Ok this post is all about Clear Context IMS Pro 3.0. And yes, it can change your life!!! From the site, IMS Pro is a "full featured information management system". What does that mean? Well, its an outlook add-in that helps to manage the overwhelming amounts of email that you can get in a given day. It promotes you taking immediate action on emails and helps you to do so. How? Well, as emails come in, you decide what needs to be done. You can easily create a task, delegate work, schedule an appointment, or defer the message to a later date. What I love is that its flexible enough to allow you to work the way that you want to. I for instance live off my task list. Others I know live in their calendar.
Once you have acted on the email, you can then assign it to a topic. Topics map back to folders and so you can easily file your emails as they come in. Once you have assigned an email to a topic, then all other emails that you receive will be assigned to that topic. You can even use the built in auto assign features of IMS Pro. I personally think that the topic assignments blow the doors off the outlook rules. Other features include the prioritized view of your inbox so that you can easily spot important emails, and the ability to 'unsubscribe' from a thread. This allows you to no longer receive emails in your inbox on threads that you happen to be copied on but do not need to follow. If you have previously filed one of the messages in the thread then the 'unsubscribed' messages will be filed(if you enable that feature). You can read more about that feature on the ClearContext corporate blog.
I have been using IMS Pro since the 2.0 version and I have to say that the latest version is by far superior. They have done a lot of work on making sure that this version takes advantage of the ribbon in Outlook 2007, which is a marvel in itself. Anything that you need to do related to messages are easily accessible.
Lastly, I can not write this review without mentioning the Related and Action Views present in each of the messages. So now, every message that comes in, shows you all messages, tasks and appointments related to that message thread. This is great when you are trying to find one message in a thread or to see what tasks have been created as a result of that email.
You sold yet? You should be. If so then I can tell you how to get it. You can buy IMS Pro 3.0 from here. The cost has gone up a bit since the last release but I would still get it at that price. If you can't afford it then you can get use this coupon code: CC15-15026 and get a $15 discount.
Here are some screen grabs:
Clear Context Toolbars in Outlook 2007:
Clear Context Ribbon in Open Message:
Clear Context Related/Action View:
