Contact managers have helped do away with the old days of having multiple Rolodexes on
your desk and file cabinets filled with customers' paper records. This is because the
difference between a closed sale and losing a customer often depends on how quickly you
can react to a customer's request on the phone, and a salesperson cannot fumble for a
customer's record in a file cabinet when receiving an inbound call.
Today customers expect to be treated as though they are the "only" customer -
they want to be remembered when they call back for repeat business. A salesperson who
receives an inbound call and cannot recall a customer's past history quickly is at an
extreme disadvantage. Computerized Rolodexes, and specifically PIMs and contact managers,
have helped keep track of a customer's historical information and improve customer
service.
GoldMine 4.0 is the latest version of one of the most popular contact managers on the
market. What makes GoldMine so popular is that, unlike ACT!, GoldMine is not a PIM
(Personal Information Manager) - GoldMine is a full-featured enterprise-wide contact
manager that allows the sharing of data between multiple GoldMine users. GoldMine comes
standard with dBase IV support, but also now supports Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle,
Sybase, InterBase, Informix, DB2, or any ODBC driver. Featuring shared calendars, group
scheduling, mass fax/mail merging, PDA links, data synchronization, Internet e-mail, sales
forecasting, and customizable fields, GoldMine is an extremely versatile piece of software
that certainly can aid in managing your vital corporate customers.
INSTALLATION
TMC Labs tests products quite thoroughly, but since we wished to have our sales force use
GoldMine, we dug even deeper into the heart of the product to evaluate its viability for
internal use as well as to review it. Installing GoldMine 4.0 was pretty straightforward.
GoldMine was installed on a network file server and then shared across the network, mapped
appropriately on each machine as the "G:" (GoldMine) drive. First we set up some
users and groups using the MASTER account and also set the security for each of our test
users. The security was fairly extensive, and included password access to the database, as
well as the ability to hide (disable) any of the menu or sub-menu options from the users,
such as Export, which will prevent your valuable database from being stolen.
Next, we performed some client installations running off the mapped G: drive, and
entered the appropriate client licenses. GoldMine's client licensing model is very
powerful, allowing you to dock or undock licenses as needed, which is useful when you have
travelling employees. Instead of purchasing new client licenses for each laptop, you can
undock the user who is taking the laptop and use an undocked license.
Though GoldMine supports importing competing products, such as ACT!, into its database,
GoldMine doesn't really provide a tool for importing other types of corporate databases
easily. You can import simple data such as company, name, address, phone number, and other
common fields; however, you cannot import calendar items such as callbacks very easily,
nor can you import items such as product codes. Instead, you are forced to figure out
GoldMine's database layout and perform the import manually. The GoldMine reference manual
details the database tables and includes a description for each of the columns. However,
we found some of the descriptions of the columns a bit vague and confusing. Also, the
reference manuals don't really detail which tables' columns are dependent on other
columns, which made us a bit wary when trying to port over our data. We used Microsoft
Access for our data massaging and importing of data into GoldMine's dBASE database format.
While we were able to perform this feat, it did take some time, so we would like to
suggest to GoldMine that they include a graphical database conversion utility.
In summary, we found installation to be quite good (4.0 rating), though as we stated,
we would like to see some enhanced database conversion features. However, with GoldMine's
extensive VAR channel this may not be an issue, since the VARs will handle the database
conversion.
DOCUMENTATION
The documentation was very good and included two manuals - a user's guide and a reference
guide. Each of the manuals had extensive screenshots and very good indexes. One problem
that we did have with the documentation had to do with the mentioning of chronic indexing
problems and what might cause them. Apparently, Windows OSR2 (Win95B) ships with a newer
file called VREDIR.VXD, which causes indexing problems in GoldMine. The only mention of
this is a small half-page section in the appendix of the reference guide. By pure chance
we happened to notice this issue while flipping through the manual. The manual instructs
where to get an update to solve this potentially troublesome issue.
