Database

[Aqua]

Having just started a new company we have soon found the need for a good quality database.

We are currently using a database of sorts which gets us by but is no long term solution, i wont go any further with that.

My question is can anyone advise a good database for us to use ?

We require the usual contact info etc in the database plus a large area for keeping and updating notes for each contact, perhaps upto 2-3 years worth.

Also, the database needs to be good for pulling together address's for large mail shots etc when required.

We would like to be able to try a database out on a 30 day trial before committing to buying the licence, the more expensive the database the more we would want to see it work first.

I have had a look at Goldmine on a free trial and was not impressed, it looks like a fancy version of Outlook.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

[2scoops0406]

Making a bit of a guess here, but I think what you're after is a contact management system rather than a database as such. The 2 faily defacto standard DB's for PCs (assuming it is a PC) are M$ SQL Server and Oracle. You don't seem to be able to get a trial copy of SQL server.

 

[JohnD]

Have you decided how much you want to spend, how big the files are, what skills you have to build, maintain and test it?

there is a lot to be said for buying a popular commercial package off the shelf rather than building your own. Anything you build will have errors and will go wrong.

(that's why, as a rule of thumb, testing effort is 150% of developing effort)

 

[Igorian]

It sounds like you need something like ACT.

 

[tim west]

Act is good in that you can port to a PDA for on the move contact info aswell.

 

[Aqua]

Thanks for the replies.

In answer to questions, we would not fancy building our own, not enough knowledge at our end to do that.

In size, the database needs to be able to hold up to 500 contact entries with up to date notes on each one.

ie, last call or visit, last action etc which would be date accessible.

Meaning i could search for all activity in October 07 for example, mail merge for mail shots is important.

I have had a quick look at Oracle, but have not heard of Act, what is it all about ?

 

[Aqua]

I have just looked at Act by Sage, it appears to be the sort of thing we are looking for.

Two points that have come up straight away,

1, the 30 day free trial takes over an hour to download on broadband, i thought a smaller compact version might have been available as a trial.

2, the price to buy when ordering in America is $199.00 effectively £100.00 however, the price to buy in Europe is £180.00

WHY THE RIP OFF

If its 100 quid in America it should be 100 quid over here in England, that sort of thing really makes me think, do i want to deal with such a profiteering company ?

 

[WoodYouLike]

Aqua, I hate Sage and everything connected with a vengeance!

You are much better of with Mamut software. They have several options in their downloadable trial, a complete bookkeeping program to contact management system (connected to a sales program).
Excellent customer service and support team too. Compared to everything Sage - ACT is from Sage - Mamut work much better, simpler and easier. You can set-up as many databases you like.
The CRM and Sales unit costs only £ 79.00

site-note, I wrote a business blog post on my experiences with Mamut.
And one on Sage too