Donovan's Brain

Daylite is a powerful CRM for the Mac. I own it but rarely use it. Why? It’s almost too powerful for my needs and I just don’t need much of what it offers. For instance, I already use Address Book so I don’t need it to manage my contacts. I already use OmniFocus so I don’t need it to manage my tasks. I already use iCal so I don’t need it to manage my calendar.

One thing I don’t have in place is a solid way to manage the relationships between my clients and the projects I work on with them. My low-tech solution to this is by keeping track of the projects I’ve worked on in the notes field of Address Book. It works but is by no means a very good solution.

So, that’s what I’m doing with Daylite now. Instead of tracking the project in the notes field of Address Book, I now use Daylite to track projects and contacts associated with those projects. I don’t use tasks, calendar, etc. in Daylite. Overkill? Yes. Does it work? Yes. Does it work better than the low-tech solution of entering project names into the notes field in Address Book? Yes. But it is a lot more work.

Daylite is nice because it has a slick iOS app. So, I can see my projects and contacts sorted nicely when I’m away from my Mac. It’s working out well thus far. We’ll see if I stick with it though. All the extra clicks that Daylite makes me go through gets a bit tiresome.

I wish there was a Daylite Lite. If I could customize the interface to remove all the stuff I’m not using, that would be ideal. If they could somehow minimize the number of clicks and steps it takes to add projects and associate contacts, I’d be happy.