CRM Tips, Tricks, and Technical Info

Return of SideACT as ScratchPad in SageACT! 2012

2011-11-28T12:36:00.001-08:00

Longtime users of SageACT! CRM software will remember an "old" feature called SideACT, which ran in the taskbar and allowed quick access to some popular task commands. Well, good news for those with much patience - in the new version of SageACT! they've added that back, and now it's called Scratchpad.

The SageACT! Scratchpad is actually a separate application that provides a way to keep a list of tasks - work or personal - that you need to do or items that you want to make note of. Essentially a virtual to-do list, you can use the SageACT! Scratchpad when SageACT! is open or when it is closed, and items from SageACT! Scratchpad will be sent to the SageACT! database that the user is currently logged into. Additionally, it works will both Pro and Premium 2012 versions - and via ACT Premium for Web access!

With the SageACT! Scratchpad, you can:

Add, edit, or delete items.
send items SageACT! as notes, histories, or activities
Format items with bold or italics to mark them as special or important.
Move items up and down the list to reorder them.
Mark items as complete.
Print your list to take with you.
Minimize it to your taskbar for easy access at any time.

SageACT! Scratchpad is accessible via:

A shortcut on your desktop when you installed Sage ACT! or Start>Programs>SageACT!>SageACT! ScratchPad
Under the Do More With Sage ACT! on the Welcome Page
In ACT!, on the menu Tools>Sage ACT! Scratchpad.

Once the Sage ACT! Scratchpad is open you can use the buttons as described in the image below.

Overview:

Click to Enlarge:

Send to Sage ACT!:

Click to Enlarge:

Format:

Click to Enlarge:

Manage List:

Click to Enlarge:

Also see How to Move Sage ACT! Scratchpad Data from One Computer to Another Computer

Use SwiftPage to Send "off-the-cuff" E-mails

2011-11-07T21:55:00.000-08:00

Ever wanted to send an impromptu, spur-of-the-moment e-mail using SwiftPage, but did not want to take the time to edit - or create - a template just to send a quick message? You can with a simple, one-time setup that can be used again and again.
SwiftPage comes with many predesigned templates - any will do, but they do have one called Blank Template that is a good one to start with, since it's mostly blank, which is what we want. Here's what you do...

First, go to Global Templates, choose the Blank Template, and then choose Copy to Local. Name it what you want, but make it easy to identify. I chose to call mine Personal Message, you'll see why in a minute.

Now one of your Local Templates, Edit it, removing *anything* you do not want the user to see. My initial template came with some blank text "windows", so I deleted those, and changed the header to something very simple and unobtrusive.

Here's the key to this whole thing working. You can add any field you want, but the *KEY* field to add to your now blank template is called [[SpePersonalMessage]] - it's one of the Mail Merge fields. Again, add any other field you want (I added my name & phone as a "signature"), but this is the field that will hold your witty prose that you're dying to get out.

Finally, Save your template.

To use it, you'll do whatever you need in SageACT! to get a Contact, Group, Lookup, Company, etc ready to send. Personally, I use Groups and Lookups most of all when sending messages. Once you have your desired recipients, click the SwiftPage icon (called Sage E-marketing for ACT! in newer versions), which launches the SwiftPage interface:

Choose your new "blank" template - again, mine is called Personal Message - type in your message in the Personal Message box, and Send Now (or later, or whatever option you want). Your message will merge into the [[SpePersonalMessage]] field, along with any other merge fields, and off it goes.

Using this template, you can do new lookups, and type in a new message, without editing the template over and over again. Good luck!

Why not to use your ISP or GMail for E-marketing

2011-10-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

One of the first questions I get when setting up a CRM system - either ACT! or ZoHo CRM is "how do I mail merge?". Below are some reasons why you should not use the email merge directly from SageACT or ZohoCRM, and the alternative you should use. Whatever you use, PLEASE do not think you can use your ISP or GMail to send mass emails.
Personally, I use SwiftPage for a number of reasons - it's easy, it integrates directly into ACT!, the templates are easy to edit, the reporting is great.