Certainly, we feel that some sort of addendum inserted in each GoldMine box warning of
this problem should be considered to bring it to the immediate attention of MIS and
GoldMine users, even if it is a Microsoft issue. Even administrators who read the manual
cover to cover are apt to miss this small section at the back of the manual. We'd also
like to recommend that GoldMine's NetUpdate or original installation CD automatically
detect what version of Windows is running and update the VREDIR.VXD where appropriate.
Other than this minor complaint with the documentation, it was very good, thus earning a
4.5 rating.
FEATURES
GoldMine 4.0 has several new features, including an Opportunity Management system for
tracking multiple projects, strategies, actions, history results, competitive factors, and
assigning a probability of closing a sale. This information can be very useful for sales
managers to help manage their sales teams.
One feature that we highly commend GoldMine on is the NetUpdate feature, which allows
you to automatically update versions of GoldMine via the Internet just by clicking on Help
and then NetUpdate. Another truly commendable feature is GoldMine's data synching
abilities. GoldSync 4.0 offers unattended, automated processing of remote synchronization
across three or more GoldMine databases, systems (licenses), and users. GoldSync also
allows administrators to filter data by criteria such as territory, salesperson, or
customer type. In addition to contact information, you can also synchronize data
structures, lookup lists, and customizations. Since GoldSync is now completely
multi-threaded, performance improvements allow support for up to 500 simultaneous WAN
connections.
Another very interesting feature is the "automated processes." This allows
you to set up certain actions to be taken depending on a certain condition. For instance,
if a particular customer has not been called for over six months, you can set up an
automated process to schedule one of your sales reps to call this customer. Another
example would be to automatically print an introduction letter to your company anytime a
new record is entered into the GoldMine database.
- POP3 compliant.
- Link e-mail to contact record.
- Track past activity with each contact, including calls, appointments, letters sent,
e-mail sent.
- Customizable fields and field labels.
- Wizard interface (filters) for building complex queries.
- SQL queries supported.
- Global record search and replace.
- Territory realignment.
- Extensive calendar interface.
- Built-in reports as well as build your own.
- Integration with Microsoft Word to perform mail/fax merging.
- Auto-insert city just by putting in the ZIP code (optional nationwide ZIP code database
is $89).
- Complete synchronization features for road warriors.
- InfoCenter for storing corporate related matters (401K, benefits) or help desk items.
- Opportunity Manager for tracking sales cycle.
- Organize your favorite/hot contacts into groups for easier access.
- Management can track outbound and incoming calls made by their sales force.
OPERATIONAL TESTING
The main screen has nine tabs, including Summary, Fields, Notes, Contacts, Profiles,
Referrals, Pending, History, and Links. We tested all of these tabs and their functions.
The Summary tab is exactly as it states - a summary of the current record selected. It
displays the owner, the creation date, the last user who modified the record, last
contacted, next action, and other general information.
The Fields tab contains user-defined fields for storing data that GoldMine does not
track by default. Creating these user-defined fields and displaying them in the Fields tab
was a snap.
The Notes tab is pretty straightforward. Designed to be used for general notes, the
Notes tab is easy to access, and includes the user, date, and time stamp.
The Contacts tab is used for placement of sub-contacts who are associated with the main
contact, but who do not necessarily require their own record. Such sub-contacts may
include personal assistants or the accountant.
Profiles is a very powerful tab screen. In this tab is where all many-to-one
relationships should be put, such as product codes, shows attended, or products purchased.
Also, this tab holds the Web site address and e-mail address associated with the contact.
The e-mail address must be placed in the Profiles tab and not the Field tab, since
GoldMine looks for the e-mail address in Profiles when performing mass e-mailing.
Referrals are links between multiple main contact records with an established
relationship. For instance, in our database we have several PR companies, each of which is
linked with multiple clients. Thus, it is very easy to switch between the PR company and
its clients.
