Peter Schoenster wrote:
> Where I work the company telephone book is "in a database" and can
> only be released by the physical gate keeper of the database. People
> complain that their address or number is wrong and the gatekeeper is
> too busy to fix it. This just sound odd as hell to me.
>
> I threw up a quick database in mysql with the basic fields and I
> wrote some update,modify and search features and stuck it on my
> intranet. A user can log in and change anything in THEIR profile.
<snip>
> I recently attended a meeting about creating a marketing database. My
> amazement was that something like this wasn't already in place. Yet
> much of the focus seemed to stem around the use of ACT. Never during
> the whole meeting was their any mention of the word net (neither
> inter,intra, or extra).
>
> My idea of a solution was to use a rdbms behind the scenes.
>
<snip>
>
> Perhaps there are some people here who have experience with ACT.
> Could it actually be used by many people as a "marketing database" to
> track leads, do followup, update and delete entries etc.?
The Symantec site has a demo version of Act available. Yes, it is designed
to track leads, setup marketing routines, do followup, add, edit, delete
entries, generate mail merges, track todo lists, schedule calendar events,
dial phone calls, etc. Quite a full featured product used by many people as
a lead/contact manager. I am not sure, but it may even have ODBC hooks -
some of its competitors, like Maximizer and Goldmine, do (not sure if those
2 particular ones do, but some competitors do).
Act, Maximizer, Goldmine all are networkable on a LAN.
At this point in time, the combination of robustness and speed for these
products has not been duplicated via a browser interface. There are
definitely companies that have similar products for the web, though...and
they are getting better all the time. If I recall correctly, some give you
the source code and you can modify to fit your needs. If you want some urls
for web-based contact management and sales automation products, let me know
and I'll dig through my bookmarks.
> I recall
> that my first experience with computers was when I used MS Word (on a
> Zenith laptop with 2 floppies and NO hard drive) to create a
> "marketing database". I used to track who I sent to whom and how
> they replied. I wonder if using ACT now would be similar to what I
> did with MS Word back then.
In a slight sense, *if* you used the Word mail merge database for a little
database stuff. Otherwise, not even close...Act is not a word processor, it
falls under the PIM/Contact Manager category.
> I hope to stir up some discussion about current software development.
> I like the idea of using perl (so many great modules and existing
> programs) and the net with a rdbms.
This is clearly the direction the web is taking: web apps. Thinking about
the web as an application development environment puts any web developer
ahead of one who isn't thinking that way. There are many intranet apps
already in place in organizations. Many IS dept's are spending a lot of time
joining their backend and legacy databases to browser-based front ends (see
Kathy's post about David Seigel's revised view of the web for confirmation
that even the "cutting edge" :-P designers are finally getting the wake up
call). Good weekly rags for keeping up with this field are:
Interactive Week
http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/
PC Week (covers a lot of network/web stuff)
http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/
PCWeek has had some very good, detailed articles on web app development
lately. You may want to browse their online archive.
I get the treekill versions of these...bathroom reading.
> And how are software solutions
> found? I reckon you would first determine what you want to do and
> then find the best solution, as opposed to creating limits by
> thinking first of how to mold the software to do what you want.
Any software, Perl included, has it's limits. The medium also has its limits
(as we all well know). I usually decide what I want a web app to do, then
figure out what will work within the software/language limits, my limits,
and the medium limits. These limits are, of course, all somewhat
temporary...
Glad to hear that you're developing the kind of stuff that you are, Peter.
Web app developers will be in very high demand for a while, I'd be willing
to bet. Companies think it's hard to get someone to build a web site using
html and graphics...that problem is compounded when they want someone
building apps. Future's lookin good for us, eh?
Jack
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