New Outlook Contact Manager

Business Contact Manager (BCM), a new contact management and lead-tracking plug-in for Outlook 2003, will ship in several Office 2003 editions. Intended for businesses with fewer than 25 employees, the product could draw more users to Outlook and offer competition to established contact managers such as Symantec Act. However, the product neither enables users to share leads nor supports Microsoft’s Exchange e-mail and collaboration server, the usual complement to Outlook—these features are reserved for the more expensive Microsoft Customer Relationship Management (MSCRM) product.

Formally named Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager, BCM could also interest developers because it is Microsoft’s first commercial client application to employ the .NET Framework and the Office 2003 APIs. It could thus serve as a style guide and a proof-of-concept for client applications that use these technologies.

Sales Account and Opportunity Tracking

BCM in effect replaces Office Small Business Tools, a collection of templates that formerly shipped in Office editions intended for small businesses. BCM is designed primarily for tracking customers, helping users pursue sales leads, and responding to customer service requests.