You can use Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager to help you run your business more effectively, while you continue to use Microsoft Office Outlook to store your information about your personal contacts.
In this article
Learn what you can do in Business Contact Manager for Outlook
Use Business Contact Manager for Outlook to:
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Store business information in Business Contact Manager for Outlook
You can store business information about the following in Business Contact Manager for Outlook:
- The companies or organizations that you work with as Account records.
- The people you sell to at the companies or work with as Business Contact records.
- Potential business in Opportunity records, which must be linked to Account or Business Contact records. Use the Opportunity record to list the products or services that interest the customer.
- Your Communication History with your customers such as e-mail messages, business notes, appointments, and phone logs. The Communication History items are linked to Account, Business Contact, Opportunity, and Business Project records.
- Records of your marketing efforts in Marketing Campaigns. Create newsletters or other direct mail for your customers, by preparing the letter in Microsoft Office Word* or PowerPoint*. Then link the file to a Marketing Campaign (Marketing Campaign: A marketing program that uses many communication vehicles, for example, ads and direct mail, to accomplish a specific result, such as increasing marketing share, introducing new products, or retaining customers.) record where you can select the names and addresses you want to send the information to, and then track the responses.
*The stand-alone edition of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager can be used with the 2007 or 2003 versions of Word and PowerPoint.
- The Business Projects and tasks that help you track the work you need to do related to an Account or Business Contact.
The following table is a summary of the types of records, what they contain, and what records you can link them to.
| Type of record |
Can link to |
Can contain links to |
| Account (Account: A business or organization with which you do business. If a service is being provided, such as dental or medical, an Account can also be a customer.) |
Business Contacts, Opportunities, or Business Projects |
Business notes, phone logs (phone log: The details of a phone call which may be linked with the communication history of an Account, Business Contact, Opportunity, or a Business Project.), Opportunities, Business Projects, tasks (task: A personal or work-related project, assignment, or errand to track through completion.), e-mail messages, appointments, and files. |
| Business Contact (Business Contact: A person with whom you do business at a company or organization.) |
Accounts, Opportunities, or Business Projects |
Business notes, phone logs, Opportunities, Business Projects, tasks, e-mail messages, appointments, and files. |
| Marketing Campaign (Marketing Campaign: A marketing program that uses many communication vehicles, for example, ads and direct mail, to accomplish a specific result, such as increasing marketing share, introducing new products, or retaining customers.) |
|
Files |
| Opportunity (Opportunity: The chance to sell your products or services to an Account or Business Contact.) |
Accounts or Business Contacts |
Product and service items, business notes, phone logs, tasks, appointments, and files. |
| Business Project (Business Project: A project that is created in Business Contact Manager for Outlook. A Business Project is made up of one or several project tasks.) |
Accounts or Business Contacts |
Project tasks, business notes, phone logs, e-mail messages, appointments, and files. |
How to
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Share business data with your team
You can share your business data with your co-workers so that you each of has a complete and in-sync list of your customers and linked communication history items. All the information in Business Contact Manager for Outlook is available to everyone with whom you share the data.
Simply share the database on one computer, and grant access to anyone who needs it.
How to
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Take business data with you
If you, or members of your team, frequently work away from the office, you can take your business data with you on a portable computer or on a mobile device such as a Windows Mobile-based smartphone or Pocket PC.
To take the data with you on a portable computer, you create a copy of the data on the portable computer, work offline on the portable computer, and then synchronize any changes when you return to the office.
To take a subset of data with you on your mobile device, you must install Business Contacts for the device.
In this way, even if your team members are on the road, you know when they connect, you all have up-to-date information.
How to
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Customize Business Contact Manager forms
You can customize Business Contact Manager forms by adding fields (known as user-defined fields) or items to lists so that you can include data that is unique to your business. The fields can be added directly to the form, on the General, Details, and History pages, or you can add the fields to the User-Defined Fields page.
Note You cannot remove the default groups and fields from Business Contact Manager forms.
How to
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Create and track Marketing Campaigns
To keep in touch with your customers or attract new ones, you need to let them know about your products or services, and any sales or discounts that you offer. You need to market your business.
A Marketing Campaign lets you select the customers you want to contact and choose the medium, such as Direct Mail Print, by which to contact the customers. You can also identify the customers who respond to the campaign, and then track the number of responses in the Marketing Campaign.
Note You must create the flyer, e-mail message, newsletter or other document in a different program, and then add a link to the file in your Marketing Campaign.
How to
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Track the progress of your business with reports and Business Projects
There are a number of ways you can see how your business is doing.
Track your business information through reports
You can run reports and then modify them to contain just the information you want. After you have run a report with all your Business Contacts, you can then sort by specific information in the report, and also filter the report to show selected Business Contacts. You can add a header and footer to your report and save it as an Excel* (.xls) file.
*The stand-alone edition of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager can be used with Excel 2007 or Excel 2003.
Manage Business Projects and Project Tasks
Create Business Projects and related tasks to stay on top of the activities that help you take the best care of your customers and run your business. Link Business Projects to an Account or Business Contact record to help you track the work items and due dates. The Business Project and individual tasks can be assigned to different members of your team.
How to
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View financial data from your accounting system
If your copy of Business Contact Manager for Outlook is integrated with an accounting system, you can:
- View your customers' financial history and financial summary from their Account records.
- Edit individual transaction records that are available when viewing the financial history of a record, which can be updated in your accounting system.
- Create quotes, sales orders, and invoices that you can send to your accounting system.
- Create time entries from phone logs, Calendar appointments, and tasks, so that you can pay your employees or invoice your customers.
- Refresh your list of products and services from the accounting system.
How to
- Connect to your accounting system. The version of your accounting system determines the connection method to use to access its financial data.
Note Currently, supported accounting programs include Microsoft Office Accounting 2008, Accounting 2007, and Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006.
For information about how to connect or integrate Microsoft Office Accounting 2008 or 2007 with Business Contact Manager for Outlook, see Help in your accounting system.
For information about how to connect Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 to Business Contact Manager for Outlook, see Set Up Connection to your accounting system by using Business Contact Manager.
For more information about using accounting systems with Business Contact Manager for Outlook, see About accessing financial data in Business Contact Manager.
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Install and get started
The installation CD for Business Contact Manager for Outlook is included with the stand-alone edition of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager and with the following 2007 Microsoft Office suites:
- Microsoft Office Professional 2007
- Microsoft Office Small Business 2007
- Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007
Trial versions are available on the Microsoft Office Online Web site. Outlook 2007 must be installed before installing Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2007. For more information about installing Business Contact Manager for Outlook, see Install Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2007.
Get started
You can manually create each record in Business Contact Manager for Outlook by entering the data, and you can import your business data from another application.
Import business data
You can import data from your Outlook Contacts folder, spreadsheet programs such as Excel* and Access, accounting applications such as QuickBooks, and customer management software such as ACT!, or online services such as the E-Mail Marketing Service (E-Mail Marketing Service: An online service for your Marketing Campaign that allows you to acquire and manage e-mail lists, and to track the results.).
For more information about Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager E-Mail Marketing Service, see Using the E-Mail Marketing Service in Business Contact Manager.
*The stand-alone edition of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager can be used with Excel 2007 or Excel 2003.
How to
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Want to uninstall Business Contact Manager for Outlook?
For information about how to remove Business Contact Manager for Outlook, see Remove Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2007.
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