Today, Sage software officially makes Sage ACT! 2011 available for purchase through their early bird promotion program. I first saw the ACT! 2011 product in April during an alpha release, and I thought I’d share my take on this new version with readers and subscribers. With the annual release schedule ACT! has been on since the ACT! 2005 version, it has been interesting to see Sage Software alter the ACT! product line with each new release. Allow me to provide an overview of the five key areas added or enhanced in the product, as well as my overall take.
My Take on Sage ACT! 2011 Contact Management Software
Perhaps you received an email from me or Sage or somewhere else and are curious what is in this new version of ACT!. If you are an existing ACT! user, you may notice name change; The product is now called, Sage ACT! 2011 PRO or Sage ACT! 2011 Premium. The PRO version is for individuals or those in small workgroups of 10 or less without the need for enhanced workgroup features or access through their Web browser via ACT! for Web. Let’s move on to what’s new with ACT!
Note: NOW LIVE! complete video review of Sage ACT! 2011 here, it covers all that’s new, includes a demo of the webaccess function in Sage ACT! 2011, as well as a bonus video for those starting their search for a contact management system entitled, 7 Elements of a Good Contact Manager. It’s here
Disclaimer: Perhaps like you, I am a small business owner and know the challenges of a small business. I am also a Sage Partner and a Certified Consultant for the ACT! Product line, as I like most (no company is perfect) of what Sage has done to help customers in the small business community. That said, I’m here to keep it real and offer my candid feedback as best I can.
1-Improved Startup Wizard
This will make life easier for new customers but also has features long time customers have been clamoring for. Some of the features include:
- Redesigned Welcome Page – making for easier and more intuitive navigation
- Express Importing - This allows users to get contacts into their ACT! database faster with a redesigned import functionality. The actual import seems faster than in previous versions.
- Import directly from Excel – This makes sense as many lists are bought and sold and delivered in CSV or Excel format.
- One Click “Create New Field” option – Just like it sounds, more visible and useful. Of course only those with Administrator level privileges will be able to use this function.
- Improved Default Layouts for improved navigation – ACT! 2010 had user interface enhancements, most of which were welcomed; they continue to improve navigation with these updated default layouts.
Learn more about the improved Sage ACT! 2011 startup wizard here.
Heard Enough? Customers who purchase either Sage ACT! 2011 Pro, Sage ACT! 2011 Premium, or a Sage ACT! 2011 Early Bird Bundle, by end of this month through our store will receive several special discounts and bonuses to help them get started with the software. Details Here.
2-Sage Business Information Services
Ever heard of Hoover’s? They provide business insight about companies around the world, saving a lot of research time for any businesses or sales organization. Sage as partnered with Hoover’s to provide Hoover’s data within Sage ACT! 2011.
To be honest, some of my customers aren’t a big fan of having Windows software tie into web services. However, I think for many this can offer significant value, especially if ACT! users are sales oriented. It is optional, and does require a subscription (I don’t have the full details on trial/pricing) for the service to work.
Here is the business information customers get with this subscription service:
- Contact, and company profile
- Company Financials, Contacts (org chart information), and News
- Industry Information – useful for having a reason to call or email, think conversation starter
- Search for new companies and Import new leads <<–big time saver…
- Email Alerts
Learn more about Sage Business Information Services here.
3-Smart Tasks – Long Awaited Workflow
I’ll get into this in more detail later, but in my opinion it is the second most compelling reason to upgrade to Sage ACT! 2011. Once you have your business processed dialed in, and that alone is a competitive advantage, take it to the next level by automating the process with Smart Tasks. Here is the skinny on what it offers…
Smart Task Templates:
- 10 Prefilled templates for common tasks
- Useful out-of-the-box or edit to personalize
- Suitable for general productivity or sales
Easy Customization:
- Easiest visual designer for creating and modifying Smart Tasks
- Drag/drop capabilities for Smart Task steps
Smart Task Visibility:
- Pause or Activate Smart Tasks
- View pending Smart Tasks
Fully Extensible Engine:
- Windows Workflow Foundation
- Out-of-the Box integration with ACT! E-Marketing
Learn more about Smart Tasks in Sage ACT! 2011 here.
