If you were a very large company in the nineteen seventies you might have invested in The computer system. In those days this usually meant either a minicomputer or mainframe. You might have built into that bespoke software system some facilities of the function of contact management software. It would be limited, cumbersome and very expensive.
With the arrival of the PC widely available contact management software for use with it was somewhere on the distant horizon. The PC and its very survival needed killer applications and this was not one of them. At the beginning the killer applications were Word processor software and spreadsheet software. Effectively this meant that anyone who bought a PC in those days wanted to use it primarily for those two purposes.
In the context of what we now know and with the clear vision of hindsight, this is amusing. It's amusing, though, only because we are now fully aware that the world of the PC is swarming with "killer applications". Now users might well justify the purchase of the relatively inexpensive hardware on the basis of one such application, even though more than likely they have many applications on their PC that they find just about indispensable. In terms of the business world, the phrase could be used in a converse sort of way. In other words to mean any software, without which the organization might well die or be killed.
Without having to think too long about it, there are many applications that are in daily use that are almost "mission critical". Who can think of an accounts department now that does not use accounting software? Which marketing department operates without the help of some sort of graphics or page layout software, not to mention the widely used presentation packages.
But any company that has a reasonable number of contacts - customers, clients or suppliers -would be at a decided disadvantage in regard to their competitors if they did not have highly efficient software to integrate and manage the interaction with them all. This ability is crucial in particular with regard to the sales and marketing side of the business. In other words most companies large or small need some form of Contact Management Software.
Modern contact management software is ideal for this purpose. The first thing is that specific data is initially entered into the system for each new contact. Such contacts can be either sales contacts or supplier contacts. After the information of name, address, company, e-mail address, phone number etc is in the system, all further dealings are recorded in the database. This includes a record of conversations, emails sent and received, letters sent and received, and notes taken.
Not alone does the software allow this kind of history and its research, it also allows the generation of reports related to any aspect of the contact database. This is possible because most contact management software is built on the structure of a relational database. So the most complex extraction of information is facilitated via a clear user-friendly interface.
Particularly for those having to deal with a large number of contacts on a regular basis, the Reminder feature is indispensable. A predetermined time in advance of the event the software reminds the user. A useful Extension of this feature is that the software can issue e-mail reminders to everyone involved in the future event.
Finally, a most important feature of contact management software is its ability to generate selective mailing lists. Like a list of all customers in a particular region or town, or a list of all customers in a certain industry. With such a group of contacts assembled, it can then generate a customized mail shot to them. This can be either a letter (in which case the software also can print an envelope), or more commonly nowadays, an e-mail. Of course it will keep a record of the event in each customer's contact history.
With the arrival of the PC widely available contact management software for use with it was somewhere on the distant horizon. The PC and its very survival needed killer applications and this was not one of them. At the beginning the killer applications were Word processor software and spreadsheet software. Effectively this meant that anyone who bought a PC in those days wanted to use it primarily for those two purposes.
In the context of what we now know and with the clear vision of hindsight, this is amusing. It's amusing, though, only because we are now fully aware that the world of the PC is swarming with "killer applications". Now users might well justify the purchase of the relatively inexpensive hardware on the basis of one such application, even though more than likely they have many applications on their PC that they find just about indispensable. In terms of the business world, the phrase could be used in a converse sort of way. In other words to mean any software, without which the organization might well die or be killed.
Without having to think too long about it, there are many applications that are in daily use that are almost "mission critical". Who can think of an accounts department now that does not use accounting software? Which marketing department operates without the help of some sort of graphics or page layout software, not to mention the widely used presentation packages.
But any company that has a reasonable number of contacts - customers, clients or suppliers -would be at a decided disadvantage in regard to their competitors if they did not have highly efficient software to integrate and manage the interaction with them all. This ability is crucial in particular with regard to the sales and marketing side of the business. In other words most companies large or small need some form of Contact Management Software.
Modern contact management software is ideal for this purpose. The first thing is that specific data is initially entered into the system for each new contact. Such contacts can be either sales contacts or supplier contacts. After the information of name, address, company, e-mail address, phone number etc is in the system, all further dealings are recorded in the database. This includes a record of conversations, emails sent and received, letters sent and received, and notes taken.
Not alone does the software allow this kind of history and its research, it also allows the generation of reports related to any aspect of the contact database. This is possible because most contact management software is built on the structure of a relational database. So the most complex extraction of information is facilitated via a clear user-friendly interface.
Particularly for those having to deal with a large number of contacts on a regular basis, the Reminder feature is indispensable. A predetermined time in advance of the event the software reminds the user. A useful Extension of this feature is that the software can issue e-mail reminders to everyone involved in the future event.
Finally, a most important feature of contact management software is its ability to generate selective mailing lists. Like a list of all customers in a particular region or town, or a list of all customers in a certain industry. With such a group of contacts assembled, it can then generate a customized mail shot to them. This can be either a letter (in which case the software also can print an envelope), or more commonly nowadays, an e-mail. Of course it will keep a record of the event in each customer's contact history.
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