Hello all!
I handle the administrative / web / marketing for a car tuning business called Evans Tuning (get a better idea here http://www.evans-tuning.com). Currently, we have the entire office running off of Macs (iMac for the main that is backed up via Time Machine, 1 new MacBook, and 1 New MacBook Pro).
Our setup works well for now, even the tuner here uses a BlackBook to tune cars with. We use Bento for CRM and filing orders and appointments. We use Quickbooks 2007 for Mac for financials. Our calendar is managed via iCal on our website and we even use the subscriptions feature to keep our office staff up to date with the current schedule.
Now on to our current dilemma. Bento is a great program because it is simplistic in the fact that we were able to get the database up and running rather quickly and its easy to expand with whenever new fields are needed to hold more information. Unfortunately, only the main iMac in the office is running Bento and it can only be accessed by that computer. I am looking for a solution that offers the same great ease of use coupled with network-ability (not sure if thats a word), but I want to be able to have multiple users manage the database at one time. This will greatly increase productivity as one user can access for billing information, while another takes an order, or even another sets up a new appointment.
Is there something out there that I have missed? I looked into Filemaker Pro but it seems rather difficult to setup, and isn't very user-friendly looking. It probably also doesn't help that I couldn't find a good tutorial on how to set it up or use it.
Thanks in advance for all of your help. This community has been a great resource since I have been a Mac user!
I handle the administrative / web / marketing for a car tuning business called Evans Tuning (get a better idea here http://www.evans-tuning.com). Currently, we have the entire office running off of Macs (iMac for the main that is backed up via Time Machine, 1 new MacBook, and 1 New MacBook Pro).
Our setup works well for now, even the tuner here uses a BlackBook to tune cars with. We use Bento for CRM and filing orders and appointments. We use Quickbooks 2007 for Mac for financials. Our calendar is managed via iCal on our website and we even use the subscriptions feature to keep our office staff up to date with the current schedule.
Now on to our current dilemma. Bento is a great program because it is simplistic in the fact that we were able to get the database up and running rather quickly and its easy to expand with whenever new fields are needed to hold more information. Unfortunately, only the main iMac in the office is running Bento and it can only be accessed by that computer. I am looking for a solution that offers the same great ease of use coupled with network-ability (not sure if thats a word), but I want to be able to have multiple users manage the database at one time. This will greatly increase productivity as one user can access for billing information, while another takes an order, or even another sets up a new appointment.
Is there something out there that I have missed? I looked into Filemaker Pro but it seems rather difficult to setup, and isn't very user-friendly looking. It probably also doesn't help that I couldn't find a good tutorial on how to set it up or use it.
Thanks in advance for all of your help. This community has been a great resource since I have been a Mac user!
