Hi there,

To help me provide you with an answer. I have several questions for you:

1. What version of Outlook and Access are you using? I assume its 2000.
2. What email protocol / service are you using? i.e. SMTP
3. Are you using Exchange Server at all? If so what version?
4. Do you have SQL Server 7.0 or 2000 installed on your network?

On 13:41:28 22 April 2001 forwood wrote:
>Consulting.co is a small scale website
>(http://consulting.co.uk/) with just over a 1000 users,
>designed now in FrontPage 2000. We have plans to grow
>substantially, with a max user population about the 50k
>mark. For the past 2/3 years I have been managing
>communications by importing data from the site's
>registration database to specially designed Outlook
>contact forms. This allows me to segment and target user
>communications accordingly.
>
>We expect to grow individual and sub-group communications
>possibly to average one email a month, thus 1000 rising to
>50,000 monthly. We will also have some purchasing but the
>product range is likely to be limited to membership fees
>and annual subscriptions. On the face of it, Outlook forms
>are an ideal way to record customer data and remind us
>about when to interact with the customer
>
>The problem currently is that importing the contact data
>is tedious, involving manual processing of text data into
>Excel, reformatting it and checking registrant is not an
>existing user, then exporting data via Access to Outlook.
>Also, every mailing throws up redundant email addresses
>which then have to be tested and purged by hand both from
>Outlook and the Excel master copy.
>
>Planned growth would make this a full time job or more, so
>I'm looking for an application that will simplify this
>operation, as well as help manage and maintain the rise in
>communications. The products profiled in your review
>appear to be suited to much larger operations. Do you know
>products that might be suitable here, and what they would
>likely cost to implement and maintain?

My recommendation is to look at a Bespoke solution using Microsoft Access. Access 2000 has VBA (Visual Basic Application) 6.0 as its proramming language. It is pretty much VB 6.0, even has a similar editor.

The power of VBA 6.0 is you can reference any Office 2000 application via its object model. In this case Outlook 2000. Basically anything you can do from the Outlook interface i.e. send email or update contacts you can basically replicate using code in Access.

This is a lot more powerful than spending money on a generic off-the-shelf product that may only do half the job. A good VB / Access programmer could probably produce something in Access for you within two weeks.

The structure of a contact import application written Access 2000 could consist of the following:

1. A form that will walk the user through the entire importing process. This will involve calling the following functions in order and changing screen information to the user (a bit like installing a new piece of software in Windows).

2. A code module function that cleans then inserts the data into an Access temporary table. The internal Access function TransferText() could possibly used. Or alternatively the FileSystemObject in VB.

3. A code module function that has a valdiation routine checking for duplication and invalidate fields. A separate function that checks email addresses using the Microsoft SMTP object or an equivalent is needed.
This may produce a report of invalidate and duplicate names and email addresses then copies them to a holding table for further analysis once the import process is completed. These records should then be deleted from the temporary table to avoid bad data been entered into Outlook.

4. A code module function that imports the data directly into the Outlook contact fields by using the Outlook object model.

5. A code module function that once the import is completed the data in the temporary table is copied to a validation table (this table is used in Step 3. to validate new data) then deleted to maintain the data integrity of future imports.

6. A form that allows the user to import repaired data from the holding table into Outlook.

Some reference sources that maybe useful:

Building Applications with Microsoft Outlook 2000, Technical Reference
Microsoft Press. Author: Randy Byrne

Programming Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange
Microsoft Press. Author: Thomas Rizzo

Access 2000 VBA Handbook
Sybex. Author: Susan Novalis

Website: msdn.microsoft.com/office

On 22:09:45 23 April 2001 forwood wrote:
>Thanks for the response kris. Answers nested below.
>
>
>1. What version of Outlook and Access are you using?
>
>Yes, Office 2000 over Win 98. Upgrading to Windows 2000
>next week!
>
>2. What email protocol / service are you using? i.e. SMTP
>
>SMTP outgoing PoP3 incoming (so I believe, looking at
>account data)
>
>3. Are you using Exchange Server at all?
>
>No
>
>4. Do you have SQL Server 7.0 or 2000 installed on your
>network?
>
>Don't have a network. Web host http://digihost.com/ offers
>NT hosting ODBC and mySQL Database.
>
>Hope that's clear. Can be reached on 020 8521 3682
>otherwise
>
>Thanks
>
>>On 13:41:28 22 April 2001 forwood wrote:
>>>Consulting.co is a small scale website
>>>(http://consulting.co.uk/) with just over a 1000
>>users,
>>>designed now in FrontPage 2000. We have plans to
>grow
>>>substantially, with a max user population about
>the
>>50k
>>>mark. For the past 2/3 years I have been managing
>>>communications by importing data from the site's
>>>registration database to specially designed
>Outlook
>>>contact forms. This allows me to segment and
>target
>>user
>>>communications accordingly.
>>>
>>>We expect to grow individual and sub-group
>>communications
>>>possibly to average one email a month, thus 1000
>>rising to
>>>50,000 monthly. We will also have some purchasing
>but
>>the
>>>product range is likely to be limited to
>membership
>>fees
>>>and annual subscriptions. On the face of it,
>Outlook
>>forms
>>>are an ideal way to record customer data and
>remind us
>>>about when to interact with the customer
>>>
>>>The problem currently is that importing the
>contact
>>data
>>>is tedious, involving manual processing of text
>data
>>into
>>>Excel, reformatting it and checking registrant is
>not
>>an
>>>existing user, then exporting data via Access to
>>Outlook.
>>>Also, every mailing throws up redundant email
>>addresses
>>>which then have to be tested and purged by hand
>both
>>from
>>>Outlook and the Excel master copy.
>>>
>>>Planned growth would make this a full time job or
>>more, so
>>>I'm looking for an application that will simplify
>this
>>>operation, as well as help manage and maintain the
>>rise in
>>>communications. The products profiled in your
>review
>>>appear to be suited to much larger operations. Do
>you
>>know
>>>products that might be suitable here, and what
>they
>>would
>>>likely cost to implement and maintain?