After a couple weeks of preparing you, my subscribers via email, and working hands on with customers for the Daylight Savings Time switch of 2007 for North America. I had to take care of my own system. And like most of my client environments, my environment converted fine following the procedure outlined in the DST Utility Video. This became evident with the switchover yesterday morning.
However, ….I forgot one key thing.
You see all the computer systems converted just fine. One system didn’t quite get the appropriate patch applied. This dawned on me when I saw the 1 hour difference between my wall clock, and my computer, at what I thought was 9:45am yesterday. I was getting ready to leave for church, when I was checking email and saw my computer’s clock…10:45am. I forgot to change the clocks in the house the night before, and tell everyone in my own household! The result, we were about 45 minutes late for church! Ha! Did I hear it endlessly from my sister, her husband, and other friends visiting from out of town. “You tell your clients and people on email about this, make a big fuss, but forget to change the clocks in your own house!” They were dead on…there is just no way to escape the practical things in life, like changing the kitchen clock two times a year (if you are in the affected time zone, of course).
BTW, my Alltel cell phone was off most of the morning as well, it switched after I was on the road to church, not sure if Alltel had issues, or what. The palm patch was applied (Treo phone) the day before.
You have a DST story to tell from this year, or years passed? Share it in the comment boxes below.
Hi, my name is Travis Campbell, I operate this site. A key to success in any business is to effectively manage your relationships. ACT! is a software product helping millions when it comes to doing just that. This Website is designed to assist both those considering ACT! software for their business, as well as to provide insight to ACT! users who want to effectively use it in their day to day operations. So login, post, browse and enjoy.
When I checked our ACT! 6.0 database after applying the Microsoft DTS patch, I confirmed the activities were not affected. Since we also have ACT! 2005, 2006 and 2007 databases, I also checked those and noticed activites scheduled before the patch was applied between March 11 and April 1 were off by an hour, but the activities created after the patch was applied were correct. I ran the ACT! DTS utility and it fixed all the affected activities. IT seams like ACT got it right this time, but I would have liked more advanced notice of the issue.
John-
If I got this right in all my reading, my understanding is that ACT! 6 and previous databases use system time, whereas ACT! SQL (v7/2005 and later) use GMT. Since GMT is not impacted by the new DST changes in North America, this throws the activity times off after applying the Microsoft patch for DST. Therefore running the DST utility for systems in the affected timezones adjusts the affected activities.
I would agree with you, earlier notice from ACT would have helped. To be fair many of the big companies (Palm and others) were just as late if not later. By all accounts Intuit (Quickbooks) seemed to handle this with their customers very well.
Hopefully for you, your coffee maker, alarm clock, or other timed devices you may have kicked off on time the following morning…
-Travis
I updated my system and my Act! 8.02 before the deadline and now my calendar in Act! is freezing when I attempt to schedule activities and as well as edit them. I can’t schedule anything and I am heavily reliant on my calendar. I’m completely at a loss. My service package expired November 2006 so either I spend $5/minute or $199/year for any customer support. Does this seem fair that a fix they sent out is causing me to spend time and money on this? There is not a single reference that there is a valid issue, however, three others that have Act! in my office are having trouble. Any suggestions?
Sandra-
Sounds like there are two issues here:
1.) A problem with either ACT! or your Database.
2.) Best approach for ongoing support.
Allow me to respond to both.
It is important to verify whether your issue is specific to the database or your local ACT! installation. Your comment indicates that there are others in the office having (similar?) trouble, so perhaps there are issues with your database. One thing you can do is either create a new database, or open the ACT8demo database on your system and see if it gives you the same issue. If it does, you need to have a look at your installation. If it does not, then there may be issues with your database. Be sure to run database maintenance on a regular basis to keep your database in good shape. NOTE: It is good practice to run DB maint on a regular basis. However, f there are problems with the database, it is likely database maintenance will not fix it. Problem databases can happen and need the attention of ACT or your local ACT consultant.
If there is any monetary value of your database to your business, it is a good idea to figure out a plan should technical issues arise you cannot solve. There are two primary avenues for this:
-An Annual ACT support plan (~$300?)
-An ACT Consultant to assist (someone helps businesses with ACT, full time)
You can also search Yahoo and Google groups to see if others give hint of your issue, and how it may have been resolved. Lastly, if you haven’t done so, have a look at the act.com support knowledgebase, put in any error code you may receive, and see if they have an Answer ID with some assistance.
Warmest Regards,
Travis