Small Business, Cheap Contact Database Option - Network Shared

phuschnickensphuschnickens Beverly Hills, Michigan Member
edited March 2012 in Science & Tech
Looking for a contact management database option for a small business. I'd like to avoid cloud based. The business is an auto mechanic shop... they are currently using an old school rolodex and only want to use the software to hold vendor contact information. The database needs to be shared on the network for simultaneous use on multiple workstations. The info entered into the database will be very basic... pretty much just the amount of information found on a business card and the only functionality needed is the ability to search.

Thanks in advance

Comments

  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited March 2012
    Do you have exchange in the environment? Sage seems like overkill for what you are wanting, but maybe not. Sage has an online try it out environment.

    This may be more in line with what you need and lower cost. 30 day trial is downloadable
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    Just curious why you want to avoid the cloud? Because 37signals' Highrise is pretty much the best shared contact solution I've ever used.

    You could also go OSS and go with SugarCRM. I've used that at multiple client locations with success (although we're talking several years ago at this point).
  • boasistboasist Troy
    If you're already using Office (perhaps) then Outlook with the business contact manager can certainly cover your tasks. And if you are running Exchange, even better.

    http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/outlook-2010-with-business-contact-manager-features-and-benefits-HA101808863.aspx
  • PirateNinjaPirateNinja Icrontian
    Anytime anybody asks me to avoid using cloud technology I feel like telling them to setup communication via a telegraph. It's ridiculous. I just had to help someone setup a pop3/smtp/imap service and I felt like it was 1997.

    Anyway, likely your best solution is Outlook/Exchange but please consider doing something more elegant.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited March 2012
    There are definitely use cases where avoiding the cloud is a good thing. I did some contract work for a doctors office and they were absolutely not going to accept a hosted solution, and after thinking about it, I agreed with them. They would end up paying less overtime for having ownership of the hardware, software, maintenance, and have "offline" (i.e. their internet goes down) access to all their data still. I know a ton of stuff can be relegated to cloud storage and not worry about it as much locally, but there was that huge Amazon EC2 outage that crippled a lot of businesses for a while. Do I think this is one of those times? Probably not.
  • phuschnickensphuschnickens Beverly Hills, Michigan Member
    Thanks for the tips guys... as far as Exchange goes, as mentioned, this is a small auto mechanic shop. They are definitely not running Exchange. There are 4 computers in the place... no true server. I guess I'll look into 37signals' Highrise maybe but at first glance $300/year seems like a lot for what they need. I'll report back with my findings.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited March 2012
    You may also want to check out Saelsforce.com it's pretty cheap for a small environment.
  • phuschnickensphuschnickens Beverly Hills, Michigan Member
    Thanks for the ideas. Since their needs are so utterly simple, I ended up setting up an Access database with a GUI Form for input. Hurray. Done!
Sign In or Register to comment.