Goldmine Software



Goldmine Software was one of the first programs developed to allow business people to track their contact and sales information. Originally created to help sales professionals organize and track client and account information, it has evolved into a group of products and add-ons that are designed to manage contact information, track sales, do reporting, provide follow-up, and integrate with other software programs. Though Goldmine Software has evolved over the years with the goal of providing a complete Customer Relationship Management system, it has failed to address a primary issue: ease of use.

The Many Faces of Goldmine Software

Goldmine Software touts the fact that it is feature rich and has many functional interfaces. Goldmine Software has its own contact management interface called Goldmine Business Contact Manager, as well as others to handle Sales Opportunity tracking, reporting, email management, follow-ups, appointments and so on. Goldmine has over 30 different user forms as part of its standard edition. If you add other modules, the number of forms will increase appropriately. While this creates a great number of features and options for the user to work with, it also creates a problem. Goldmine can take a great deal of time to learn, and working with many different forms can be cumbersome and confusing. Having a great number of features turns from a benefit to a hindrance when learning the system takes time away from your business. It can also negatively impact your business as it takes more time for users to navigate through and complete all the functions that are required. Goldmine Software has put features and functions ahead of simplicity and ease of use.

More Stuff for Goldmine Software

In addition to the base features of the Goldmine standard edition there are many add-ons and other modules that can further complicate the system. If you would like to share information with a small group you can add a synchronization module. If you would like real-time access to your group's information you will need the Goldmine Plus corporate edition. Integration with other programs (such as Microsoft Outlook) requires another module, and integration with Microsoft Exchange Server adds yet another. With more and more add-ons, comes more and more complexity. This complexity leads to more time working with the software, and less time simply working.

Where Goldmine Software Falls Short

When it comes to features and forms Goldmine Software certainly does not fall short, it goes too long. One thing the creators of Goldmine may have missed is that simplicity is often the key to success. The number one reason most Contact Management and Customer Relationship Management programs fail is that they are too difficult to learn and use, therefore they do not get used.

Most business professionals are looking for features in a program, but the specific features they need. Extra features are not a benefit when you must navigate through additional forms to complete your tasks. If this is required to perform daily functions, users simply stop doing those things and the system does not get used. Goldmine Software has so many forms it makes it difficult to logically organize them for all users. This creates confusion in navigating through the program as well. Long on features in a business program often means long on learning as well. This often translates to resistance to accepting the system, reluctance to use, and ultimately failure of the program.

Goldmine Software's Number is up

With the high number of user forms in Goldmine Software (over 30) it takes time to learn the system and combat the complexity. The solution to this is simplicity. A system with the same features but fewer new forms will dramatically shorten the learning process and make acceptance more likely. A system like Prophet 4.0, which is integrated inside Microsoft Outlook, offers a solution. Prophet 4.0 uses the existing contact, email, calendar, and task forms of Outlook and adds only 6 new forms. Outlook is the most widely used email, contact, and calendar management program in business today, and so most professionals are already familiar with those forms. It takes much less time to learn Prophet's 6 new forms than it does to learn Goldmine's 30.

Do you need to synchronize your contact and sales management data with Outlook? Prophet 4.0 is integrated in Outlook so you need no additional synchronization software as Goldmine does. You can continue to work in Outlook and have that information available to you through Prophet's Contact Management and Sales Management interfaces. Prophet 4.0 provides a simple to use and easy to learn Contact and Sales Management System in a very familiar environment, Microsoft Outlook. Goldmine Software is simply?not simple enough.