We are considering switching from ACT 6 to Maximizer 8. We have a few questions.

1. Does anyone have any advice about importing the database? Is it as easy as the instructions make it sound? What about all our notes, history, etc? What about e-mails that have been linked to contacts? Will I be able to import them?

2. With ACT we either used ACT's internet mail or Outlook Express. Both had their limitations. Any advice on a good e-mail program to use with Maximizer?

3. Also, am wondering about some of the comments about Maximizer 8 being unstable. Have any of the service releases improved things?

Thanks
Linda

1) Importing address / tel / user field info is easy. Importing notes a little more difficult. Linked emails...don't think so.

2) Outlook integrates the best. You can view entire folder structure within Maximizer. Others, like Eudora & Thunderbird, you can only see the Inbox. Of course, Outlook brings it's own disadvantages.

3)For single users and small workgroups, Maximizer is very stable. If you have a larger setup, you would probably want a consultant to assist you.

We use outlook 2003 and SBS exchange and cant get Maximiser to work (just crashes) for emails at all. This means you have to use outlook for emails then jump to maximiser to file .

I am told they are trying to fix the outlook integration in version 9

Thank you for your replies. I have a couple more questions.

We are testing the trial version using Outlook Express for the e-mail. We had the same situation in ACT, so are not sure if this is the way it is supposed to be or not. It seems that the contents of the inbox cannot be seen across the network. It seems that each computer has to bring the e-mail in for itself. When we used ACT's internet mail, the content of the inboxes was shared acoss the network, which is what we want. But ACT 6 does not support smtp authentication for outgoing mail, so we switched to OE. If we used Outlook, would the content of the inbox folders be shared? Or any other suggestions?

We use WinFax Pro 10.0. According to Maximizer, it is supposed to link to WinFax. However, WinFax does not see it. I looked for solutions here & found a post from May 2003 http://maxtalk.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/132605203/m/5...146027723#3146027723 It said there were workarounds for linking WinFax to Maximizer. Does anyone know what the workarounds are?

And fyi, our import seemed to go fairly smoothly. We just did a simple import according to the instructions & we got all our contact info, notes, & a reference to our e-mails. We did not get the body of the e-mail, but the subject. So that seems good enough.

Linda

We have found an issue with Maximiser Enterprise 8 and Outlook 2003. We use Outlook 2003 in Cached Mode for the remote and laptop users. Maximiser doesn't handle this at all well. If you close Maximiser first you can't access the Mail and Calender folders of Outlook as it thinks it's still being used. So, you have to close Outlook first and then Maximiser or shut down and restart Outlook.

We use Outlook 2000 with Max 7 and it's fine. A little limited, but fine. We made a conscious decision to stay away from Outlook 2003 based on user comments from this forum - you may wish to consider doing the same.

- R.