GoldMine Business Contact Manager 6.0

GoldMine Business Contact Manager 6.0

The origins of GoldMine Business Contact Manager 6.0 as a sales and marketing tool is manifestly evident in the fundamental operation of the program. The GoldMine family of software is geared toward small- to medium-sized businesses.

The essence of the GoldMine Business Contact Manager program is as a contact manager, and it manages contacts extraordinarily well. The program is stable and independent.

Properly utilized, the program touts its ability to manage your contacts, business relationships, tasks, time and documents. The program is simultaneously complex and yet, straightforward in its approach. Like any good contact manager, GoldMine 6.0 can do as much or as little as you would like it to do.

The latest version of GoldMine includes new features such as Quick Start Wizard, redesigned Opportunity and Project Manager, industry and user-specific customizations, XML integration and redesigned Calendar and Scheduling tools.

A built-in database back-up and Restore Wizard is also a new addition to GoldMine 6.0. It allows administrators to easily and quickly protect data. The Restore Wizard allows you to back up external files such as e-mail attachments, linked documents and report templates.

GoldMine is an ideal program for lawyers who think like business managers and already understand the practice of law does, indeed, include the operation of a business.

The program focuses on business relationships and makes managing them a streamlined process. GoldMine allows you to collect and enter information into the database painlessly — adding, indexing, linking and embellishing this information is what makes it useful to your everyday practice.

GoldMine includes all of the task-oriented features time-pressed lawyers love. For example, you can e-mail from within the program, and you can create documents from within the program. You can merge your contact information into a letter in Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat. You can schedule tasks, activities, letters, phone calls and other follow-ups, either linked to a contact or independently.

One of the neatest features of the program, which is what makes it an ideal contact manager for lawyers, is the ability to customize the program to your use. Upon installation, you can select an industry template wizard, “Goldmine - Legal Services Template,” that will install pre-defined customizations based on the practice of law.

There are templates for real estate, legal services, mortgage lending, insurance and financial services industries.

Another central feature of the program is the “My GoldMine,” desktop. Here you can set up your view of the day. You have the option to customize your desktop into an active homepage (displaying content from the Web), intranet or GoldMine database. You also can customize exactly what you want to see when you are looking at the GoldMine screen. Again, you can select from an extensive list, from contacts and activities to e-mail and documents.

As a transactional attorney, I was particularly impressed with the document management center. There, you can find a solid array of contact templates — letters, memos, fax cover sheets and envelope labels. There also are sample templates for business letters, phone call follow-ups and thank you letters. Again, the program’s roots as a sales program is amply evident in this feature. However, the provided templates are a good starting point for your own templates for common correspondence.

The philosophy guiding GoldMine’s operation is building and maintaining business relations. The foundation as a sales program can’t be avoided, and in a certain sense this is a great program for the rainmaker. It can be tailored to your firm’s needs without a lot of tugging and twisting, and the flexibility built into the program is what makes it an excellent tool.

FrontRange Solutions
(800) 776-7889

www.frontrange.com

Price: $199.95

Windows 98/Me/2000/XP

Reviewed by Denise P. Ward, Esq., Grean & Ward, Port Chester, N.Y.

Aug/Sep '03 Issue

PROS
It has incredible flexibility as a contact manager.

CONS
It’s a little too sales oriented. It’s not the best case manager.

VERDICT
I would recommend it for lawyers who have a sales approach to their practice, but it’s not for anyone who really needs a case manager.