I'm not addressing the one-off message to one person using a template or the email merge to a small group, or look-up, of contacts (e.g. a specific, very targeted message to a select group). What we're targeting here is the mass email merge to many contacts (e.g. email marketing, product release, seminar announcement).

The first two can generally be done in your CRM system, the last one is the one you do NOT want to do directly from the system - here's why...

First, and most importantly, your email provider, or ISP, limits how many messages you can send per day. Going over that limit will cause a number of things to happen - all bad - depending on your provider. Here's three limits from three popular providers:

Google:

In an effort to fight spam and prevent abuse, Google will temporarily disable your account if you send messages to more than 500 recipients or if you send a large number of undeliverable messages. If you use a POP1 or IMAP2 client (Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail, e.g.), you may only send a message to 100 people at a time. Your account should be re-enabled within 24 hours.

GoDaddy:

Your email account includes 250 SMTP relays per mailbox, per day. Each address listed in the CC and BCC fields count against your daily limit. One relay consists of an email message sent to one address using the SMTP service. Therefore, you can send up to 250 messages per day, per mailbox. Your SMTP relay limit resets once each day, approximately every 24 hours.

Zoho CRM/Mail:

250 emails/day

So, what will happen? Your account could be disabled, you will be labeled a spammer, you will most likely get blacklisted by the recipients IT department, your merge will not finish, and so on.

[Note: while ZohoCRM (using their mail server) does have a limit, ACT does not necessarily have a limit from the program. The issue with sending from ACT is system resources - a large mail merge will cause the system to max out on memory or processor, and lockup, and your email merge will fail.]

However, as I said at the beginning, there are more reasons to use an e-marketing system, as if getting your email system turned off for 24 hrs is not enough -

ease of use - unless you have unlimited time to create templates from scratch, create and embed images, when you should be using your time and effort elsewhere
schedule sends for later - unless you want to sit at the computer 24 hours a day
campaigns - series of messages or drip marketing to send for either marketing or events
webforms - online forms/surveys that transfer data directly to your database, like a Contact Us or sign-up for an upcoming event
reports - see how effective your email and/or campaign is

The most important take-a-way is to realize that your ISP, or GMail, is not an open pipe to blast e-mails. If you get blacklisted, or tagged as a spammer, that's the end of any communications to that contact. Take a look at SwiftPage, a very effective, and affordable e-marketing system.

How to get Help in ACT!

2011-10-13T07:42:00.000-07:00

Although SageACT is very user friendly - once you get familiar with it - getting started can be overwhelming for a new user. ACT has a few different areas, and levels, of help available. First, however, if you're looking to convert or customize ACT, unless you have unlimited time and are comfortable in all the areas of ACT, your best bet is to get ahold of a consultant to do this for you. They can do it relatively quickly, and correctly, saving you an incredible amount of time and frustration. You'll be more efficient with your database, and in the end you'll save much more in time and money by getting them to help out. Contact me for more information, but for general "how-to" issues, here's a few areas to keep in mind:

In ACT, Help>Online Manuals - there's two reference manuals that help with getting started. The New User Quick Start and Quick Reference Card will assist people in getting familiar with the program itself - where things are and how to access and work in certain areas.
In ACT again, the Welcome screen (View>Welcome) and Help>Feature Tours are a little more in-depth. Like the title says, these focus on individual features, and help users utilize ACT to work for them, helping them become more efficient.
Anytime Learning online courses at http://www.sageu.com/act/anytimelearning/ - again, more in-depth and more focused on specific areas, these are a product sold by ACT and are video based. Very good for "handing off" to a new users so they can learn at their own speed
The online KnowlegeBase - which has very in-depth technical and instructional articles for pretty much anything. Most likely, not something you're going to give to a new users, this is more on the technical side - very detailed information for understanding how the systems works, or troubleshooting issues.

Hope this helps, again, contact me with any questions - I'd love to help...

