Goldmine V5.70.20222
Goldmine can be installed in a server configuration or "undocked" (standalone). The server implementation requires Microsoft SQL Server 7.x or 2000 as its database back-end.
Depending on the number of users, the CPU required ranges from a single PIII 300MHz up to quad-PIII equipped systems. Standalone requirements are very modest.
The interface default setting includes a basic toolbar with 26 buttons. There is an advanced toolbar, which provides the user with in excess of 50 buttons. Of course the user can customise the tool bar to his or her own preference.
Each user on the system has their own preference settings, and can customise the calendar, record display, alarms, and many other details. The product integrates with SQL Server, Outlook 2000, and Exchange Server, and imports ASCII, DBF, SDF, and SQL files. Goldmine uses the Borland Database Engine to access its databases.
There is also an add-on called Goldmine Plus Accounting that links to Quickbooks Pro or Premier 2002 if you want to head further into CRM territory.
The default layout seems a little cluttered when compared with ACT, for example, but then more information is present on the display. Also, many more function shortcuts are provided by the toolbars, it's a trade-off that we are willing to take.
Members of the same organisation are represented in tree structure, but this is certainly not as intuitive to use as ACT, and we found at times it was a tad clumsy in execution.
Creating users is quite easy, but some of the functions do not quite work the way you might expect. Once you become used to the application, of course, it will become second nature. However, we found from a cold start, Goldmine was not as simple to come to grips with as some of the other applications.
Searching through the client list can be as simple as using the lookup function for the most common indexed fields, you can launch into SQL queries, or probably the easiest option for most is to build a custom filter.
In addition to the usual daily up to yearly layout, the calendar includes planner, outline (a tree structure), and pegboard layouts. Scheduling a meeting, for example, is very simple and can be linked to required resources, groups, and users.
There is a wealth of recurring appointment options, which includes yearly with the option to skip weekends, right down to specifying the number of days between the meetings.
We were very pleased to find that in addition to synchronising with Outlook and Palm PDAs, Goldmine will also support Pocket PC PDAs--a rarity in the current crop.
Items that can be scheduled include, calls, actions, appointments, literature requests, and forecasted sales.
Staff can be organised into sales groups and it is relatively easy to share information and schedules among the staff.
Goldmine is not lacking when it comes to reports either with sales, statistical, leads, quota, and forecast analysis presented in succinct tabular format.
An option supplied with the package that can be installed on each system is the Answer Wizard, which is a collection of predefined Crystal Reports to further drill into your data.
Graphical analysis is perhaps a little lean however, and for that matter not as snazzy looking as some of the other packages. We were disappointed that forecasts were not amongst the activities that could be graphed.
