A contact manager enables users to easily store and find contact information, such as name

Name

A name is a word or term used for identification. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. A personal name identifies a specific unique and identifiable individual person, and may or may not include a middle name...

s, address

Address

Address may refer to:*Address , a code and abstract concept expressing a location on the Earth's surface ...*Public speaking*Style , honorifics*In computing and telecommunication:...

es and telephone number

Telephone number

A telephone number or phone number is a sequence of digits used to call from one telephone line to another in a public switched telephone network. When telephone numbers were invented, they were short — as few as one, two or three digits — and were given orally to a switchboard operator...

s. They are contact-centric databases that provide a fully integrated approach to tracking of all information and communication activities linked to contacts. Sophisticated contact managers provide calendar

Calendar

A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not...

 sharing features and allow several people in a company to access the same database.

Benefits

A Contact Management System (CMS) may be chosen because it is thought to provide the following advantages:

• Centralized repository of contact information
• Ready to use database with searching
• Sales tracking
• Email integration
• Scheduling of appointments and meetings
• Document management
  Document management system
  A document management system is a computer system used to track and store electronic documents and/or images of paper documents. It is usually also capable of keeping track of the different versions created by different users . The term has some overlap with the concepts of content management...
  
  
• Notes and conversation management
• Customizable fields
• Drip marketing
  Drip Marketing
  Drip marketing is a communication strategy that sends, or "drips," a pre-written set of messages to customers or prospects over time. These messages often take the form of email marketing, although other media can also be used...
  
  
• Import/export utility

Differences from customer relationship management

A contact manager is usually used for instances where the sales interaction model of the organization is a one-to-many

One-to-many

One-to-many may refer to:* Multivalued function, a one-to-many function in mathematics* Fat link, a one-to-many link in hypertext* Point-to-multipoint communication, communication which has a one-to-many relation-See also:*One-to-one...

 interaction model, in which a single sales representative is responsible for multiple roles within a company. Alternatively, a company with a many-to-many

Many-to-many

Many-to-many is a term that describes a communication paradigm and an associated media form. It is the third of three major Internet computing paradigms...

 interaction model, in which many sales representatives are targeting a single job role, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Customer relationship management

Customer relationship management is a widely implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing,...

 system is preferred.:

CRM's usually extend the features of a contact management solution into a more comprehensive record of all interactions as now many people need to collaborate on the same information.

Current market trends

The current trend is an integrated CMS and CRM solutions that can provide both one-to-one and many-to-many capabilities. It can allow a user to have their own contact list and manage their contacts, while at the same time provide complete collaboration options. These are the optimal solutions as they provide a SMB or SOHO the option to grow without having to upgrade to a CRM later on.

See also

• Automated online assistant
• Business intelligence
  Business intelligence
  Business intelligence mainly refers to computer-based techniques used in identifying, extracting, and analyzing business data, such as sales revenue by products and/or departments, or by associated costs and incomes....
  
  
• Business relationship management
  Business relationship management
  Business relationship management is a formal approach to understanding, defining, and supporting a broad spectrum of inter-business activities related to providing and consuming knowledge and services via networks, with an emphasis on the emergence of online networks as a primary medium through...
  
  
• Comparison of CRM systems
  Comparison of CRM systems
  - General :Only stable releases are considered.- Features :- See also :* Comparison of ERP software Enterprise Resource Planning* Customer relationship management CRM...
  
  
• Consumer relationship system
  Consumer Relationship System
  Consumer relationship systems are specialized customer relationship management software applications used to handle consumer products and services company's dealings with consumers and customers...
  
  
• Customer experience
  Customer experience
  Customer experience is the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods or services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier. From awareness, discovery, attraction, interaction, purchase, use, cultivation and advocacy...
  
  
• Customer experience transformation
  Customer experience transformation
  Customer experience transformation is a strategy that uses business process management to enhance customer service experience from any customer touchpoint....
  
  
• Customer intelligence
  Customer intelligence
  -What it is:Customer intelligence is the process of gathering and analyzing information regarding customers; their details and their activities, in order to build deeper and more effective customer relationships and improve strategic decision making ....
  
  
• Customer service
  Customer service
  Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.According to Turban et al. , “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer...
  
