What is a good client tracking/organizer software? Filemaker Pro?

Has anybody used I relay? Been doing some research and i thought they looked good. However it is web based, so you guys brought up some good points about that. I-Relay: One Great Insurance CRM!.

I just canceled my i-relay today after 6-months with them. I really liked part of it BUT it is completely inflexible. You can only add fields to one area of the program.

I want to track many things and I want drop downs on my fields that track MY info. If i-relay wasn't so cookie-cutter it would be a GREAT program.

ACT is the ONLY program I've found that does everything I want. Franks program looks real good too IF you don't want to personalize it too much.

If I could go back in time I would have ACT 2008 on a computer running either Windows XP or Windows Vista 32-bit with a Palm PDA with Act for Palm on the PDA. THAT is your ultimate setup in MY opinion.

I messed up going with ACT 2009 (won't work with Act for Palm) and Vista 64-bit laptops (won't work with much of anything)

The resident MAC expert is AL and he says ANY program that runs on Windows will also work on a MAC these days. So I don't see where the problem is with MAC.
 
The resident MAC expert is AL and he says ANY program that runs on Windows will also work on a MAC these days. So I don't see where the problem is with MAC.

They no longer make Act for the Mac. They used to many years ago. However, ACT runs fine when you run Windows on the Mac via a virtualization program like Parallels or VMware or VirtualBox (which is free.) You must have at least 1 GB of RAM on your Mac but 2 GB is much, much better.
 
Sales Logix is a great program. I used it before I obtained AgencyWorks, which I believe is difficult to obtain as an "individual."

It appears to me that AgencyWorks is a package of products. It looks like "InsureSocket Retail" would work for an Independent Agent, but you would need to link to someone with "Agency Integrator".

What can you say to this, and what would be the cost?
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I just canceled my i-relay today after 6-months with them. I really liked part of it BUT it is completely inflexible. You can only add fields to one area of the program.

I want to track many things and I want drop downs on my fields that track MY info. If i-relay wasn't so cookie-cutter it would be a GREAT program.

ACT is the ONLY program I've found that does everything I want. Franks program looks real good too IF you don't want to personalize it too much.

If I could go back in time I would have ACT 2008 on a computer running either Windows XP or Windows Vista 32-bit with a Palm PDA with Act for Palm on the PDA. THAT is your ultimate setup in MY opinion.

I messed up going with ACT 2009 (won't work with Act for Palm) and Vista 64-bit laptops (won't work with much of anything)

The resident MAC expert is AL and he says ANY program that runs on Windows will also work on a MAC these days. So I don't see where the problem is with MAC.

Yeah, about 64 bit OS's. Not many applications written for them yet. Get the 32 bit OS with upgrade rights, and don't upgrade until the apps you need are available.
 
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It appears to me that AgencyWorks is a package of products. It looks like "InsureSocket Retail" would work for an Independent Agent, but you would need to link to someone with "Agency Integrator".

What can you say to this, and what would be the cost?
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Yeah, about 64 bit OS's. Not many applications written for them yet. Get the 32 bit OS with upgrade rights, and don't upgrade until the apps you need are available.

Is a 32-bit upgradeable to 64 bit? That's a tidbit of information that would have been usefull to me when I bought the laptops. I thought it was different hardware.

Thanks Best Buy for taking your salespeople off commission so you only have useless morons working there now that don't know anything about your products.
 
Is a 32-bit upgradeable to 64 bit? That's a tidbit of information that would have been usefull to me when I bought the laptops. I thought it was different hardware.

Thanks Best Buy for taking your salespeople off commission so you only have useless morons working there now that don't know anything about your products.

Hardware is either 32bit or 64bit, depending on the CPU at the moment (I grew my teeth on 8bit machines and s/w). Software applications are written for the Operating System interface (OS). If the OS you choose only handles 32bit processes, it will still run on a 64bit machine. This is called "backwards compatibility". The reverse is not true... if the OS demands 64bit chunks of data, it requires a 64bit machine, and the apps need to be written (coded) to provide 64bit chunks to the OS. This is why most people are not eagerly buying the 64bit version of Vista.

Hardware is always ahead of software. 64bit machines have been out for quite a while, but very few software applications were written to take advantage of the increased function because the OS (XP and early Vista) were 32bit s/w, and, being more popular, therefore more profitable. Sales demands for 64bit software just wasn't there. So the early adopters pay through the nose until critical mass brings down the cost. Early adopters either have a sugar daddy (business) or fat pocketbooks, or they are suckered into purchasing a product they don't know will not work without buying more expensive compatibles.

Now that 64bit Vista is available, expect more apps to be written for it, but at the moment there are a lot of reports of 32bit apps that will not run on the new Vista platform. I have heard that Microsoft did not write backwards compatibility into the new 64bit Vista. You used to be able to choose a compatibility mode in an application.... whether or not the new Vista allows this or not, I am not sure since I don't have a copy.
 
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With a web based program, how safe is it?

I have Medicare ID's, SS numbers, dates of birth, etc on file for most my clients. I would be worried about putting it out there...
 
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