Outlook Contact Manager - A viable successor?

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chockomonkey

Senior Member
Outlook version
Outlook 2010 32 bit
Email Account
IMAP
Hi all,

I'm curious if any current or prior BCM administrators have tried out Outlook Contact Manager.

How'd you like it? Did if fulfill your needs in the same way as BCM? Please if you will, share your experience here.

Obviously all of us are in the same boat. Aging CRM software and in need of a migration path. If you didn't settle on OCM, to what software have you migrated?

Also -- I remember seeing a developer blog about a migration tool that someone at MSFT had developed for migrating data from BCM databases to the new OCM that comes with business subscriptions of Office 365. Has anyone seen this or used it?

Thanks everyone,

-Scott
 
Tool: I don't know about Microsoft, but there is a tool, created by an outlook mvp. BCM Migration Assistant

I have OCM - its not as robust as BCM IMHO, but is serviceable. The big issue is you need a business premium account - this includes both office software and services. You can't get it just a mailbox at this time. The reasoning is that it only works with outlook 2016 - I don't know if they will left that requirement as newer versions of office come out.
 
Tool: I don't know about Microsoft, but there is a tool, created by an outlook mvp. BCM Migration Assistant

I have OCM - its not as robust as BCM IMHO, but is serviceable. The big issue is you need a business premium account - this includes both office software and services. You can't get it just a mailbox at this time. The reasoning is that it only works with outlook 2016 - I don't know if they will left that requirement as newer versions of office come out.
Thanks for sharing, Diane. Based on what you say, it sounds like OCM runs locally like BCM does, is that correct? Is it an outlook plugin just like BCM? Does it still use Microsoft SQL Server to host the database?

I imagine it has customization features at least similar to BCM. Are you able to create custom fields and layouts for Contacts?
 
No, it doesn't run locally - its stored in an exchange mailbox and syncs to outlook using web services. It's available in both outlook and outlook on the web - and is only available to office 365 business premium subscribers.
 
Thanks for filling in these blanks, Diane! I've gone through all the tutorials and I really can't find anything about the ability to customize fields for Customer records. Is this a feature still supported?
 
You can customize them to a small degree - adding new column (all column types are supported- text, date, number etc.)
2018-09-26_23-52-49.png
 
Last edited:
Really appreciate the screenshot. Is there a screen where you're viewing a business record or is the only view in a table as you've shown here?
 
Probably not a good example because I dont have anything linked to Hal, but this s what it looks like in the inbox when I select a message from him and show the pane. (I dont normally keep it pinned open, but could/should).
2018-10-01_15-37-32.png
 
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