   – contains ISO
  International Organization for Standardization
  The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
  
   standards
• Data management
  Data management
  Data management comprises all the disciplines related to managing data as a valuable resource.- Overview :The official definition provided by DAMA International, the professional organization for those in the data management profession, is: "Data Resource Management is the development and execution...
  
  
• Real-time marketing
  Real-time marketing
  Real-time marketing is marketing performed "on-the-fly" to determine an appropriate or optimal approach to a particular customer at a particular time and place...
  
  

• Data mining
  Data mining
  Data mining , a relatively young and interdisciplinary field of computer science is the process of discovering new patterns from large data sets involving methods at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistics and database systems...
  
  
• Database marketing
  Database marketing
  Database marketing is a form of direct marketing using databases of customers or potential customers to generate personalized communications in order to promote a product or service for marketing purposes...
  
  
• E-crm
  E-crm
  eCRMThis concept is derived from E-commerce. It also uses net environment i.e., intranet, extranet and internet.Electronic CRM concerns all forms of managing relationships with customers making use of Information Technology . eCRM is enterprises using IT to integrate internal organization resources...
  
  
• Employee experience management
  Employee experience management
  Along with the notion of Experience Economy, Employee experience is defined as what employee received during their interaction with careers’ elements Along with the notion of Experience Economy, Employee experience is defined as what employee received during their interaction with careers’ elements...
  
   (EEM)
• Enterprise feedback management
  Enterprise Feedback Management
  Enterprise feedback management is a system of processes and software that enables organizations to centrally manage deployment of surveys while dispersing authoring and analysis throughout an organization...
  
   (EFM)
• Farley File
  Farley File
  A farley file is a set of records kept by politicians on people they have met previously.The term is named for James Aloysius Farley, who was Franklin Delano Roosevelt's campaign manager. Farley, who went on to become the chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a Postmaster General, kept...
  
  
• Help desk
  Help desk
  A help desk is an information and assistance resource that troubleshoots problems with computers or similar products. Corporations often provide help desk support to their customers via a toll-free number, website and e-mail. There are also in-house help desks geared toward providing the same kind...
  
  
• Mystery shopping
  Mystery shopping
  Mystery shopping or a mystery consumer is a tool used externally by market research companies or watchdog organizations or internally by companies themselves to measure quality of service or compliance to regulation, or to gather specific information about products and services...
  
  
• Partner relationship management (PRM)
  Partner Relationship Management (PRM)
  Partner relationship management is a system of methodologies, strategies, software, and web-based capabilities that help a vendor to manage partner relationships...
  
  
• Predictive analytics
  Predictive analytics
  Predictive analytics encompasses a variety of statistical techniques from modeling, machine learning, data mining and game theory that analyze current and historical facts to make predictions about future events....
  
  
• Professional services automation software
  Professional services automation software
  Professional Services Automation is software designed to assist professionals, such as IT consultants, with project management and resource management for client projects...
  
   (PSA)

• Public relations
  Public relations
  Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
  
  
• Sales force management system
  Sales force management system
  Sales force management systems are information systems used in CRM marketing and management that help automate some sales and sales force management functions...
  
  
• Sales intelligence
  Sales intelligence
  Sales intelligence refers to technologies, applications and practices for the collection, integration, analysis, and presentation of information to help salespeople keep up to date with clients, prospect data and drive business...
  
  
• Sales process engineering
  Sales process engineering
  Sales process engineering has been described as “the systematic application of scientific and mathematical principles to achieve the practical goals of a particular sales process". Selden pointed out that in this context, sales referred to the output of a process involving a variety of functions...
  
  
• Support automation
• Supplier relationship management
  Supplier relationship management
  “SRM is a discipline of working collaboratively with those suppliers that are vital to the success of your organisation to maximise the potential value of those relationships.” - Reference - Overview :...
  
  
• The International Customer Service Institute
  The International Customer Service Institute
  The International Customer Service Institute is an international organisation enabling the recognition and sharing of global best practice in customer service...
  
   - contains customer service
  Customer service
  Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.According to Turban et al. , “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer...
  
   standards
• Vendor relationship management
  Vendor Relationship Management
  VRM, or vendor relationship management is a category of business activity made possible by software tools that provide customers with both independence from vendors and better means for engaging with vendors...
  
  or VRM