Over the course of the past year (2008), I’ve done some research (and wrangling) with BCMv3PPC. BCM for Windows Mobile / PPC is the “pocket version” of Business Contact Manager that installs on your Windows Mobile Device. This WinMo version of BCM is a good solution for users of Business Contact Manager for Outlook that want to take their BCM contacts and accounts with them when leaving their PC behind.
If you use Business Contact Manager for Outlook (2007 or 2003) on a network installation (see our article series) and include the PocketPC BCM application in your deployment, you get these benefits corporately with a “mini CRM” on your mobile devices for free.
You can learn more about Business Contact Manager here.
The Business Contact Manager Team Blog has been replying to posts made by various users on the subject of the current release of BCMv3PPC, it’s functionality (and sometimes lack-thereof) and it’s use on Windows Vista 64 bit. In following up to some of the earlier posts I personally made on the blog (RE: BCMv3PPC crashing WMDC in Windows Vista 64bit with using either WMDC 6.1 or WMDC 6.0), I thought I’d post my findings here along with links to the resources that “do work”. BCM for PPC/Windows Mobile can function well and it is the most cost effective solution of it’s kind when properly configured. Here are the details and download links.
My personal experiences have verified that these components (used together) achieve functionality of all features in BCMv3PPC (including configurability of all BCM Sync Settings) with Business Contact Manager for Outlook
- Windows Vista 32bit (or Windows XP)
- Windows Mobile Device Center “6.0″ 32bit
- Business Contact Manager for Outlook
- Windows Mobile 6.1, Windows Mobile 6, Windows Mobile 5.1 (with Messaging and Security Feature Pack)
- BCMv3PPC.exe
NOTES: I’ve tested Windows Vista 64bit extensively with all versions of WMDC and Windows Mobile 6.1 (and BCMv3PPC failed to be fully functional under all combinations). The best that can hoped for on 64bit machines is a sync of the BCM “contact data only” by using WMDC 6.0 32bit version in emulation which install into the Program Files (x86) folder on 64 bit machines.
If you do use WMDC on 64 bit Vista, be certain to never select the “Sync Settings” link under Business Contact Manager in WMDC (either 6.1 or 6.0 version) as it will “crash the WMDC app no matter which version of WMDC you’ve installed on the 64bit machine”. Also, do not load WMDC 6.1 on Vista 32bit either and click the “Sync Settings” link in WMDC “6.1″ as this also crashes WMDC 6.1 (even on 32bit machines).
It seems WMDC 6.0 works well with BCMv3PPC on 32bit Vista machines (including the “BCM Sync Settings” which access the choices in Sync Settings for ”History” and much more). This is the desired goal as the addition of “History” to Business Contacts is a valuable feature and making “History” viewable on your mobile device is only possible by using the Sync Settings link in WMDC (this feature, which as desribed above appears only to work on 32bit machines with WMDC 6.0).
Windows XP (any 32 bit version) also works well together with WMDC (6.0 version) and BCMv3PPC.
Also, if you’re looking for consesus on this topic there is some supporting data here and here regarding sync issues being resolved by rolling back to WMDC 6.0.
CONCLUSION: if BCMv3PPC is really important to your production environment, use Vista 32bit and WMDC 6.0 until the next version of BCM-4-PPC is developed. The links “in the list above” take you directly to the resources you need.
Thanks for reading
Mark Raborn
WIGITAL