Apple app knitting

Here's an example of how close things feel to integration. We have some of the yarns, but the jumper will not be knitted without a few more balls of wool yet. "Projects" software is available like Easy Task which provides the first steps if only it were connected to other elements. Add something like OmniPlan between Projects and iCal for visual project views or add a Gantt visualiser into a filtered (CRM4Mac like filtering) project programme view within iCal.



While Apple have recognised Mail as the source for connections (I'm thinking Leopard previews), I think we should have a letters database and telephone calls database similar to Mail (or even as alternative window views on a iCommunications app). Ok I may be pushing it for a telephone dictation system - seeing as we have no iPhone yet, but we do have dictation on an iPod and some voice recognition software out there. That would add to the arsenal of communication apps immediately possible through our Macs. I haven't shown podcasts, as I figure text is the most searchable stored medium on Macs right now and I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.

The critical aspect of all this is the ability to link by drag and drop and predictive typing from one package to another, knitting record ID's from one database to another. Top all this with a general viewer to provide an over view, then click in to any individual app for the detail.

Is anyone else getting this?

identifiers

As indicated in a recent post on Hawkwings, mailtags-hyperlink-to-emails-in-other-apps,
identifier links to Mail can be located in other applications reasonably easily. Now I'm no programmer, but if Apple could make database ID references from one iLife app simply connectable between other Apple software, then you already have most of the tools you need to create your own work methods.

Leopard has already hinted at connections between Mail and iCal and has included todo's as a first step to ACTION connections. In my imaginary landscape of Where When What Who How and Why, of a CRM system, many of the components already exist or nearly exist. E.g.

• Where = Address Book (with integral Google mapping)
• When = iCal (linked to the Where and Who in Address Book)
• What = An Apple Project/sub-project app (OK this is missing from Apple at the moment, but is available in the form of Easy Task, and being planned as OmniFocus by the Omni Group on "GTD" principles - it could even be attached to their excellent OmniPlan for visualising, but in my view it would be better sitting in an upgraded iCal with Project filtered views similar to CRM4Mac)
• Who = Address Book (OK needs some work on grouping people at same Company, but a good and very useful starting point for most users)
• How = Mail (Well Mail and iChat are the only loggable communication apps. Once Voice over IP is integrated into Macs and we begin to use then as phone devices then it might be possible to capture voice calls to text and store for later - iPhone with a huge hard drive anyone?)
• Why = Ah, this is the tricky one, but should really be connected to the Projects app so that each "What" is attached to a higher level "Why".

data connection

The really interesting thing about CRM4Mac's approach is that it illustrates the potential of tapping into the databases which underlie Apple's software. I was asked many years ago to develop a Filemaker database solution to customise a company's approach to Claris Organiser (remember that?). The Claris solution required a good knowledge of complex interaction within the programme. While I saw people using it successfully, I was never convinced that I would want to lose control of how I organise information enough to get me to work in the Claris Organiser way. I also knew that even if I developed a closed Filemaker system, it would be a monster collection of databases, difficult to explain to new users. So I declined.

What has really bugged me over recent years is that Filemaker does not interface or even sync with Address Book - a key component for customer information. If you want to develop people related data on a Mac, you either use Address Book and integrate with Mail, or you redesign your own Filemaker system and work up a people database with internal mailing links. Having it both ways is not easy - but in my opinion it should be and from the CRM4Mac solution it can be, even under Tiger.

integration?

I recently came across some interesting software CRM4Mac which delivers a higher level of integration of Apple apps than iLife et al. It also hints at the possibilities of Leopard integration, but I'm not convinced that Apple will deliver in Leopard those things which are possible even now in Tiger. Time will tell.

CRM4Mac brings information on People and Companies from AddressBook together with email info from Mail and todo's and dates from iCal into one viewable place. But...and it's a big but, it leaves the info in place in the Apple apps so that each continues to be the receptacle for that kind of data. What it adds to the party is a Project database (albeit a small one), which gives it the "Customer Relationship Manangement" in its title. User defined projects are linked with people and emails and people are already matched by date automatically. It is a really great connection which is only let down by the awkward date list view which I find too list-like for a Mac app.