[dihakz]

(I apologize if this is off-topic, or this was posted in the wrong forum! If you have recommendations as to where I should go to ask this or other similar questions, please let me know!)

Open question to the Mac Community:

I have an ongoing problem that I am unable to successfully resolve -- though I've tried several different software products, all of which have major shortcomings for my particular usage.

To begin with, I need to state my current working conditions and why there is a particular issue for me. I am a (very) small business, with two employees (other than myself.) One works in the same office (therefore accessible by rendezvous) and the other at a remote location (only accessible via the Internet or phone.) It is critical that we share all sorts of data with each other, though we do need to collaborate as well as simply share data (that is, not just read access between us, but working on the same data with read/write privileges, and with the minimal possibility of overwriting the other person's data in the process -- ideally NO overwriting at all!

There are two particular issues, one is major, and the other minor. Major first:

1) We need a good task manager/project management application that can be easily synced without any overwriting of tasks. This way we can track where we are on any project and/or issue, as well as delegate tasks to another. We have found the PERFECT application, Things (by Cultured Code), which is beautiful, flexible and works great. It also syncs with my iPhone, which makes it a double bonus. However, it does not sync with other machines. We have hacked it to work around the issue, by sharing the same database file. However, it does not "save" the database in real time -- rather it is stored in the cache and only saved permanently upon quitting the application. (This means that the last person to close the application will have their data stick, and the others will be overwritten.)

There are some basic workarounds available, such as "commit" and "refresh" applescripts that have been written to help with this, which improves on the problem, but does not eliminate it. This makes it much less of an issue than our database issue is:

We also need a common database to continue to store information for the company. We share one MobileMe ID to sync calendars and addresses (see number 2, below) however we need much more robust information to be stored. This brought me to Bento, which I found to be outstanding -- since we could customize it to store any information we need, in any way we want to display it, etc. We are a web developers, so one of the most important things we need are server information (domain names, usernames/passwords, database info, mx records, dns records, and so on...) Again, Bento is perfect, but it is not sync-able! That is, the problem mentioned above is compounded by the fact that there is no workaround, and this information is, arguably, MORE important than a task manager!

Further, we have found no workaround for this. We have tried sharing the same data file, again, however once again, the last person to close the application will have all their current data overwrite the common data file.

2) While we currently sync our addresses and calendars using MobileMe, there is no way to select SOME addresses to sync, and others not to. For example, I have personal addresses in there as well as business addresses. Our sales person has addresses/contacts of leads that we all do not need to have access to, so we're bombarded with too much information that is worthless to us (which is made worse when searching for a contact on my iPhone!) I would like ONE library that is synced with all of us (common addresses for the company) yet have my own addresses for personal use (not shared, and can put onto my iPhone) and for the other two members of the company to have one library, each, that is not synced with us so we are ONLY sharing the shared company data.

Again, this second one is a minor issue, since it is a colossal nuisance, but not something that will compromise data that cannot be overwritten/lost company-wide!

This brings me to where I am today: I am completely lost. I don't want to invest in MORE software until I come up with the perfect solution. We are not a big company (obviously) and do not have a lot of money to spend -- however, we will spend a bit if it is worthwhile, and will not need to replace it in a couple months time, again! I know there must be more options out there, but I did not want to go sampling software willy-nilly without some background information first. Any advice/recommendations would come HIGHLY appreciated, and I would be eternally grateful! (I'm thinking, too, that someone out there will find this information useful, as well.)

Thank you, thank you, thank you for any help you could provide!!!

Life-long Mac user,
Darren

[workcloud]

Hi Darren

Wow, sounds like you're quite frustrated. Solutions are out there in the Web 2.0 landscape. It's webbased so you and the remote person can access the same data in real-time. Any changes you made in a project is made in real time and your other 2 staffs can see it right away.

I've used Basecamp by 37 Signals for years for our 10 staffs company, managing projects, assign to do lists, create milestones, and generally keeping notes. It's very cheap, try them out.



To keep your contacts in a central place, yet to keep some contacts 'private' you can try a hugh number of web based CRM. The most elegant and simple CRM system is Highrise by the folks at 37Signals. I've been using this too, I have now over 2,000 contacts. And you can asssign contacts to groups and then you can decide who can access these groups.



On the down side, you cannot export ALL the date from Highrise, so when you decide to move on, your notes are not exportable, only your contact name, addresses, phones, and emails.

Other web based software that do allow users to fully export contact information are numerous--try Bathbook, SugarCRM, Zoho to start. You can google CRM and you will find a hugh list of them.

For more information, you can follow my blog.