Maximizer 7
Maximizer's platform requirements are very modest and the vendor claims the application will run on every flavour of Windows from 95 through to XP. It massages the data using the Pervasive SQL 2000i Workgroup engine.
Maximizer happily integrates with mail packages such as Outlook, Exchange, and Netscape Messenger 4.6 and 4.7, although in Netscape's case with basic functionality only.
The applications connectability is also excellent, with support for Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, and Winfax Pro to name but a few. Importing abilities are similarly impressive and the list includes FoxPro, dBase, Clipper, and other SFA packages such as Goldmine and ACT, as well as delimited text files.
The user interface is pretty easy to come to terms with, although not as simple as Legrand, for example, but Maximizer supports a lot more detail.
The layout of the user interface is quite logical, and not surprisingly similar to the other packages tested. The left vertical strip of task icons each has its own associated toolbar along the top of the display.
In the default settings, the toolbar does not cover all the possible operations for the selected task, but the extensive menu bar certainly does, with many of the menus having two levels.
Each of the three display windows' contents can be configured by the user, either with tabs along the bottom or pull-down menus. As an example, the main address book window has 40 user selectable layouts which in effect are different column arrangements of name, company, address, phone number, and so on.
Where relevant, the window also includes various tool buttons in the case of the main address book window there are two, one for column setup and the other for searching.
Searching through the addresses is relatively simple: you select the field/s you wish to search on utilising simple Boolean operators, expressed in plain English, such as Equal To, Not Equal To, And, and Or.
Creating letters, document, faxes, and the like is very simple. There are quite a few standard templates available from the menu and the integrated word processor is quite good.
If that's not enough, the application links to Microsoft Word, and even includes some additional buttons in the Word toolbar for added flexibility.
The Calendar is surprisingly basic and does not have some of the bells and whistles of some of the other packages. It is easy to use and includes recurring appointments, from daily through to yearly, with the option to skip weekends. A neat feature is the ability to attach a simple icon to the appointment to provide a quick visual cue as to its purpose.
The e-mail client links to Outlook and includes simple filters for the subject and e-mail date, but this is not as sophisticated as the filter for the contact database.
Maximizer will synchronise with Palm OS based PDAs, but does not support Pocket PC-based units.
The standard edition of Maximizer will cope with around 10 to 12 concurrent users, however the Enterprise edition can have unlimited synchronised users if you use Microsoft SQL Server as the back-end database, rather than the standard Btrieve one.
Many of the more mundane tasks can be automated using the application's macro feature. Some other simple but useful tools are the phone call tracker, a simple popup linked to the contact database that records the conversation time and whether it was answered, engaged, or a voice mail was left, and if any follow up is needed.
There is a form designer so you can create custom input windows; it's quite a powerful utility and was surprisingly simple to use. The links to accounting packages provide useful information for staff on the road--they can at a glance check the client's account status, for example.
There is a personal journal--the name is pretty self-explanatory--and conversely there is a company library that can make vital sales and marketing information accessible to all the staff.
There is an enormous swag of predefined reports covering pretty much every aspect of the application you could reasonably want to extract information from. You can also create custom reports. The reports can be output to printer, e-mail, RTF, or HTML formats.
The graphing capability is exceptional; the chart options look like a clone of Excel. However, while there are quite a lot of items that can be graphed, there is no way to natively graph the current month's sales forecast, for instance.
You can graph, as we did, the opportunity status, but this only displays the number of won, lost, and progressing opportunities, not their dollar value.
