Hi,
why not build your own database and function?
If you build your own on an online server / webhost you can have as many database tables and fields as you want. With a atabase like MySQL you can update add-on and delete fields to change it as your needs change.
It gives you a lot more flexibility when you design your own database and allows you to make custom scripts to access, parse and use the data however you want. With 7,000 contacts in a database - you could call up contacts with a script that only shows specific zip codes, states, cities, etc
You can also use it to create files or emails that are designed sorta like this :
Hello <?php echo $add_surname . " " . $add_full_name; ?>,
We would like to Thank You for your recent etc..
In your state you can locate us by going to: <?php echo $zip_code_letter ?>
You can make dynamic forms, emails, letters by using functions that get information you specifically define.
You could store notes on each contact that you have had contact with and call that into the email and letters also.
You could make long-term files and fields or even temporary for tracking contact questions, complaints .. or even copying and pasting quotes from their letters and adding them to fields to include in next unique mail form to them.
But by doing it this way, its my opinion that you can do a lot more with any form of data, especially with contacts.
You can make copies of your database in standard text files like notepad and drop them in to new databases and exchange them so that if your server online ever burns down or goes offline for whatever reason,you could take your copy of that database in a basic notepad file and drop it into a new MySQL database system, and all fields, and data will automatically create exactly as they were on another database.
For getting the most bang for your buck in databases and data - check out PHP computer language and MySQL database. They're a very open ended computer language and database combination that allows you to do almost anything with it. This will free your business up from having to operate within standard functions of online database 'pay sites' .
More examples = run scripts that automatically send out emails or letters on birthdays of your contacts, or run scripts that track the last time a contact was at your business and have it automatically send out a email or inform you of it every X-amount of days or weeks?
That's good for businesses that have to have a lot of contact with customers or contacts and if you stop and wonder = "when's the last time I talked to this guy or that lady?" A secretary could have post-it notes all over the place to do this for you or a script that reads your database , automatically tracks the math of the days elasped and then prompts you to take action. You can make a Main screen dashboard to glance at and check all functions you set up in customization which would be similar to looking at a website if thats how you designed it. If you've ever seen news sites or sites like Yahoo that have dynamic updated information - you could apply that type of technique to your own business i na way that no one else will have access except you or your company. Your personal dashboard or control panel will be clicking and refreshing itself all day and night - reporting back to you everything you wrote scripts and functions for it to do. Automated real-time tracking and reporting of anything you want it to do, and they never forget lol.
Hook your script to a .wav file (audio) if you want and have it alert you on immediate things. So if your script is going through checking database fields and real-time updating information and it comes across something that you want to be immediately notified if such and such occurs.. so it sees it , and then knows that if it sees that its supposed to call a function..it immediately grabs that function and the functions uses your computers sound to play a audio file = <Riing ...Riing> or even a recorded voice that is more specific in detail saying something like = "expired (such and such) requires immediate attention" or maybe even a blinking graphic on your computer appears
there's a whole lot you can do with all of that that surpasses any standards services
