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(More customer reviews)I have well documented our nightmares with GoldMine 5.5 in my review for that product. After I was promised great things by Frontrange customer support, I received a full-featured demo CD of GoldMine 5.7 to try. Regretfully, none of the functionality and stability issues have been addressed in the new version. I have mentioned the following points in my review of GoldMine 5.5 and I repeat them here because the problems STILL remain!!!
1. It does not want to start up because it cannot find the "license.dbf" file! You have to hit browse and point it to the directory where GoldMine is installed. I made numerous calls to their tech support and they admitted they didn't have any clue as to what could be causing this! They suggested some changes including reinstalling and even installing GoldMine twice which really messed up my registry keys. And this happens with ALL our users!
2. It DOES NOT work with MS Office 2000 or XP/2002!! It is the most bogus claim. Allow me to elaborate: The link with MS Word is shaky at best. And that is when it gets past Norton Antivirus. For some reason, the macro that their GMLINK.DOT file uses is detected as a virus by almost any antivirus software. Even when I get it working by including it in the exception list, it crashes MS Office. I have even had to clean out GoldMine and uninstall and reinstall Office because of this wonderful link! Now about Outlook - It only works with Outlook if you are careful about what settings you choose. Otherwise it will crash GoldMine! And if you receive a message with an attachment, it does not transfer the attachment to GoldMine as promised. For example, if you received a file from a client, you have to find alternate ways to tag the file with that record.
3. This would beg the question - Why not dump Outlook and use GoldMine for all email purposes? Well, there's the issue of a VERY bad interface. The email interface in Netscape 1.0 was better than the one they have in GoldMine! Since version 5.5, some of the promised features actually work but its still prehistoric in its look. Even bad email clients like Eudora Pro have a better interface.
4. There is a whole slew of annoyances that makes you tear you hair out like you cannot have personal contacts like you can in Outlook. Calendar items when marked "finished" by you disappear. So if you went back to yesterday's tasks and checked to see what you did, its blank! If you have a Home Address for someone good luck entering that! Of course, you can configure GoldMine for that but why do I have to go to such lengths for obvious functionalities?
After our harrowing experience, despite high ratings from ZDnet labs, we have switched back to Outlook 2002 and are considering using Oracle Small Busines Suite instead. I am seriously begining to doubt the testing process of ZDNet since they seems to have gone with what the product promised rather than check the veracity of their claims.
Hope this helps someone avoid the frustations we had to face. After more than a year of experimenting with available CRM solutions out there I think low-end users should go with Symantec's Act. People who want the kind of powerful features GoldMine *promises* should try the Oracle Small Business Suite instead.
Click Here to see more reviews about: GoldMine 5.7 Business Contact Manager
GoldMine Business Contact Manager is a software solution for team-based contact management. It can be implemented out-of-the-box, offering the same automation benefits previously available only to larger corporations, and at a fraction of the cost and time. Effectively track and improve your customer interactions through collaborative contact management and increased visibility into your sales and forecasts. Make sure the right information is available to everyone on your team, from anywhere, at any time.
Business Contact Manager lets you see the combined status of all your pending sales. See a graphical representation of the stages, close dates, and potential revenue. Link the right people and documents to the overall process. Get instant access to a complete customer view and gain visibility into all your organization's interactions with a customer.
Business Contact Manager helps you take advantage of Internet resources. The Web Data Capture feature allows you to collect leads and information requests from your Web site and link with automated processes, delivering leads to your sales team. The E-mail Center lets you send and receive messages from within GoldMine and automatically links them to a contact's record. Enhanced Outlook e-mail integration gives you the ability to manage e-mail messages from your Outlook inbox and synchronizes not only e-mail messages, but also contacts, tasks, and calendar entries. Included in Business Contact Manager are many more features to help you better manage customer relationships.
Click here for more information about GoldMine 5.7 Business Contact Manager
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