There is a lot of confusion and misinformation about what a contact management system is.  It really depends upon how you use it.

If you just want to have a single place for your names and addresses, something like Outlook would work well for you.  At its most basic level, you could even use Excel or 3x5 cards.  This basic functionality speaks to knowing contact information but not addressing interaction with the contact.

If you want something to help you communicate with your contacts, you need a product that has a function that lets you know when you need to call, email or mail contacts.   You might think Outlook does this but it really doesn’t.  If you are out with the flu for a week and come back to work, you would have to go back to each day that you missed to find out who to call, email, etc.  If you called a contact and they were out of town for a few days, you would have to keep track of them on paper as a reminder to call when they got back.

Act, a real contact management system, takes care of this with its Task List.  This is a list of all the contacts that you need to call, meet, email, mail, etc until you have addressed them.  They stay on your list until you have checked them off as complete.  So if you go away for a week, when you come back, you pick up right where you left off.

In my opinion, this interaction with contacts is the entire basis for having a contact management system.  So if it does not have this facility, it is a “contact filing system”.

Therefore, Outlook, Chaos and SharperAgent are contact filing systems.  ACT is the only contact management system that is available and affordable for individuals and small businesses.