Contact Management Software

Decide which data you will, and will not share

What data do you want to keep private? What data do you want to share with others in your organisation? Do you want to make any of your data available to external partners - such as customers or suppliers? Go through your contact data and categorise it by security level before you start planning your interfaces and databases. If you are including any sensitive information on your interface, you need to consider security carefully. What damage could a malicious competitor or aggrieved customer do to your system? What information might your commercial rivals be interested in acquiring?

You may wish to password protect or otherwise secure certain areas of your contact management solution - and others you should keep behind a firewall to prevent unauthorised access (A firewall is a screen that bars unauthorised intruders from entering your system - a simple example is Zone Alarm, which you can download free).