Heard Enough? Customers who purchase either Sage ACT! 2011 Pro, Sage ACT! 2011 Premium, or a Sage ACT! 2011 Early Bird Bundle, by end of this month through our store will receive several special discounts and bonuses to help them get started with the software. Details Here.
4-Outlook Integration and Synchronization
This may be the most compelling reason for many existing customers to upgrade. I am still testing all these features, but so far so good. The sync functionality is the most important part, this will make it much easier for users to move data (and use habits) from Outlook to ACT!
Contact Synching:
- Create new Outlook Contacts from ACT!
- Create new ACT! Contacts from Outlook
- Control which ACT! Contacts are synched to Outlook
- Contacts are always up to date regardless of where they were created or changed
Calendar Synching:
- Calendars are always up to date, regardless of where events were created or modified
- Select which ACT! Activity types to sync to Outlook
- No duplicate entries
- Sync runs even with Outlook and/or ACT! closed
- Same features available for APFW users
- Users choose which system alarms display in
Learn more about Outlook Synchronization and Integration in Sage ACT! 2011 here.
5-New Database Security Preferences
Security is especially a concern in larger corporate environments that deploy Sage ACT!. One aspect of that concern has to do with file attachments in the database. Sage has taken action to provide the following capabilities with new database preferences:
- Restrict emails from being attached to user records – addresses issue of one act user reading another act users (the boss, or colleague) correspondences via their user record.
- Restrict email attachments in the database
- Restrict file attachments in the database such as IE, Word, Notes, Histories, Activities, Mail Merge, ACT! Email
Learn more about the New Database Security Preferences in Sage ACT! 2011 here.
My Take on the Sage ACT! 2011 New Features
Software purchases can be tricky. It’s about understanding your needs, remaining competitive, and investing wisely. While everyone may not find this upgrade worthy of their investment, Outlook intensive environments who understand the productivity kill of fragmented data or information islands, “it’s in Bob, or Jack, or Sharon’s Outlook”, and customers who value automation (Smart Tasks), the improvements in these areas are significant.
I’m a fan of investing in tools that free up time so you can sell more. Automation is key, and until now was only available for ACT! users by a 3rd party enhancement product. To be fair this is version 1 of Smart Tasks in Sage ACT! 2011, so while it may not compete with more established workflow type packages, it is a good start.
Administrators will appreciate the streamlined startup process, with improved layouts and easy of creating new fields in the database, as well as the additional data security found in Sage ACT! 2011.
Sales and marketing professionals will be intrigued with Hoover’s data integration with Sage Business Information Services, and the ability to import lists of target market companies and contacts quickly.
Overall this is a significant upgrade, especially for workgroups an larger environments that have IT staff. Smaller environments and individual customers may find it hard to justify the upgrade if they don’t see immediate value in these five enhancements.
Heard Enough? Customers who purchase either Sage ACT! 2011 Pro, Sage ACT! 2011 Premium, or a Sage ACT! 2011 Early Bird Bundle, by end of this month through our store will receive several special discounts and bonuses to help them get started with the software. Details Here.
Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Chime in using 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.
Thanks for this overview, and being the first to do so, very helpful!
Glad you found it useful John.
Will you be doing video review as you did with act 2010?
Yes, it is in the works. It will be available through the http://www.actasap.net/whats-new page
Well done as always, Travis…Will ACT 2011 – Sage ACT 2011 work with office 2010?
Hey Arif, nice seeing you here… Yes there is support for Office 2010 in Sage ACT! 2011.
As a small business owner, the stated updates do not bring a smile to my face.
