My company have recently purchased Maximizer 5, and are finally getting to grips with it. We now wish to send our sales representatives out on the roads with laptops. Before we part with our money, I was wondering if someone could explain the pros and cons of each program for mobile use. Also if someone could explain how the synchronization works when two people change different parts of the same record, I would be grateful. Thanks.

Hi Philip,

If your asking about the difference between the hand held and laptop synchronisation products for Maximizer it will depend very much what you need your salespeople to be able to do.

To just to give your sales staff upto date phone numbers and some recent notes and a diary, A Windows CE version of Maximizer will probably suffice. Though, I recommend the fastest processor you can get. Pro's: Relativly Cheap, Cons limited functionality.

If you really want the salespeople to be able to work away from the office (write letters etc.) they'll need a laptop with a full copy of Maximizer. You then have two options depending on how much you want to spend and the level of synchronisation you need.

Level 1 ) and the lowest cost is simply to give every laptop a copy of Maximizer 5 or Maximizer Enterprise 2000. Pro's: Good for the salesperson efficency Con's: theres only synchronisation if you use Maximzier's Transfer facility regulary and with care. The transfer facility is simple but only performs a merge of the changes so deletions for example don't travel back. This solution only needs Maximzier 5

Level 2) Full synchronisation with Max Exchange.
Max Exchange records changes as they are made and plays these back at the other database copies to maintain synchronisation.
Pros: Much better synchronisation. Easy to send sales staff just their territory if you want to. Simpler to operate. Cons: its a bit more expensive to install.
This solution needs Maximizer Enterprise 2000 so you also get the benefit of sales opportunity tracking.

For detail of how Max Exchange merges a change see my answer to "Does Max Exchange work at the record or field level?" earlier in Max Talk.

If you would like to recieve a detailed document about how Max Exchange works or a quotation for any of the above you can email me your contact details at ian.wallace@cabc.co.uk

Regards,

Ian Wallace
CABC