For an NGO I am looking for a means to set up a central contact database for office use.

There will be about 8-10 people using this database.

One of the requirements of such a system would be the possibility of doing 'tagged-based' searches.

For example, looking up all contacts in a certain location, or everyone involved in a certain project etc.

We have about 800 contacts that need to be in such a system.

While doing some research I've found quite a few programs (mostly CRM and CMS) but these are way to complex (and/or expensive).

The only way I can see now to make this work is to create something in Access, but I am not so experienced with this program. (Not even sure if what I want is possible).

Anyone got some ideas/suggestions?

If you have possibilty to use Active Directory, there is also an option to make contacts.

for the most part, you will only find that functionality in a CRM based program... have you looked at Sage's ACT! ? http://www.act.com/

for the most part, you will only find that functionality in a CRM based program... have you looked at Sage's ACT! ? http://www.act.com/

Well yeah, but the software is quite expensive, and we will be spending a lot of money on functions we don't need... I am quite surpprised it is so hard to find a program that will do just the job of organizing contacts in this specific way.

Perhaps someone has some other ideas?

you could accomplish it through access actually... I checked their templates available on the MS office website and they have a contact management database template.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/template...3&av=ZAC000

if you needed the data a certain way, you could write your own reports, or export the data to excel and mess with it however you want.

That'll be the least expensive method (assuming you already have access)

yeah, I've seen this template too... It needs adjusting to meet our needs but perhaps I am able to do it... don't have Acces installed atm but I am quite sure we have it though... thx