Maximizer 5

In the world of contact management, like most other arenas of software development, companies are constantly coming up with new features and tools to keep ahead of the competition. The standard has been set recently by GoldMine 4 (reviewed issue 45, p189) and Act! 4 (reviewed issue 47, p207). MultiActive has now arrived on the scene with Maximizer 5.

As these new versions emerge, the once primitive contact manager is becoming a more feature-rich and rounded application. Billed as contact and customer management, Maximizer has taken the typical sales-oriented contact manager and added a very useful on-line twist.

This new complexity is reflected in a slightly cluttered interface. Whether you prefer the single-screen tabbed approach or multiple windows to view your data, there's an almost overwhelming mass of information to take in.

Typically, you'll find a scrolling list of company names and addresses shown as the main area of the application window. Beneath this is displayed the contacts for that company and a set of notes. Individuals are treated like companies, and can have their own subcontacts as well.

Fortunately, the various screens are linked so as you move from company to company the contacts and notes windows change in synchronisation. A Microsoft Outlook-style action bar lets you flick between this display of contacts to a calendar view, an email centre or a hot-list of the day's tasks. You can also switch the subsidiary screens to show related contacts, external documents attached to those contacts and a list of user-definable fields.

Maximizer now boasts an on-line library of company information, which users can access while they're talking to prospects or customers. The campaign planner is a move in the direction of GoldMine's automated processes. This allows you to create a list of automated plans, with actions to perform when required.

To get a full set of opportunity management features, or if you need automated synchronisation between various users of the same database, you'll need to upgrade to Maximizer Enterprise edition.

Maximizer 5 now has a more extensive email centre, so there shouldn't be any need to resort to yet another email client. The software integrates seamlessly with MAPI or VIM-compliant mail systems, such as cc:Mail, Eudora Pro, Microsoft Exchange, Outlook and the basic Windows Messaging.

I could have gone and made a cup of tea while Maximizer found all my Outlook personal folders. It didn't get much quicker on subsequent forays into my mailbox.

What makes Maximizer 5 really interesting is its on-line e-commerce feature. If you're thinking of advertising your wares on the Internet this is a vital inclusion. Maximizer 5 comes complete with MarketBuilder, a Wizard that builds a complete Web site. A home page is generated with links to your company profile, a contact page and a page for customer queries. All you do is supply the text and graphics, and the Wizard does the rest, keeping to the template design you chose from the 15 provided.

Company slogans, keystone messages and contact details for sales, Web site management and so on are all inserted in the appropriate location. Maximizer asks you for crucial keywords and inserts these in the non-printing META tag section of the home page, making sure your site gets noticed when the search engines next trawl round.

Maximizer 5 can even create a catalogue page for you, with spaces for up to 25 links to items a customer can order directly on-line. Your site can even be set up to accept credit card details securely, and subsequent orders are forwarded to your email address (secure or not, depending on the browser capabilities employed). Everything then arrives as encrypted email attachments into Maximizer 5 ready for processing.