In the field, information management tools are where you find them — a pencil and a scrap of drywall usually get the job done. But if you make your money at a desk, electronic information managers begin to make sense. Today, a variety of electronic Personal Information Managers — or PIMs — are available for computerized contractors. The simplest PIMs are on-screen "rolodexes" that let you store and retrieve phone numbers and addresses with a few mouse clicks or keystrokes. By adding room to take notes, PIMs improve on the rolodex, giving you a historical "audit trail" of past conversations for each name in the database. More sophisticated PIMs add some form of calendar or daily planner, and
