Softalk's OfficeTalk takes on Outlook, Goldmine and ACT! with contact management software for small and medium size organizations
Free single user version of OfficeTalk 4.5.1 provides individuals and businesses with contact management, email, calendar, tasks, document management and integrated project management
Email and collaboration software developer Softalk has released a new version of its OfficeTalk workgroup collaboration software for small and medium size businesses and has made it available free for a single user version. OfficeTalk is a workgroup collaboration software solution that provides sharing of calendars, contacts, email, planners, projects, meetings and documents.
"OfficeTalk was originally designed as a multi-user collaboration product, unlike competitors such as Outlook, Goldmine and ACT!, which all had limited collaboration features added at a later date," explained Simon Bates, joint CEO of Softalk. All information in OfficeTalk can be shared with other users who have been granted permission to view, edit or delete it.
"We have decided to offer the free single user version so that as many people as possible can experience the benefits that OfficeTalk offers. The fact that you can look at client information in both contact and company views is a benefit that users don’t get with Outlook. You can also see at a glance all communication you have had with any given contact or company, whether that be by e-mail, telephone or letter. It is ideal for those starting a small business as it can be easily and cheaply expanded as the business grows."
OfficeTalk structures contacts according to the organisation to which they belong and can show a complete view of historical and pending activity such as email, letters, meetings, tasks and conversations. It can also be used to manage an unlimited number of resources such as meeting rooms, pool vehicles, digital projectors etc. Officetalk’s history view can search for communications history across the entire organization by user, contact, company, date and type (email, conversations, documents, tasks, appointments and meetings). It also synchronizes with Palm PDAs and Pocket PC synchronization is to be released soon.
All email inboxes can be shared with other users and messages can be flagged so that other staff viewing the same inbox can see the status of messages and that they are being actioned. OfficeTalk’s project management mode uses a Gantt view to plan projects and create tasks with deadlines, planned dates and milestones, with a live view of project progress as users update their task completion status.
The group mode provides views of selected user’s activity as either a multi-calendar or Gantt chart. Its planner can be used to record and plan long term activity such as staff holidays, sick leave, exhibitions or training, with the option to show planners in calendars (or even automatically block out days). The meeting mode can organize meetings using a free/busy planner to automatically find a free slot when all invitees and resources are available, including sending and tracking email invites to external contacts.
OfficeTalk document templates (Word, RTF or plain text) can include replacement data fields to automatically extract information from its database. Custom data fields can be used to store additional information in 16 different data formats including Yes/No, email, telephone, or a selection field to limit user’s choices to an administrator defined list.
OfficeTalk is supplied with the WorkgroupMail email server which includes anti-virus checking, spam filtering, content control and message archiving (the single user version uses OfficeTalk’s simple integrated mail server).
To explore all of the collaboration benefits of OfficeTalk 4.5.1 download a free 30 day trial. The free 30 day trial version of OfficeTalk can still be used as a free single user system (except for the SQL Sybase database version) when the trial period is over.
Prices start at £345 ($625) for a five user license with a Jet database or £495 ($895) with a SQL Sybase database.
ENDS
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Stuart Bruce at BMA PR
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