BCM, Exchange, OTA Sync for Handheld Mike P 4/2/2007 6:06:01 AM Pretty sure I know the answers but want to be sure: 1. BCM and Outlook/Exchange contacts are seperate. 2. Therefore BCM contacts cannot be maintained on an Exchange Server. 3. Therefore BCM OTA Sync for handhelds is not possible. 4. There is no way to sync contacts between Outlook and BCM Can someone from MSFT please confirm. For MS: It is more and more common for small business to use a hosted exchange solution. Big company capabilities for a small price. Not realistic for a small business to install a CRM system. Sure would be great if there was a hosted BCM/Outlook solution that could provide OTA sync for handhelds.

Re: BCM, Exchange, OTA Sync for Handheld "mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com" <u8453[ at ]uwe> 4/2/2007 5:45:16 PM Mike, I am not with MS. I am a small business like yourself and I feel your pain. The lack of remote access to a centralized source of data (other than offline laptop re-syncing) is needlessly frustrating. I am about to investigate the Office Live offering from MS because it "appears" to offer a web based server that will synch with BCM data. Thus far, all I can get are a bunch of splashy marketing pages with limited information about exactly how this really works. If you can crack the code and find out yourself post back here with your findings. -THP Mike P wrote: [Quoted Text] >Pretty sure I know the answers but want to be sure: >1. BCM and Outlook/Exchange contacts are seperate. >2. Therefore BCM contacts cannot be maintained on an Exchange Server. >3. Therefore BCM OTA Sync for handhelds is not possible. >4. There is no way to sync contacts between Outlook and BCM > >Can someone from MSFT please confirm. > >For MS: It is more and more common for small business to use a hosted >exchange solution. Big company capabilities for a small price. Not realistic >for a small business to install a CRM system. Sure would be great if there >was a hosted BCM/Outlook solution that could provide OTA sync for handhelds. -- Message posted via OfficeKB.com http://www.officekb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/outlook-bcm/200704/1

Re: BCM, Exchange, OTA Sync for Handheld "Lon Orenstein" <Lon[ at ]pinpointtools.com> 4/9/2007 5:18:25 PM Gentlemen: MS had a fabulous opportunity with Office Live and BCM synchronizing together and they blew it. I was a beta tester for Office Live and during that period the SDK said that you could synch BCM Contacts to OL Contacts. They even renamed Office Live contacts to Business Contact Manager in anticipation of them working together. About a month before OL went "live", they backed off and said it would be "awhile" before they could make it work... Mike: one solution for OTA synch is Companionlink. They've got a synch for Outlook but I don't believe they've gotten the BCM contacts hooked up yet. Another option is Goodlink, but you'd have to manually overwrite the Outlook contacts from BCM daily. For a small database with not much editing, this could be a decent solution. HTH, Lon ___________________________________________________________ Lon Orenstein pinpointtools, llc Lon[ at ]pinpointtools.com Author of Outlook 2007 Business Contact Manager For Dummies Author of the eBook: Moving from ACT! to Business Contact Manager 800.238.0560 x6104 Toll Free (U.S. only) +1 214.905.0401 x6104 www.pinpointtools.com "mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com" <u8453[ at ]uwe> wrote in message news:701c8de75212e[ at ]uwe... [Quoted Text] > Mike, > > I am not with MS. I am a small business like yourself and I feel your > pain. > The lack of remote access to a centralized source of data (other than > offline > laptop re-syncing) is needlessly frustrating. I am about to investigate > the > Office Live offering from MS because it "appears" to offer a web based > server > that will synch with BCM data. Thus far, all I can get are a bunch of > splashy marketing pages with limited information about exactly how this > really works. If you can crack the code and find out yourself post back > here > with your findings. > > -THP > > Mike P wrote: >>Pretty sure I know the answers but want to be sure: >>1. BCM and Outlook/Exchange contacts are seperate. >>2. Therefore BCM contacts cannot be maintained on an Exchange Server. >>3. Therefore BCM OTA Sync for handhelds is not possible. >>4. There is no way to sync contacts between Outlook and BCM >> >>Can someone from MSFT please confirm. >> >>For MS: It is more and more common for small business to use a hosted >>exchange solution. Big company capabilities for a small price. Not >>realistic >>for a small business to install a CRM system. Sure would be great if there >>was a hosted BCM/Outlook solution that could provide OTA sync for >>handhelds. > > -- > Message posted via OfficeKB.com > http://www.officekb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/outlook-bcm/200704/1 >