The Links tab lists all the available documents (such as Word, Excel) related to the
contact being displayed. This is extremely useful to recall any proposals sent to a
customer, as well as to view any other past letters sent to the displayed contact record.
Finally, the Pending and the History tabs are somewhat related to each other. The
Pending tab displays the date, time, user, and reference information for all the upcoming
or scheduled activities for the contact record being displayed. The History tab displays
the date, activity, and user for all the completed (past) activities related to the
contact being displayed.
Using Queries
We tested entering new records into GoldMine, and we found the interface to be very
user-friendly with excellent usability. Querying records was also a breeze. For instance,
to query by company name you just double-click on the label Company which brings up the
Query window with "Company" selected as the default lookup. Next, you just type
the company name you are searching for. As you type each letter, GoldMine automatically
starts matching companies. A preview window displays a grid of several companies in
alphabetical order which match the letters you have typed so far. This is very handy,
since you don't have to type the entire company name - if after typing a few letters you
see the company you are looking for listed in the preview window, you can just
double-click on it to bring up that company/contact. This automatic "drill-down"
feature can also be used for last name or contact name, as well as other fields. For
example, we had GoldMine search on the letters "Tom K," which brought up several
records.
For more complex types of queries, GoldMine has filters built in, including a
wizard-like interface for building filters. Filters are what MIS departments have been
clamoring for - a means by which users can design and execute their own complex database
queries without requiring MIS intervention. All that is required is that the user first
select a "Field name" to query on. Using the Operator drop-down box, a user
selects a mathematical operator such as "Equal to," "Not Equal,"
"Greater Than," "Less Than," or "Is Empty." Next, the user
puts into the Value field what they wish to search for, such as a state's abbreviation, a
country, or a ZIP code. Next they click on the Insert Condition button to add the
criterion.
For additional criteria, Boolean algebra comes into play. Again, the same
aforementioned steps are performed, except the user must select "AND,"
"OR," or use parentheses and then select the next criterion to be added. As you
can see, building complex queries using this wizard-like interface can become comfortable
with a little practice, even for non-technical users. After building filters you can
activate them immediately, as well as choose to collect the filtered records into a group
for faster performance, since filters query the entire database each time you move to the
next record.
You can also write SQL queries to query the database. In fact, in some cases, SQL is
the only way to perform certain types of queries. For instance, you cannot use filters to
query the Profiles tab, which is certainly a limitation that needs to be addressed in a
future version. For testing purposes, we took several records and we placed some product
codes into the Profiles tab. Next we designed a SQL query to search for all records with
CTI Rep code of "ABROWN" and containing product codes "Speech Recognition
cards," "Speech & Voice To Text Recog," or "Text to Speech."
Designing this SQL query was a bit of a chore since we had to figure out GoldMine's
database structure. Certainly, GoldMine's easy to use filter builder would have been
easier, but as previously mentioned, GoldMine filters do not support querying the Profiles
tab. We'd like to see this limitation addressed in a future release. Also, we'd like to
see some sample SQL code included with GoldMine to aid in the learning curve.
Scheduling callbacks and appointments is also easy to master. After finding the person
you wish to schedule a call for, you just click on the Schedule Call icon or select it
from the menu. The interface was user-friendly, though a bit overwhelming at first due to
the extensive number of options available in the Schedule Call screen. From this
interface, you can set a reminder alarm for the call as well as choose a reason for why
you are calling this person. Once it is scheduled, the call is placed into GoldMine's
powerful calendar. You can also make the calendar item private, so other GoldMine users
cannot view it, or you can schedule a call for another GoldMine user. The calendar
includes a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly view, as well as a planner and outline.
Each of the calendar items is linked back to the contact, so if a reminder alarm pops
up reminding you to call someone, you can simply click on View Contact to bring up that
record. Since a call is considered an "activity" it will automatically be put
into the Pending tab. When the activity is completed (call is made) an entry will be place
in the History tab indicating that a call was completed on a certain date and time.