SageACT! Connect Cloud Service

2011-09-21T10:49:00.000-07:00

The new release of SageACT! 2012 makes available an additional product called SageACT! Connect. This is a subscription-based product that syncs *your* individual ACT! database to a hosted site, which then makes the data available to some smartphones, or a portal accessed via a browser. I'll go over some of the basics, and show you how I use it.

What Is It?
SageACT! Connect is a subscription based product, currently at $59.95/year, which is a great price compared to other addons, and especially to cloud/subscription-based CRM systems, which can run close to that per month.

There have been addons to sync ACT to your phone for some time. CompanionLink and HandHeld Contact (HHC) are probably the two most popular. In fact, I do use HHC, as it has a native iPhone app and synchronizes custom fields (more on why that matters later). However, I also use SageACT Connect, due to the option to access via a web portal. This means that I can access Contacts and Calendar on any computer, including my Mac.

Example: went to the portal using my Mac, added an Event on the Calendar. The sync service that runs on the same machine as my ACT database sync'd that event to ACT, which then sync'd it to Google Calendar, as I also have the Google Integration setup. (Yes, I could have just added it to my GCal, this is just an example).

There is support for some phones directly - mostly BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian - but not for the iPhone (or the iPad). While I have not used it on the iPhone via Safari, I have heard people use it successfully on an iPad.

What syncs?
Basic contact data/fields, a few recent Notes and History, and Calendar Activities. No Groups, Companies, Opportunities, or custom fields. To be fair, HHC does not do these either, except for some custom fields. This is not a solution for those looking for total cloud access, you want to implement ACT for Web in that case, which is real-time access anyway.

Note: This "product" is a combination of the stored cloud data and a service running locally on your machine. The local service is connected to your database, and configured to run at scheduled intervals, sync-ing Contacts and Calendar items you specify.

Conclusion
The fact is, like Google integration, I see this as a step in the right direction and a work in progress. The ability to get Contact and Calendar data in an ACT "format" that syncs directly to my database is what I like most. I do have Contacts and Calendar sync with Google, so there is some redundancy (for me), but for those who do *not* use Google accounts, this is an excellent solution to get mobile access to some ACT data.

Over the past year, I've had many people call looking for alternatives to ACT because they want either web or mobile (or both) access. The powers-that-be at ACT are recognizing the shift, and are rolling out enhancements that allow users to keep the security, familiarity, functionality, and customization of ACT - which is far and above *any* cloud based system - while providing anytime access to the users.

Please contact me with any questions or comments...

SageACT! Google Integration

2011-09-13T13:25:00.000-07:00

September of 2012 marked a new release of SageACT! - version 14, or as most people call is 2012. As an avid Google user - in fact, I run most of my day-to-day activities in GMail and GCal - the addition of Google integration is most welcome.

This post is not so much about the setup and inner workings, rather more of a "what you get" in the integration.
I've seen questions about why certain groups of contacts are not transferring, using templates to email - so below are my observations on what you will see in both ACT! and Google applications. Please contact me with any questions or comments.

[Note: see links at the bottom of this post for specific technical documents (Knowledge Base Articles) from ACT! in regards to the setup and configuration.]

First, all integration for all services/apps is on a "sync" basis - you configure the individual applications in regards to what data is exchanged, the configure the overall integration to synchronize data on a schedule - daily, hourly, etc. I currently have them syncing every 15 minutes.

Setting up the integration is initiated through the Sage ACT! Tools>Integrate with Google>GoogleIntegration Preferences menu.

GMail
ACT syncs with GMail's Inbox and Sent Items folders, putting the email message in ACT's History tab as an E-mail history type. It's important to note that it is only the Inbox and Sent Items. Two areas to take note of:

If you get a message, then delete it before the next sync, it will not show up in ACT
If you "move" a message to another folder/label - out of the Inbox - before it syncs, that message will not appear in ACT either.

Originally, I had ACT/GMail syncing every 30 minutes, but I found I move messages out of the Inbox rather rapidly, so I was missing some. The 15 minute sync I have now (for me) seem to be a good balance.

