[PLUG] Contact Manager

Richard C. Steffens rsteff at comcast.net
Thu Mar 30 18:49:48 UTC 2006


Rich Shepard wrote:
> On Thu, 30 Mar 2006, Richard C. Steffens wrote:
> 
>> I find myself in need of a contact manager (so I'm told!).
<...>
>   I currently use jpilot (the Palm PDA desktop, available at
> http://www.jpilot.org), and have done so for the past decade. I use the 
> note feature for each record to track contacts.

That could be useful, as I will probably be getting a Palm one of these 
days.

>   Also, I'm working with the developers of xrms to get their contact 
> manager
> working with postgres ('cause I don't like MySQL). This is more of a sales
> management/lead tracking/customer relations (whatever that means) 
> application than is the PDA's addressbook and datebook.

This is probably the right idea.

>   What, specifically, do you need -- or are told that you need -- and why?
> That'll help focus replies.

The new business is real estate (I got my broker's license a few weeks 
ago). Tracking potential buyers and sellers will probably be the bulk of 
my use of the tool. The recommendation was to start creating a list in 
Excel and then import it into whatever contact manager I end up with. 
I'm still getting my feet wet. I'm sure I'll figure out more of what the 
tool needs to do as I go along. I'm assuming the usual stuff, name, 
address, phone number(s), and e-mail will do for a start. I notice that 
one of the tools (Evolution, I think) has entries for birthdays, and 
other personal stuff that a good salesman would want to respond to. I'm 
not as yet sure just how much of that I'll really need.

Somewhat of an aside: I was disappointed that the local Multiple Listing 
  Service site requires the use of IE 5.5 or above. However, I've 
learned that the reason is that the service was built back before 
broadband was common and relies on active-x for much of its 
functionality. They tell me that they are working on a replacement site 
that will be able to run on other browsers.

I was pleased to discover that Oregon Realty's web site will work in 
other browsers. I can work in it with Konqueror or Firefox. Also, I get 
an Oregon Realty e-mail address that forwards to one of my own 
addresses. I tested it and looked at the headers. I was surprised and 
pleased to see that my message passed through SpamAssassin in its travels.

-- 
Regards,

Dick Steffens
http://oregonrealty.com/dicksteffens/



More information about the PLUG mailing list