Customer Reviews

GoldMine For Dummies

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Like the other books in the "dummies" series, the title doesn't do it justice. The book explains how to use GoldMine's powerful features to reshape your company's important processes and empower workgroups.

It simplifies the processes of thinking about how things are done now, and how the power of GoldMine can be harnessed as an information pipeline internally and externally.

For those who think the software is really just a contact manager, the book will be an eye opener. It explains how GoldMine can automate processes, delegate and monitor tasks, and maximize utilization of resources.

We have recommended it to our clients as a both a training and reference guide.

This book is of great value or limited value depending on what your needs are. If you have been using GoldMine and have a good understanding of its purpose and function then there are interesting things in here to help you use it better. However, if you are not knowledgeable about GoldMine and, as others have indicated here, your boss drops it on your desk and tells you to learn it then this book has minimal value. Like every other book on GoldMine that I have read, it lacks an integrated approach.
The information in the book is good and accurate, but is all scattered pieces of knowledge without any information as to how all of it works together. Think of it like this, suppose that someone wanted to teach you chess. They described each and every piece and the board. They described the manner in which each piece could move and restrictions on movement. Then they said to go play chess. You would surely lose if you don't know that the goal is to capture the other king nor how all the pieces work together to create an effective defense or offense. This book describes how each piece works but not how to get them to work together.
Unfortunately I can't point anyone to any other book on GoldMine that does not suffer the same problem. They describe all the ingredients and how to prepare the ingredients but not how to bake the cake.

I don't know why I buy these "Dummy" books. If you're a semi-literate computer user, it's not going to help much. If you're a neophite, then Goldmine probably isn't the program you should be using for contact management. Goldmine is powerful but complicated. To use it, a relationship with a consultant who knows the program inside an out is the way to go.

I miss the old 3 inch thick "Que" books and wish there was a manual of that nature available for GM. This one only scratches the surface and that will leave you hanging. If you have an inclination to buy this book, look at ACT! or MS Outlook instead of Goldmine, or hire a Goldmine Certified Consultant.

If you have an inclination to buy this book, look at ACT! or MS Outlook instead of Goldmine. These books are written by Goldmine Certified Consultants. Do you really believe they are going to give their secrets away...when they charge thousands a day?

You will find the only real solution to any problem beyond the GoldMine Unknowledgeable Base (which I believe they purposely do not update) or their Customer ...Department is as basic as it gets. FrontRange (owner of Goldmine) constantly refers you to Goldmine Certified Consultants. It is obvious that FrontRange is leaving individuals and small business owners...

Goldmine is arguably one of the most powerful contact management software database packages available, competing with ACT! and even Outlook for the important task of keeping sales contacts and activities and distributing information about them to others in your organization. Goldmine is notoriously difficult because of the very power and complexity. Will this "DUMMIES" book help you master it?

The problem with this book is that it gives some outlined use instructions for Goldmine but in NO WAY replaces a structured training course. If you have some experience with database management, you can pick your way through Goldmine, learning experientially, and this book is better than randomly poking at the keys.

The very best part is Part III: Managing Activities. This goes over scheduling, viewing, completing, forecasting and filtering activities. The other chapters are similar--outlines of typical activities like distributing information to your organization, entering contact info, etc. But this is not an exhaustive tutorial book, more like a series of schematics on how to get things done in Goldmine.

If you need more depth, or are starting from ground zero, this helps you avoid some landmines in Goldmine, but won't get you completely to the expert status. In summary, helpful, quick to read, not the complete story.

To a breif extent this book is helpful. I have never used Goldmine before and my company gave this book to me with hopes of better understanding on specific features Goldmine offers. GM within its self is a very basic program and is not hard to figure out. The book brought out a lot of little sugestions to help move about a lot smother. Unfortunatly I have found confusion on many sujects.

For example one of my larger tasks thus far has been adding fields into the fields tab (Chapter 19). I think I would have a better understanding of this chapter if my company purchased GM Version 5. I'm sure the time I spent on this task could have been minimized if the author would have taken just a little more time for us users who are a little behind on the upgrade process.

This book shows you how to do most anything you need to do with Goldmine. I use Goldmine daily and still am learning all the ins and outs of the program. This book helped me alot and I keep it near my computer and refer to it often!

Great book for anyone who wants to tackle their CRM software in a matter of days. Learn tips and tricks to take the fast track to mastering this software. Highly recomend this book to anyone who is starting up with GoldMine.

After installing Goldmine 5 I bought this book when it first became available. I was not new to CRM software but found this book very useful. If you are new to Goldmine you will not be disappointed with this book. It can teach you a lot,even beyond the essential basics of this software. Read the book with your software running and apply what you just learned. After this foundation you should have little or no problem making the software do what you want. However, if you objective is to customize the software for your business, get a professional.

Awesome book, especially if you have no experience with Goldmine. Came fast and in perfect condition.