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ACT! 2007 is it Worth the Upgrade?

I wanted to inform you of a call I have set for Wednesday 3pm EST.  It is entitled, “ACT! 2007 is it Worth the Upgrade?”

> > > Register at: www.WhatsNewWithACT.com

The call will cover three things:
o Share what is new in ACT! 2007, and give you information to help you decide if this upgrade is for you.
o A live raffle for a fully licensed copyof ACT! 2007 Premium. (to be mailed to the winner in late September, as soon as I get it :-)
o I’m opening a limited number of slots for my online ACT! Coaching Portal.  Where members will have Access to online training videos of the ACT! contact management system, monthly TeleSeminars where I will give database critiques and consulting to individual members, as well as savings on software, and much more. 

> > > Register at: www.WhatsNewWithACT.com

When registering you will get two emails, one contains the call in details, and one confirming you are on the prenotification list.

Have a relaxing, and safe weekend.

Warmest Regards,
Travis Campbell
www.ACTasap.net
www.ACTblogger.com

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A Confession…

Yesterday I sent an email letting you know about my recent move, and
how I was able to utilize ACT! to efficiently communicate my new
contact details to my customers, and how you can do the same.

Many of you replied, sharing your own stories (some of you are quite
adventurous).

As you may have experienced moving can be a bit hectic, and after I sent the message yesterday I was reminded of the third party tool I used to send the message.

> > > http://www.actasap.net/spe

Please forgive me for omitting that all important part.  Feel free to
checkout this page to see if it might be useful to you.  It does the
sending of the messages for you, records a history, and even ranks
contacts based on how they interacted with the email.  Signup for the trial.

> > > http://www.actasap.net/spe

Warmest Regards From Cleveland, Ohio . . .

Travis

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ACT! by Sage for Regular Communications with Customers

I moved last week.

2100 mile drive, in 4 days, with my wife, kids, and brother in
law.  Phoenix to Cleveland.

A pickup truck with trailer, van, and 24′ moving truck…each
packed to the gills. I had a challenge…how was I going
to tell all my consulting customers in a personal way without taking too much time?

Is it possible to use ACT to deal with this challenge? Yes,
here’s how I did it. 
1.) Composed a personal message as an ACT template.* 
2.) Looked up all my customers in the database (lookup using the ID/Status field).
3.) Followed the mail merge wizard under the write menu, using the newly created template, set to record a history to each contact record receiving the message.

I ran the mail merge twice. 
First to send as an email, second to send to my printer so I could put a personal note, and then drop in the mail.

KEY: More than informing customers of my new contact information, it allowed me to build relationship with them.

You can do the same, there are many reasons other than commerce for communicating to customers.
Here are a few:
-Birthday
-Anniversary (reminder to husbands :-)
-Valentine’s Day (reminder to husbands :-)
-Mother’s Day
-Father’s Day
-Thanksgiving (this is BIG)
-Holidays including and surrounding
Christmas

It is always a good idea to regularly communicate with your
customers, ACT can be used as tool to do just that.

Ever driven across country?

Have ideas or feedback? Post them here.
Here’s how.

Now it is back to work, I have been working hard on a new service, I hope to give you more details soon.

Warmest Regards,
Travis Campbell
www.ACTasap.net

*I called everyone beforehand, this made the writing the letter easy, simply a restatement of what was discussed.
on the phone.

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To Upgrade or Not, Follow Up…

Well, I’m not to sure if people were confused or afraid to reply to the previous blog post, but I got a bunch of emails with feedback, so I would like to do two things. 
1.) Show you how to post a blog reply
2.) Share feedback I got from my “Upgrade or not to Upgrade” blog post.

Watch this video to get the full details.  You’ll notice at the end of each blog post there is a link which may say “No Comments” or “3 Comments” click that link.  You’ll then be taken to a section entitled “Leave a Reply” and it says you must be logged in to post a comment, (I’ve tried to disable the requirement to login, but it won’t cooperate!), click the logged in link.  If you have registered already, submit your login and password.  If you have not, click the register link, and fill in your username and email, and the system will email you a password, you can then login and submit your comment.

