Social Networking Revolution Embraces Microsoft Outlook

The growth in online communities such as MySpace and LinkedIn has brought the term “networking” into everyday use, not just with seasoned executives, but graduates and teens as well. Now, vendor Software Magic is extending the concept to Microsoft Outlook, giving it a networking “makeover”.

Peter Astley-Sparke, CEO of Software Magic, explains “Outlook is a great product, and remains the desktop of choice for millions of individuals and business users. But, Outlook’s Contacts are still based on a traditional address book.”

Astley-Sparke continues: “Today’s technologies provide so many different ways to network with people and build relationships, it’s far more natural – and productive – to visualise and manage your contacts as a network.”

Software Magic’s Cortege software runs along-side Microsoft Outlook, allowing users to create an interactive model of their business and personal networks. Users organize their contacts into “branches” - groups of people they generally think about together. Examples include family, friends, prospects, customers, business contacts or the clubs and societies to which they belong.

Customers of the first release described Cortege as “mind maps for the address book”. “This is a fair description”, agreed Astley-Sparke “mind maps help people organise their ideas, our software performs a very similar function on their address book.”

The latest release builds on the success of the first; enhancing the range of relationships Cortege supports to include those for business, and allowing customers to use it as a highly-effective alternative to traditional contact management software. Software Magic has also extended support for Microsoft Outlook, allowing customers to synchronize Cortege with user-created Contact Items folders, and the Business Contact Manager extension introduced with Outlook 2003.

This is not the first time Software Magic’s founders, Peter Astley-Sparke and Julian Childs, have created and managed the delivery of leading-edge software based on Microsoft’s Windows platform, having both played major roles in Dow Jones Market’s successful push into the highly competitive trading room systems markets using the same technologies.

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