +0000

I’m not so concerned about security in the cloud. Someone could also take your bag and you’d have the same problem.

My problem with all this apps is that they always miss one of my needs:
1. Desktop sync (sometimes there is no internet and also I’m a Thunderbird heavy user, so I want my contacts there)
2. Smartphone sync with local storage (sometimes internet is not fast enough)
3. Web app.

Most miss 1 or 2.

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:56:08 +0000

Pamela, you bring up some interesting points about security. I’m an IT guy myself and I work for a CRM company. Let me tell you… Your data is much safer on my web-based CRM than on your PC/Laptop.

We take our client’s data and security very seriously. Web/Internet security has reached a point where it’s not ‘easy’ to break in. There are also other measures that can be taken, allowing only certain IPs, secured connections (ssl/https), etc.

Now let me tell you something scary… Windows Security. Do you have a password on your PC? If you do.. it doesn’t really matter. In literally TWO minutes I can be past it. What makes this worse is that ANYONE can. You do not need to be a super IT-person to do it. It’s too easy.

Many times, the cloud is much safer than your PC.

By: Pamela Poole

Pamela Poole — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:04:25 +0000

Hi cubus. The thing is I’m trying to keep my contacts off the Internet, and don’t have them stored on Google. Linking contacts to e-mail is crucial, though, you’re right.

By: Pamela Poole

Pamela Poole — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:57:15 +0000

Hi Ralf. Yes, there’s an iPhone in my future, and I can’t wait!

By: Pamela Poole

Pamela Poole — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:55:55 +0000

Hi Ken. thanks for the links! You should put up some screen shots!