[swimcoachp]

Hi,
I have had my BB pearl 8130 for about 9 months now and I am so happy with it. I used to have a Treo, and have gone through other PDAs and smart phones, but none have held up or performed like my BB.

My question, I do a lot of recruiting for my job. The school I work for has an enterprise server which I have been able to get activation for. The first 6 months I was using Outlook to manage my contacts.

I was told that I should look into purchasing Sales Manager and so I figured what's 20 bucks. I bought the software, had to update my desktop software only to discover you can't import anything and all information has to be entered on the BB. That is a problem. I have over 100 contacts to manage each season and I am looking for a product that I can purchase which I can either export from a PC or enter the data from the PC and then update the BB.

Does anyone have any idea of any product like this out there?

[jeffh]

Is there some reason why you can't keep using Outlook? You already know how to use it, it synchs with your BB, and it allows PC input. Why use anything else?

[bx2md]

your in good hands with jeffh
and welcome to cb

[swimcoachp]

Jeff H,
I would actually like to keep using outlook, but it doesn't allow me to see all of the contact information, which is important - when I use the phone I need to be able to see GPA, SAT scores, times etc.... and the details in the contact information are limited. If you know how to fix that - then I am all set..... any help would be greatly appriciated. I was just contacted by a company who has a product which they charge 500 a year to do basically the same thing, I would really love to save the 500 bucks if possible.

[jeffh]

I guess the solution just depends on how much information you need to enter, and how you collect it. You can type "SAT: 1500" and "GPA 3.8" into the notes field in Outlook on your PC and it will sync to the notes field on your BlackBerry, so you have it when you do a home visit to a recruit. But if you need to run a report that shows the average SAT of a recruiting class, or GPA vs School Attended, then you're back to hand entering the data. I'm guessing that kind of statistical reporting is the forte of the specialized solution that costs $500. Any kind of database program that comes with reports you can tailor to your needs is going to cost you. $500 might be cheap, especially if it's a one-time purchase. If it's an annual license, you have to weigh the benefits of annual upgrades against the cost. Or recruit a swimmer who can program!