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It is somewhat difficult to provide a concrete answer, not knowing your
requirements, business goals, budget, etc. Nonetheless, I'll try to point
you in the right direction. First, have you looked at Worldtrak -- a CRM
solution based upon MS Outlook? (see:
http://www.worldtrak.com/crm_overview.html ) That was the easy part of your
question. Regarding your approach, you ask specifically about extending
Microsoft Outlook throughout your organization via custom forms, folders,
etc. -- essentially turning it into a better contact manager that what's
available "out of the box". Again, without knowing more about your
situation, this can be a very effective approach -- especially for a very
small (3-5) group of users with no remote (disconnected) requirements. But
BE CAREFUL, because you may find that you quickly exceed the capability of
Outlook to scale to your requirements. Sure, you will find work-arounds,
but 1-2 years later you will likely end-up with a disjointed system, unhappy
users, and poor quality data. More than likely, your users will simply stop
using the application when it becomes too kludgy. Final advice: There's
really no short-cut to a well designed and implemented solution. Make sure
your firm's business goals and requirements are well understood and seek to
implement the most critical features and functions first. Worst case, your
super-Outlook application will be used as a prototype to a more robust
solution.
For more information about CRM vendors, check out searchCRM's CRM Vendors/General Information Best Web Links.
This was first published in September 2001
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