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Make the perfect pitch - 11 contact managers - includes related article on sales-automation packages for contact managers - Software Review - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, August, 1996 by Rick Broida

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Having smoothed out virtually every rough edge, Now Up-to-Date & Contact deserves a home on your Macintosh.

Sharkware Professional

Rating: ** 1/2

WIN

Ostensibly the most sales-oriented contact manager in the group, Cognitech Corp.'s Sharkware Professional is a collaborative effort between the company and sales guru Harvey Mackay, author of Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive and Sharkproof (both William Morrow and Co.). The program integrates Mackay's advice into a good, solid set of contact management tools.

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Sharkware's crude interface comprises large toolbar buttons, a Rolodex-like contact card, and tabbed folders that organize contact-related information. One of them, the Mackay 66, helps you obtain the customer information that Mackay says will win sales. The software is quite easy to learn and use, though certain customization options are complicated. Sharkware supports unlimited user-definable fields and offers solid search capabilities. What's missing is a decent list view for contacts.

Importing is limited to a few types of data files (ASCII and dbase IV), but the procedure is mostly straightforward. Sharkware's call management features are commendable, but its calendar leaves much to be desired (like monthly and yearly views). Every time you load the program, a sales-friendly Mackay quote appears. Sharkware also includes a special Help file packed with Mackay's sales advice, a valuable addition for the salesperson but a potential annoyance to others.

Regrettably, Sharkware lacks database synchronization abilities and Internet e-mail support. Version 2.0 of the software, which should be available by the time you read this, promises to add both.

Good--but not great--at just about everything, Sharkware can help you keep your sales afloat.

Tracker 2

Rating: **

WIN

Tracker 2 packs a considerable amount of contact management punch. The problem is getting to it. The interface is cluttered and clumsy, with illogically designed dialog boxes and a confusing toolbar. Nevertheless, Tracker is not without merits. If you're willing to wrestle with it, there are benefits to be reaped.

Tracker offers a handful of predefined database configurations; personnel and real estate are among the options, but unfortunately, sales is not. The program divides its contact manager and scheduler into two separate applications, similar to the setup of Now Up-to-Date for the Mac. However, unlike the Mac product, Tracker's separate programs have a higher learning curve and limited drag-and-drop capabilities. The contact manager partitions an impressive 75 fields--most of them user-definable-- into four tabbed folders. To simplify searches, you can create contact groups and assign keywords to each contact. Also, Tracker grants 10 individual notepads to each contact, a great solution for categorizing notes. The scheduler module is complete but, like the rest of the program, awkward to use.

Tracker does not support Internet e-mail or remote database synchronization. You can merge records locally via floppy disk, but it's an awkward process that isn't mentioned in the documentation. The program's import utility has a limited number of filters and requires you to know all the field names from your original database. The import process was slow but ultimately successful.

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Make the perfect pitch - 11 contact managers - includes related article on sales-automation packages for contact managers - Software Review - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, August, 1996 by Rick Broida

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