One of the most popular features of GoldMine is the mail merge of documents into
Microsoft Word. After designing your Word document, you simply add special GoldMine fields
that contain the contact address information. Next you save that document as a GoldMine
template, which links the document into GoldMine's Merge Forms database. Then, when you
wish to use that template document, from GoldMine you click on Merge Forms and choose the
template you wish to merge. GoldMine will automatically open Word if it isn't open and
then insert the appropriate address and contact information into the special field codes
previously placed into the template. You can also choose to merge not just the current
contact displayed but an entire group of records for a mass mailing. Fax merging is also
supported and includes native support for Symantec WinFax Pro and RightFax faxing
products.
We noticed while testing the Internet e-mail feature that if an e-mail address was
invalid and came back "Message undeliverable," GoldMine would not display the
subject of the e-mail, its contents, or who the e-mail was sent to. Thus, we had no way of
determining which of the e-mails that we sent were not received by our intended recipient!
A call to GoldMine's technical support revealed that this was the way GoldMine worked.
This is certainly a major flaw, since all e-mail packages we have used show the entire
contents of any e-mail that bounces back as undeliverable.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
We'd like to see a graphical ER (entity-relationship) diagram of the database which would
better explain the database layout. However, this may aid GoldMine's competitors - though
any motivated competitor could figure out GoldMine's database layout in less than a week
anyway.
The reason we'd like to see an ER diagram is to help administrators design SQL queries
where filters can't do the job. For instance, you cannot build filters to query the
Profiles screen, which we would consider a major item. You cannot, for instance, use the
"filter builder" to query all records that have an e-mail address (which is
stored under Profiles) and that list a residence in CA, NV, or UT. This type of query
would require an SQL query.
Also, the SQL screen could use a wizard or QBE (Query By Example) for creating SQL
queries. A drag-and-drop interface would be quite useful in developing complex queries.
The database structure is listed in the back of the reference manual, so an administrator
can figure out how to write queries, but it requires referencing the manual each time a
query needs to be built. Also, the database structure in the manual in some ways is not
very clear as far as what the columns in the tables mean precisely and if they are
affected by the data of any other table columns.
An "out of office" auto-reply mechanism should be added to the e-mail
feature-set. One major deficiency is that we noticed Internet messages that bounced back
"undeliverable" do not show the contents of the message sent, or the email
address of the person that the message was sent to. Thus, you have no way of determining
which one of your emails sent wasn't received by your desired recipient! About 50% of the
undeliverable emails at least showed the email address of the person we were trying to
reach, but the other 50% we were left guessing which email didn't go through. GoldMine
does have one other weakness that needs to be addressed. The report designer is very
difficult to use, and documentation on how to operate it to design new reports or how to
modify existing ones is not clear. Finally, support for Microsoft's Intellimouse (mouse
wheel) to scroll through list boxes or even records would be a nice addition.
CONCLUSION
GoldMine is not as user-friendly as ACT!, but that is not a fair comparison since GoldMine
has many more features. Also, ACT! has conceded the enterprise contact management software
market to GoldMine by sticking strickly with the personal information manager (PIM) market
niche. GoldMine has come a long way since its earlier versions, but we'd like to see the
Room for Improvement items addressed in a future version.
Even with our extensive list of issues we had with this software, GoldMine is still the
best contact manager out there. GoldMine 4.0's excellent synchronization features, easy to
use interface, and improved Internet capabilities help make GoldMine 4.0 the premier
contact management software. Finding and modifying records in GoldMine is a breeze. IS/IT
staff will love GoldMine's powerful filter expression builder, which allows users to
design and execute queries on their own. GoldMine is certainly feature-packed and a very
powerful contact manager. TMC Labs would highly recommend GoldMine to any corporation
looking to improve their sales team's efficiency and productivity. |
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