OmniFocus 4 as CRM?

OmniFocus
#1

It’s been a long while since I’ve needed a CRM, but it’s that time again. However, when I test drive CRM options, they all seem like a poor fit. I’m trying an experiment – I’m going to try to use OF4 for my CRM as well as my projects and tasks.

Please offer me your tips and suggestions. I’m just making this up as I go.

Here’s what I’m trying so far:

  • I have a project called “Contacts” for storing tasks that are contact related without belonging to another project goal.
  • I have a tag called “Data” for storing facts rather than tasks, and it’s placed on hold so the data doesn’t pop up in task lists
  • I have a tag hierarchy for my contacts that looks something like this:
CRM
         WORK
               TimCook
               WalterIsaacs
         PALS
               ToshiroMifune
               MarionMorrison
  • I have a Perspective called CRM that shows all tasks, limits to those containing tags under the main CRM tag, grouped by tag, sorted by date added. I collapse all the non-name tags and just look at each contact name.
  • I copy text messages into the notes field and tag as Data for a log;
  • I link to emails and web pages in the notes field, tag as Data for communications history.

So far, it’s been helpful. As the number of contacts I’m tracking increases, I’ve needed to make more subgroups so I don’t have long lists. I think I might make a perspective to show me just the available CRM tasks like a dashboard.

I appreciate any help or suggestions.

1 Like
#2

OF isn’t likely a great full-fledged CRM, but yes, I do something similar. Or, at least, I have a hierarchy of people (for me, it’s internal, so it mirrors people I work with in the org chart), so for follow up meetings I can give updates on things relevant to them (which may involve things that people in their team are working on). So ahead of a meeting with someone, I do a quick look at their tag, and see everything relevant.

For me, I’m dealing with maybe 20 people though. I think if you tried to go to hundreds or thousands of people, it would get pretty unwieldy, and scheduling follow-ups per person is going to involve some work on your part – but yeah at a simple level what you’re doing could be workable.