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freudling · Jun 24, 2007, 10:42 PM

Have not spent more than 20 minutes with the program, but I have been searching for a small business management system. Currently playing with Contactizer Pro, I was pleasantly surprised at how much easier it is to use compared with Daylite from Marketcircle.

Mail is automatically imported and connected to your contacts. Groups are synced with Address Book, iCal is syncable too. Things are looking much, much better compared to the unintuitive, mess that is Daylite. Oh and, notes in address book are not "attached" as notes like in Daylite, they are just part of the address info pane.

jbleisure · Jun 25, 2007, 05:09 PM

I tried it about a year ago. I liked it, yes it's intuitive but I seem to remember it didn't sync 100% with ical, maybe they've updated it since but it wasn't quite the thing for me as I run a small business (of 1!!) - I have just recently gone with Filemaker: A bigger challenge but I needed the power of a relational database.

It's a shame that Apple don't have a more integrated suite of programmes.. maybe Contactizer pro it the way to go..but it was a bit buggy when I trailed it. Is that still the case?

freudling · Jun 25, 2007, 10:59 PM

It has been good so far. They have issued three updates just over the past 3 months. It is awesome so far. Really slick. Better than anything out there. I am also in the process of constructing a Filemaker Pro database. This way I can compare it. But Contactizer is providing some very nice solutions right away. That is, being able to click on a contact, and then seeing all their emails in another pane below their name. Clicking an email shows that email within Contactizer, and double clicking opens the email from Apple Mail.

Tasks are great. Attach multiple files to them. It syncs on the fly with Mail and iCal and Address Book. No need to manually do it. It uses their databases directly, so it is near real-time. Attach files to contacts (i.e. resumes to employee contacts). Manage large scale emails with the ability to have names and such entered into each email with a batch send. Nice calender. Very nice stuff.

Peter · Jun 26, 2007, 05:07 AM

does Contactizer allow a "central" server, which everything syncs to?

freudling · Jun 26, 2007, 04:35 PM

Peter, you mean syncing to WebDav or something? I am not sure. You can share on your network, just not sure about the aforementioned. Can you expand?

CatOne · Jun 27, 2007, 01:57 PM

I found Contactizer Pro to be quite lacking in many things -- heck, it made it next to impossible to create large notes and associate them with specific contacts.

True, it is easier to use than Daylite. It's also a lot less functional -- it is not a multi-user workgroup full CRM application. I paid for the first version -- OD4Contact -- then I paid for their 2.0 update, and when they upgraded it again to Contactizer Pro and wanted another $59 or whatever for essentially a rename with a couple options... skip. Daylite, while cumbersome at times, truly has a LOT more functionality as a CRM-type application. Now if they can only get off their butts and get Sync Services support.

Timothy Maxwell · Oct 23, 2007, 07:36 AM

Originally Posted by CatOne

I found Contactizer Pro to be quite lacking in many things -- heck, it made it next to impossible to create large notes and associate them with specific contacts.

True, it is easier to use than Daylite. It's also a lot less functional -- it is not a multi-user workgroup full CRM application. I paid for the first version -- OD4Contact -- then I paid for their 2.0 update, and when they upgraded it again to Contactizer Pro and wanted another $59 or whatever for essentially a rename with a couple options... skip. Daylite, while cumbersome at times, truly has a LOT more functionality as a CRM-type application. Now if they can only get off their butts and get Sync Services support.

The makers of Daylite finally did add support for Apple's Sync Services. In theory, it seems to be a good change but I am not sure if I like the change. It is great that now Daylite is able to share information with iCal and Apple Address Book. That is a really great feature if you use the Apple programs. Since they added Sync Services, I have been using iCal and Address Book to look up contact information and to schedule appointments. But, I never like using them before. Now, I am starting to like the simplicity of using the Apple programs.

But, I have used Daylite for a long time now and have not found another CRM that compares.