NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article
Goldmine 4.0
by Betty Davis, co-President, August 98
bdavis@ipa.net
(click to email author)


This is a contact manager program that covers just about every facet of maintaining a customer contact database. I think that's where the name comes from...a Goldmine of information.

The software was a breeze to install which is always the first thing I look for. I always figure that if something is difficult to install it probably will be difficult to use. No problem with Goldmine. Also I was very pleased with the printed manuals. Goldmine has a 260 page User's Guide and a 446 page Reference Manual, and between the two, there wasn't a question that came up that wasn't covered. You're also covered here with Online Help if all else fails.

As with using any program for the first time, I found the Toolbar a little confusing until I got used to it. However, it does save going to various uses and then opening a drop down menu.

The whole system is very well organized. When you enter the name of a contact and all of the pertinent information you can search by fields to find the information you want. (They even included a CD-Rom with a zip code database). If you can't find it, it probably isn't there.

There is a Time Management section for scheduling phone calls, how long they lasted and a place to make notes on what was discussed.

I particularly liked the Activities List. Once you schedule an activity you can open the Open Activities list and choose anything you want by clicking on various buttons....Actions, To-Do, Closed, Filed, Real-Time, Open, E-Mail, Out-Box, Calls, Appointments and Forecast. I couldn't come up with anything that wasn't covered here. That's even a neat feature for home use.

You can also use the Calendar to schedule activities and a click will bring up your calendar for the whole day, plus you can go back to dates last year to find out what was going on.

Other sections thoroughly covered are E-mail, Printing and Faxing, and Running Reports. I have never been in Sales so I didn't understand the importance of that area, but it appears to be as well organized as the rest of the program.

I wasn't able to check out Teaming with Others but as I understand it, the principle is that those away from the office can check in via e-mail and access the various activities listed above, i.e. scheduling, contact information, etc. That makes a lot of sense if your company is in Chicago, and you are in Pittsburgh and need a phone number.

The program requirements are a minimum of 486SX or higher, 16 MB of RAM, 25 MB free hard drive space, and Windows 95. But as with anything involving computers, more is probably better.

Goldmine Software Corp. 17383 Sunset Blvd. Suite 301 Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 1-800-654-3526 http://www.goldminesw.com

GoldMine 4.0 for dBASE is $295, but has a street price of about $199. The five-user version MSRP is $895.

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