Rating: 
Summary: GoldMine is a goldmine!
Review: GoldMine Business Contact Manager has helped me get better organized. It took me a little while to get used to new interface (former GroupWise user) but after I got the hang of it everything makes much more sense. There are some pretty powerful features throughout the program. It has all the same calendar and email stuff you'd expect but a lot more too. It stores all your contact info and customer data. You can set it up so it's custom to your company so all the fields actually match what your data is. I've setup the QuickBooks link and it brings info back and forth between the two systems pretty nicely. Overall I've really like the product even though I haven't even got into half of what it can do.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Contact Manager
Review: GoldMine is an outstanding contact manager for especially small businesses who would like to keep on top of their clients and associates. It is extremely powerful yet very flexiable. To really appreciate, you should have someone familar with the program to show you how much it can do. It is the best bare none.
Rating: 
Summary: Not recommended for very small businesses!
Review: Goldmine is great software that looks good on paper and has a lot of built-in functionality. However, after years of using it, I am not sure I made the right choice. It is the most finicky, untested, un-user friendly software I have used. It has caused me and my employees numerous headaches with constant crashes and some data loss. Forget about customer support! You are stuck with high priced third party providers. Forget about bug-free upgrades, Goldmine has released a number of major upgrades with non-functioning elements. Small-businesses without IT departments beware.
Rating:
Summary: Best for telemarketers
Review: I have used Goldmine to maintain my hundreds of relationships for professional and personal purposes. I partially attribute my success to using Goldmine. I have changed jobs 5 times in a large company managing sales in a channel, relationships within my company, overseas customers, complex project tracking and growing personal relationships. The org chart is killer to organize relationships, the e-mail merge lets me personalize my communication and the infocenter allows me to keep non-contact info within a few keystrokes. I used to use Act...I'm a convert.
Rating:
Summary: tool for my success
Review: I have used Goldmine to maintain my hundreds of relationships for professional and personal purposes. I partially attribute my success to using Goldmine. I have changed jobs 5 times in a large company managing sales in a channel, relationships within my company, overseas customers, complex project tracking and growing personal relationships. The org chart is killer to organize relationships, the e-mail merge lets me personalize my communication and the infocenter allows me to keep non-contact info within a few keystrokes. I used to use Act...I'm a convert.
Rating: 
Summary: Lack of commitment to releasing bug-free software
Review: I have well documented our nightmares with GoldMine 5.5 in my review for that product. After I was promised great things by Frontrange customer support, I received a full-featured demo CD of GoldMine 5.7 to try. Regretfully, none of the functionality and stability issues have been addressed in the new version. I have mentioned the following points in my review of GoldMine 5.5 and I repeat them here because the problems STILL remain!!!1. It does not want to start up because it cannot find the "license.dbf" file! You have to hit browse and point it to the directory where GoldMine is installed. I made numerous calls to their tech support and they admitted they didn't have any clue as to what could be causing this! They suggested some changes including reinstalling and even installing GoldMine twice which really messed up my registry keys. And this happens with ALL our users! 2. It DOES NOT work with MS Office 2000 or XP/2002!! It is the most bogus claim. Allow me to elaborate: The link with MS Word is shaky at best. And that is when it gets past Norton Antivirus. For some reason, the macro that their GMLINK.DOT file uses is detected as a virus by almost any antivirus software. Even when I get it working by including it in the exception list, it crashes MS Office. I have even had to clean out GoldMine and uninstall and reinstall Office because of this wonderful link! Now about Outlook - It only works with Outlook if you are careful about what settings you choose. Otherwise it will crash GoldMine! And if you receive a message with an attachment, it does not transfer the attachment to GoldMine as promised. For example, if you received a file from a client, you have to find alternate ways to tag the file with that record. 3. This would beg the question - Why not dump Outlook and use GoldMine for all email purposes? Well, there's the issue of a VERY bad interface. The email interface in Netscape 1.0 was better than the one they have in GoldMine! Since version 5.5, some of the promised features actually work but its still prehistoric in its look. Even bad email clients like Eudora Pro have a better interface. 4. There is a whole slew of annoyances that makes you tear you hair out like you cannot have personal contacts like you can in Outlook. Calendar items when marked "finished" by you disappear. So if you went back to yesterday's tasks and checked to see what you did, its blank! If you have a Home Address for someone good luck entering that! Of course, you can configure GoldMine for that but why do I have to go to such lengths for obvious functionalities? After our harrowing experience, despite high ratings from ZDnet labs, we have switched back to Outlook 2002 and are considering using Oracle Small Busines Suite instead. I am seriously begining to doubt the testing process of ZDNet since they seems to have gone with what the product promised rather than check the veracity of their claims. Hope this helps someone avoid the frustations we had to face. After more than a year of experimenting with available CRM solutions out there I think low-end users should go with Symantec's Act. People who want the kind of powerful features GoldMine *promises* should try the Oracle Small Business Suite instead.
Rating:
Summary: Great Product -- With the help of MasterMine
Review: Ok -- GoldMine can do ALOT of things that ACT! was just never made to do -- like manage an entire SALES FORCE! It's the Cadillac of CRMs, on *almost* every level. What could be better? The GoldMine Caddy is missing the gas guage, but this can easily be solved for with MasterMine. Let's face it -- what good is CRM and all the activity in the world if you can't analyze the numbers and see what it working? Do yourself a favor and get the dynamic duo together. You'll love your CRM!
Rating:
Summary: Not recommended for very small businesses!
Review: The addition of both Outlook and Quickbooks integration has significantly increased the effectiveness of my team. Now everyone in my office has the ability to schedule meetings and not just my sales team. The addtion of the GoldMine plus accounting for Quickbooks 2002 is also an great feature. My sales team now has access to relevant aging data which is helping us lower our Days Sales Outstanding.
Rating:
Summary: Outlook integration is excellent + Accounting
Review: The addition of both Outlook and Quickbooks integration has significantly increased the effectiveness of my team. Now everyone in my office has the ability to schedule meetings and not just my sales team. The addtion of the GoldMine plus accounting for Quickbooks 2002 is also an great feature. My sales team now has access to relevant aging data which is helping us lower our Days Sales Outstanding.
Rating:
Summary: Bells and whistles you'll never use: unreliable
Review: This product has many great features, but this is one type of application from which most of require reliability. With this product we have experienced loss of critical data even minutes after it was entered, including loss of appointments scheduled. If you like it when two clients show up at the same time for an appointment, you'll love this product! If not, look elsewhere. And don't count on being able to change to another product. You may not be able to move all your records. Of course, no software is perfect, but with this product you will need to be ready to spend heavily for tech support with no guarantee your problem will be fixed.
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