The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group
GoldMine for Windows 95 v3.2
Bernadette Houghton
 bernieh@iaccess.com.au

GoldMine is a powerful, heavyweight contact manager, capable of tracking contacts and activities to almost infinite lengths. Well suited to single users, it is especially useful over networks or distributed environments, with excellent workgroup scheduling, multi-level user security and inbuilt data synchronisation.

GoldMine supports an extensive range of third-party add-ons and most popular networks, including Novell, LANtastic, Banyan, Windows for Workgroups and Windows NT. You can create as many databases as disk space allows and import and export ASCII, dBASE and SDF formats. GoldMine Software claims, too, that GoldMine imports ACT! databases seamlessly, although I didn't verify this.


Figure 1. Contact record showing organisational chart display and results of a "find".


Figure 2. Defining an automated process.

Contact management

Contact records are the heart of GoldMine. Unless you choose otherwise, all past and pending activities of whatever kind are linked to a contact record, giving you a full history of each contact. Records contain two kinds of fields--fixed and user-definable. Fixed fields include standard data such as company, title, address, and past and pending events. You can customise the label of any fixed field (e.g. Phone1 to Work Phone), but you can't change the underlying data structure. Customisable lookup tables control and speed user input in each field, fixed or otherwise. Central to GoldMine's power and flexibility are a series of folders associated with each contact record. Apart from Summary, Notes, Pending and History (which are self-explanatory), the folders include:

  • Contacts, which list other people within an organisation.
  • Profiles, which are fields attached to records on an "as needed" basis; for example, not every contact may have an e-mail address or credit card.
  • Referrals, which link records in the same database. Referrals are two-way, so you can follow links from one record to another (e.g. the branching and distribution of leads.)
  • Links, which enable you to associate documents or applications with records and launch them from GoldMine.
  • Members, which displays the groups to which the contact belongs (e.g. Melb PC member, customer.)
  • Tracks, which lists any automated processes assigned to the record. Automated processes are triggered on pre-defined events (e.g. if a prospect makes a purchase, GoldMine schedules a follow-up letter automatically.)
Y ou can use the Fields folder (and another 18 user-definable folders) for custom fields. Up to 999 custom fields are possible; these are global and, unlike profiles, attached to all records. You can also define up to 20 views, in which you specify which custom fields and folders will be visible for which users or user groups. You could define different views for sales and technical people, for instance.


Figure 3. Building a filter.


Figure 4. Scheduling an appointment in daily calendar view.

GoldMine accepts up to 1 million contact records, yet makes it easy to find specific records. Certain fields are indexed for faster searching, but you can search any fields using a simple Find dialog box, or more sophisticated filters. Groups and profiles (described above) facilitate much faster searching, since GoldMine doesn't need to search the entire database. Organisation charts are another way of quickly finding related records; this feature enables you to link records (e.g. multiple company locations, departments or individuals) and display them in a hierarchical folder-type display.

Calendar

GoldMine displays daily, weekly, monthly and yearly calendar views in a tabbed interface. The quickest and easiest way to enter a calendar event is to click and drag out a time--a dialog box then pops up. GoldMine automatically checks for any schedule conflicts. Apart from standard calls, appointments, events, to-dos and recurring activities, you can record forecasted sales, providing the basis for detailed sales performance reports. You can roll unfinished tasks forward, allocate priorities, and associate tasks with contact records. GoldMine warns you in advance of pending events, but if its not running, GoldAlarm does so instead. Access to your activities is fast and easy with the Activity List which lists all completed and pending activities in tabbed folders.


Figure 5. The Activity List.


Figure 6. The Planner showing multiple users.

With the appropriate access rights, you can view other users' schedules, scan for available meeting times then schedule an activity with or for multiple users, at the same time requesting an RSVP. A Planner tab displays the combined schedule of selected GoldMine users, and a Peg Board tracks user availability and current work activity.

Communications

GoldMine includes Internet and local network e-mail support. You can send and receive in Rich Text Format, filter messages, attach MIME documents and encrypt outgoing messages. GoldMine can log on to your server at preset times, download any mail, then log off; all without user intervention. Once downloaded, GoldMine presents mail for viewing, latest messages first. I didn't like this feature, but could find no way to change the default.

Clicking a URL in a contact record or e-mail message automatically launches your Web browser and loads the site. If you have your own Web site, you can use GoldMine's automated processes to download forms your visitors submit, absorb them into your contact records then process them automatically (e.g. mail-outs.) You can also synchronise GoldMine data via the Internet and download appointments and phone numbers to your Timex Datalink watch. If you have a pager, GoldMine can page you or notify you of alarmed activities; you can also page other GoldMine users.


Figure 7. Creating a report.


Figure 8. On-screen statistical analysis report.

GoldMine has an autodial function for hands-free phone dialling. Apart from the contact records, GoldMine offers a Rolodex for personal telephone numbers.

Other Features

GoldMine has 50 predefined reports, including a range of quota analyses, lead analyses, sales forecasting, and performance statistics and graphs. You can create custom reports and generate correspondence for mass and targeted mailings. Alternatively, you can create documents in any DDE-compatible program and link with GoldMine to generate the mailing list. If you have WinFax Pro 7.01 or later, or RightFax, you can also fax directly from GoldMine.

With the InfoCenter you can create organisational or personal knowledge bases. Using a hierarchical outline, the InfoCenter stores folders, documents, graphics, multimedia files and programs (or the links to them) in a central location. You could use it to maintain and disseminate organisational information such as pricing policies and internal memos.

You can create macros to speed frequently performed tasks, such as reading your e-mail or entering sales forecasts. Scripts automate tasks such as guiding telemarketers through sales calls and informing salespeople of product information. There are two kinds of scripts; topic scripts are simple "do this" commands (e.g. display a price list), while branching scripts allow for user choices in a flowchart-type format.

Assessment

GoldMine is a very customisable program, although I did find the e-mail function quite inflexible. It takes some time to plumb its depths, and the extensive help information (a Getting Started, a User's Guide, two Reference Manuals and online help) is not as useful as it could be. Partly this is due to poor indexing, partly to poor explanations and partly to poor layout. On the other hand, there are useful Wizards that guide you through some tricky tasks (e.g. Import/Export, Merge/Purge.)

GoldMine presents an attractively tabbed interface, with the Activity List an ideal toolbox, quick, easy-to-use and close at hand. Except in the case of filing my e-mail, I found GoldMine ran quite fast; much faster than Sidekick on the same machine.

The networking and workgroup scheduling features are GoldMine's strongest suit, but the other features are pretty powerful too. I particularly like the way it maintains a history for all contacts and makes customer follow up relatively painless. If your contacts are a vital part of your job or if you just need a powerful contact manager, GoldMine is well worth a serious look.

Reprinted from the June 1997 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

 

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