RJP-
Fair enough. Can you be more specific? What disappoints you? What were you hoping to see? Thanks for your feedback.
Travis,
I'm still on ACT 2008. Works ok, so don't know that I want to upgrade. One item that has never worked is the emailing system. I can only email from one machine. I remember talking to ACT about this and they were aware of the problem, but never did anything to fix it. So is this item fixed. Thanks
Hey Todd-
I'm not sure what email problem you are referring to (can you be more specific?). I can tell you in recent versions they have thrown a lot of resources at making Office and ACT! integrate better, specifically Outlook.
What I can tell you about the current version of ACT!, is once it is setup with the Outlook integration preferences on a Windows machine, it works well. There were significant improvements from ACT! 2008 until now for Outlook.
You say this is step 1 for Smart Tasks. The cynic in me says this is step one only because they want to sell you step 2 next year, and step 3 the following year.
Paul-
Nice hearing from you…It's not fun feeding the inner cynic
I say that because typically when Sage has built a new feature into the product, they add to it once they have a decent volume of feedback from actual customers. What's nice about this feature is the flexibility build into it…
Look for more on this in a future post.
-Travis
Is there a financial package that can integrate with ACT!? Will ACT! Sync with the iPhone and what versions? Will the dialing feature in 6.0 be carried over to 2011?
I know of a few overlays for financial advisors, but haven't used them. There is ACT! for Financial Professionals as well. There is a dialer in ACT! 2011, but my experience says plan on using a 3rd party tool to hook into ACT!
I would love the ability to prioritize my tasks by being able to drag/drop tasks where i want them. I would also like the task list to sync with my iPhone. do think these will ever happen?
On a side note – I have been a faithful Franklin Covey guy dating back to the paper versions and Palm Pilots. I love the ABC/123 prioritizing philosphy/system… Will Sage ever be able to incorporate this?
Thanks Travis!
You have been spoiled by the Apple user experience!
(me too).
What you can do, is choose to sync the activity types of your choosing with Outlook and then sync Outlook (tasks) with your iPhone, I'm pretty sure the iPhone offers sync with Outlook.
I usually incorporate of the ABC/123 priority system for clients with the use of the ID status field.
Hope that helps.
How about syncing with Gmail and Google calendar? It doesn't appear to do that which makes it a show-stopper for me as I left Outlook behind in 2008.
You'll need a 3rd party product to do that ACT! <-> Google Calendar, the only one I know of that does that is here, third item under the product menu.
It's not free, but they have done well by my customers.
I think if you use this code on checkout you'll save a little bit, give it a try: BC6976
-Travis
Hi Travis – I'm still using 2009 Premium (Single License) – Am I understanding you correctly that the 2011 upgrade for my version would be the PRO upgrade? Several other questions: Is there a way to get a look at the automation/Smart Task templates? Any way to see more on the Outlook integration improvements? (it has been a huge stumbling block for me and my clients to sync up the two contact lists) And, will my SwiftPage plug-in still function? Thanks! Jocelyn
Great questions. I will be posting a video soon with snapshots of some of the new features, as in passed years, the complete review will be at http://www.whatsnewwithact.com
Correct, most single users will be fine with the PRO version of ACT! 2011.
That said, in my testing with the alpha/beta software, the smart tasks need some work before they ship the product, and Sage knows that. Outlook sync worked ok. Supposing they get these features dialed in, I think many users will like both features.
As for Swiftpage, yes it works fine in 2011.
I use Companionlink Pro to sync contacts, calendars between Outlook and ACT 2010, then let my Exchange server sync my BB. It sounds like with Act2011 I won't need Companionlink. Also, I like the Categories feature, with color coding in Outlook. Will Act 2011 address this?
My company is small and have Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 installed to work with Outlook. They want to send a mass e-mail (using a marketing list and e-mail template) with an attachment and have a personalized salutation (include individual first name). The CRM doesn't look like it can do that, can ACT?