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Blog: Technology As An Organizing Tool
 Using Technology to Organize Your Contacts (and more!)
It's no secret that I'm an Outlook user, and have invested quite a bit of time learning all the things it can do over and above email, and sharing what I learned in my e-book, Maximizing Your Time With Outlook 2003.
However, even though Outlook has more power than a lot of users realize, it just can't compare to a full-fledged Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) like ACT! or Oprius. For example, if I enter a birthday or anniversary in one of my contact records in Outlook, a reminder will pop up on my screen, but it isn't linked to the contact, so I have to manually go and look up the email address in order to send a greeting. In addition, Outlook has an Activities tab which you can click on to generate a list of emails, tasks, and appointments associated with a contact, but it's quite slow to populate, and it will only bring up tasks and appointments if you've taken the time to manually link them to the contact. On the other hand, a CRM is a powerful database that allows you to access all of this information, and then some, right from the contact page.
I have always been a big fan of FranklinCovey's philosophy and approach to time management, so I was pretty excited when I was invited to a recent webinar introducing their PlanPlus Online, a tool for managing your contacts, calendar, goals, and projects. Because it's an online solution, you don't have to worry about it draining your system resources if you don't have a lot of RAM, and you can access it from any web browser or SmartPhone. You can even import your existing data from Outlook, or keep the two programs synchronized.
There are three versions available, so you can select the one that meets your needs. The top-of-the-line Business edition has some really powerful time-saving features, such as the ability to send out and track email marketing campaigns, automatically generate quotes that are customized with your logo, and place an interactive form on your website that will automatically insert the information entered by your site visitors directly into your contact database.
FranklinCovey is so eager for you to try out this new program that they're offering a free 30 day trial as well as a series of training webinars, many of which are also free. If you're shopping around for a better system to organize your business information, this one is definitely worth checking out. Simply click on the product graphic below for more information.
posted on: 5/7/2009 8:30:00 AM by Janet Barclay
category: Business
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Technology As An Organizing Tool
by Janet Barclay
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Janet Barclay is a Master Virtual Assistant and the founder of Organized Assistant. Specializing in supporting entrepreneurs in the Organizing and Career Services industries, Organized Assistant provides top-notch Internet marketing services to business owners of all shapes and sizes.
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