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Typically agents don't want to spend a lot of time in front of their computers-and for good reason. Meeting new clients or serving old ones is the momentum of a successful practice. But there is a time when either you or your assistant should traffic the keyboard and wiggle the mouse. I'm talking about smart client management.
It's been almost two years since my last roundup of information/contact managers. And much has changed. Old DOS-based insurance stalwarts have moved to Windows and several commercial products have shown they can compete successfully with their insurance counterparts. Ten programs stand out from the pack: ACT! 3.0 by Symantec; Agency Assistant 1.5 by Client Marketing Systems; Agency Expert 4.0 by Group Benefit Shoppers; AgentCentral 3.5 by QuadBase; Client Data System 2.3c by E-Z Data; Contact Partner 2.0 by Financial Data Planning; Day-Timer 2.1 by Day-Timer Technologies; GoldMine 3.2 by GoldMine Software; Janna Contact Professional by Janna Systems; and Multiactive Maximizer 3.0is by Maximizer Technologies.
The non-insurance products in this roundup-ACT!, Day-Timer, GoldMine, Janna Contact and Maximizer-are 32-bit, meaning they are specific to Windows 95/NT. ACT! and Day-Timer make 16-bit versions, but the others won't run under Windows 3.11. None of the insurance programs are native to Windows 95/NT, but all work...