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.