Managing Your Small Business with Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2013 Business Contact Manager (BCM) for Outlook 2013 serves as a powerful Customer Relationship Management (CRM) add-on designed directly for small business owners, sales professionals, and independent entrepreneurs. Built to extend the core capabilities of standard desktop email clients, BCM integrates client details, communications, and historical timelines straight into the familiar Outlook framework. While Microsoft ended official security updates and mainstream support for the parent productivity platform (Office 2013) on Microsoft Support , many legacy environments continue to operate BCM 2013. Understanding its features, technical architecture, and modern alternatives can help you sustain or transition your business operations effectively. Key Features and Architectural Capabilities Unlike generic contact management systems, BCM functions as a local, database-driven solution that embeds interactive tracking tabs directly within the primary navigation. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Outlook 2013 Ribbon │ ├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ │ │ [ Accounts ] ──► Linked Business Contacts │ │ │ │ │ ├──► Communication History │ │ ├──► Financial Deal Pipeline │ │ └──► Mass Marketing Tracking │ │ │ │ [ SQL Database ] ──► Max 10 GB Local Storage │ │ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Integrated Accounts and Contacts: Links organizational accounts directly to individual point-of-person contact records. This layout permits nested hierarchy viewing across multi-employee client accounts. Automatic Communication Log History: Auto-populates timelines alongside normal email activities. It logs incoming/outgoing emails, appointment logs, calendar tasks, notes, and external file links into a unified chronological log. Custom Layout Forms: Offers deep customization capabilities for fields, tabs, filters, and custom data entities. This ensures the software flexes around distinct niche workflow metrics. Sales Pipeline Management: Includes specialized deal modules to assign individual financial values, track probabilities of closure, and trace target close dates. Marketing Activity Tracker: Filters database profiles to target segments for phone logs or email campaigns. It identifies high-value active prospects versus inactive clients to evaluate outbound returns. Local SQL Data Hosting: Leverages a free Microsoft SQL Server Express instance as its localized data container. It supports database sizes up to 10 GB in localized storage volume . Technical Architecture & Installation Realities Running BCM for Outlook 2013 successfully requires a strict pairing with the traditional Windows Desktop Professional, Home and Business, or standalone Outlook 2013 installation licenses. It is completely unavailable on Apple macOS or web-based instances. Compatibility Installation Process Because Microsoft removed all public hosting paths from its standard official channels, setup relies on running specific legacy installers and updates: Tutorial - Business Contact Manager 2013
5 thoughts on “Microsoft Dynamics CRM vs. Business Contact Manager” * Tomas. July 6, 2017 at 1:47 pm. So sad BCM is not supported ... CRM Software Blog Office 2013 End of Support - Microsoft 365 After April 11, 2023, if your computer is running Office 2013, it will no longer receive security updates. Therefore, it's importa... Microsoft What is Microsoft Business Contact Manager for Outlook Apr 16, 2020 —
White Paper: Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2013 A Retrospective Analysis of Features, Architecture, and Obsolescence Date: October 26, 2023 Subject: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Integration within Microsoft Outlook 2013 Abstract This paper provides a detailed examination of Business Contact Manager (BCM) for Outlook 2013. Originally designed to bridge the gap between personal information management and enterprise-grade Customer Relationship Management (CRM), BCM offered small businesses a localized solution for tracking contacts, sales opportunities, and marketing campaigns directly within the Outlook interface. This analysis explores the architectural integration, key functionalities, security protocols, and the eventual discontinuation of the product. The paper concludes with an evaluation of why Microsoft retired the solution and the modern alternatives that have succeeded it.
1. Introduction During the lifecycle of Microsoft Office 2013, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) faced a dilemma: the need for structured sales tracking without the budget or infrastructure for enterprise CRM systems like Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics. Business Contact Manager (BCM) was Microsoft’s answer to this problem. Unlike the standard Outlook Address Book, BCM transformed Outlook into a relational database tool. It was an optional add-in (often included in the Office 2013 Professional Plus suite) that allowed users to manage business contacts, accounts, and sales opportunities within a familiar user interface, eliminating the friction of adopting a new software environment. 2. Architectural Integration 2.1 Database Structure Unlike standard Outlook items (emails, calendar events) which are stored in Personal Storage Table (.pst) files or Exchange mailboxes, BCM utilized a distinct SQL Server database. business contact manager for outlook 2013
Engine: It relied on SQL Server Express (specifically SQL Server 2008 R2 Express or 2012 Express, depending on the update version). Localization: The database resided locally on the user’s machine or a shared network server for multi-user environments. Linking: The primary architectural strength of BCM was its ability to "link" records. An email in Outlook could be linked to a Business Contact and a Sales Opportunity simultaneously. This created a timeline of interactions that standard Outlook could not natively support.
2.2 The "Business Contact" Entity BCM introduced new data types into the Outlook navigation pane:
Business Contacts: Similar to standard Outlook contacts but enriched with fields for source, rating, and profit analysis. Accounts: Parent entities representing companies, allowing multiple Business Contacts to roll up under a single Account. Opportunities: A tracker for potential revenue, featuring stages (Lead, Opportunity, Closed-Won) and probability percentages. Managing Your Small Business with Business Contact Manager
3. Key Feature Set 3.1 Sales Pipeline Management The central feature of BCM 2013 was the "Sales Pipeline" view. This provided a visual Kanban-style board where users could drag opportunities across stages.
Forecasting: Users could generate estimated revenue reports based on the probability of closing deals. Communication History: Every email, appointment, or task linked to a contact appeared in the BCM dashboard, providing a 360-degree view of the client relationship without manual data entry.
3.2 Marketing Campaigns BCM 2013 included a rudimentary marketing module. It allowed users to create mass email campaigns (using Word as an editor) and track responses. Tracking: The system tracked "
Call Lists: Users could generate call lists for telemarketing efforts directly from the database. Tracking: The system tracked "opens" and "clicks" (to a limited extent) and allowed users to categorize recipients as "Interested," "Not Interested," or "Do Not Contact."
3.3 Reporting and Dashboards Because BCM data was stored in SQL, it allowed for more robust reporting than standard Outlook. The "Dashboard" view provided charts for: