What is a Contact Manager?

Contact management software attempts to make you more productive by automating the routine tasks associated with maintaining relationships. A typical contact manager is built around a specialized database for storing information about contacts, including address and phone information, a record of when you met or spoke, notes on meetings, and follow-up information such as what you might want to send a person and when you want to contact them next.

Contact managers usually include a word processor for producing memos, letters, mailing labels, etc.; a communications program to automate phone dialing and interfacing with on-line systems; and time management tools such as an appointment calendar and to-do list. The different elements of a contact manager should be well integrated. For instance, you should be able to transfer address information from the database to the word processing functions when you're writing a letter to a contact.

Other features to look for in a contact manager include: report generation (the ability to generate reports on schedules, contact histories, expenses, etc.); macro capability (to automate keystrokes and save more time); on-line help function (saves time when you can't remember commands, and you don't have to carry the manual with you); and screen customization (modify the screen to display data the way you want to see it).