I did receive quite a few emails as a result of the most recent blog post (I asked those who signed up at www.FreeACTtips.com about this upgrade question), and I wanted to share one email with you.

Jim writes:
I found that when I upgraded it took forever to put things right.  There was the issue that my system took for ever to get things done, (later I figured out that I needed more RAM) Unfortunately it took me forever to figure this out and I lost what is left of my hair in the process (I pulled it all out).Trying to find simple answers to questions about ACT seem to always cost money.  Bottom line – I figured thing out and now I am on my way. I am not the only person to experience headaches with upgrading.   My brother told me today he experienced a problem with his upgrade too and we nearly went over to the dark side because we were so feed up.
Oh well.
Jim 

 

Jim,
Thanks for your comment.  The truth is, the upgrade is no longer so simple.  Upgrading the software is one thing, but when it comes to upgrading your database and associated files I encourage people to look at it as a migration.  Since ACT! 2005, Sage Software is now using Microsoft technologies of SQL and dot Net.  These technologies allow software developers to build software faster and offer more robust features.  The challenge is bringing the technology over from other legacy platforms.  ACT 6 and older was built on legacy tools, and therefore the days of buying the upgrade that takes 15-20 minutes to apply are over.

It is true that the latest versions of ACT! require more hardware.  If your computer is new in the last couple years, you shouldn’t have a problem.  I recommend a minimum of 1GB of RAM, and 20GB of free disk space (for installation and database space) as well as a 3Ghz processor to get decent performance.  There is one product I know of which is specifically designed to increase the performance of ACT! 2005 and newer.

If you enjoy troubleshooting, and don’t mind learning a bit along the way, you may be a candidate for trying it yourself.  Allow me to encourage you to setup a test environment first, and see how it goes, and then when you are ready migrate your production database. 

If, however, you are the type that use technology as a necessity only (or fall somewhere between the two), you may be best suited to get a Sage Software approved ACT! Certified Consultant.  These are people whose livelihood depends on their ability to make the database sing for their customers.  You may be much further ahead to hire one just to upgrade your system and current database.

Jim, it seems like you got it figured out, which is good to hear.  I’m curious to know, if you had to do the upgrade over again (can’t run legacy technology for too long and remain as competitive), what would you have done differently?
Others of you with comments and feedback, please share them.  (Here is the tutorial if you need a guide, I’ll show you how).

-Travis
www.ACTasap.net
www.FreeACTTips.com

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ACT! by Sage: To Upgrade or Not To Upgrade, share your Stories

Over the last few years, at this time of year, Sage software has come up with a new version of the popular contact management software, ACT!. This year appears to be no different, as marketing materials of the worlds most popular contact manager land in email and snail mail inboxes.

There was a key difference between ACT! version 6 and ACT! 2005 which released in August of 2004. It was rebuilt from the ground up a new architecture, Microsoft dot net and SQL. I likened this upgrade experience to going from a Jeep to a Hummer. A Hummer is roomier and even luxurious but is slow off the starting line compared to the Jeep. The Hummer can haul more, and once it gets going one could argue it is superior. For customers upgrading from ACT! 6, gone were the days of putting in the software CD, and hitting next a few times (installation wizard), and completing the upgrade in a few minutes. What was once and upgrade had become a “migration”.


So, what I’d like to know is your own experience when it comes to upgrading/migrating your ACT! software, the good, the bad, the ugly. Now I realize I’m opening a can of worms here, but I want your honest feedback. Allow me to encourage you to be polite, yet descriptive…professional. Keep in mind your post might be read by anyone, perhaps even the makers of the software.

There are many choices when it comes to contact management software for small businesses, realtors, and entrepreneurs of various disciplines, although fewer than just 3-4 years ago. Goldmine, Maximizer, MSCRM, and other contact manager users have their own tales to tell when it comes to upgrading. Another challenge is going to a different product entirely.

So go ahead and share what your experiences have been, and I just may respond with a few of my own.

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