Additionally, unless you use Outlook linked to GMail, you *cannot* send directly from ACT! Clicking on an email address will bring up the application registered by your system for new emails (mailto: protocol). Since GMail (again, for me) is run through a browser, this does not work for creating messages.
[Note: if you have Outlook installed and linked with Google, there is an Outlook integration in ACT that will do this *with* Outlook already. Please contact me if you need help setting this up.]

Lastly, related to the above point, Mail Merges and/or templates do not work either.

Google Calendar
This integration is a bit more configurable than GMail. Here you can choose which Activities get transferred between ACT! and GCal. Just want Appointments and Meetings, or all Activities - Calls, ToDos, etc.

You can also specify how long in the past, and how far in the future to sync entries. Additionally, you can choose where to ring an alarm, and which calendar "wins" when one is changed.

The most important thing to realize with GCal integration is that from Google to ACT!, the only calendar sync'd is your main Google account calendar, and from ACT! to Google every item will be put on your main Google account calendar. Most of us have more than one calendar *in* our Google account (e.g. I have my main one, a Marketing calendar, and a Personal calendar), furthermore, we often have imported calendars from other business associates or family members. Although you might see 10 Google calendars when viewing via Google, remember that is your main Google account that integrates with ACT.

Here's how the different activities are handled in the transfer:

ACT! to Google
Google to ACT!

A Sage ACT! Timeless activity or To-do syncs to Google as a Task with a date, but no time.
An "All Day" event in Google synchronizes to Sage ACT! as a Timeless activity.

Field mapping of Activities:

Google Contacts
ACT! to Google Contacts uses a predefined sync set to determine which contacts from ACT to push to Google. Since my Google Contacts also syncs with my iPhone, I don't necessarily want hundreds of extra ACT contacts on my phone, so I've chosen a sync set *from* ACT to only sync a small subset of "active" contacts to Google.

Like the calendar, you do have some configuration options regarding which contact "wins" if they are both changed. Since I tend to update contact information in ACT rather than on my phone, I choose ACT to overwrite it's changes to Google, which then goes to my phone.

The one area to keep in mind with Contacts sync is that in Google, ONLY the My Contacts tag/folder will sync *to* ACT, and any contacts *from* ACT end up in the My Contacts folder/tag group in Google.

Conclusion

Hope this helps understand the integration. I think with the Google integration ACT! has raised the bar again for CRM systems. I've been running this for some time, and have not had issues with the integration at all. Hopefully, ACT will include sending directly from the ACT application, along with templates, in the near future.

ACT Knowledgebase Articles

What Does Mobile Access for My CRM Really Mean?

2011-07-20T10:23:00.000-07:00

The term "cloud" is a hot button currently - everyone wants their data on/in the cloud, but they don't really know what that means or entails. I often get phone calls that start with "I want ACT! on my phone", or "we'd like to move our CRM to the cloud". Really, what people want is mobile access.
Depending on your CRM system, along with related/linked systems such as email or documents, there's a huge variety of options, each with different functionality.

I've had people think that "cloud" is actually a Microsoft product - clearly this is not the case. Nor is it all inclusive - you can have some applications locally on your desktop, some hosted, and some as a service, as I'll explain below - I actually have this exact setup.

Regarding CRM systems, there are two systems I primarily support - Sage ACT! and ZoHo CRM. Additionally, I use Google products for personal and business use as well, which links to both systems.

Zoho is a SaaS company, where their entire application suite is what I'd call "in the cloud". I use the following - CRM, Invoice, Mail (linked with GMail), Project, Support, Docs, Creator, and Meeting. Each of these applications are hosted by Zoho, and I can access them via a browser, or my phone, from anywhere. There is nothing installed on any of my computers or phone, and data updated once is visible anywhere immediately.

Google is the same way - I use GMail, Calendar, and Docs - all online with no local/desktop linkage.

ACT! is the other CRM system I use, and this one is a combination of mobile and desktop. I have the desktop version of ACT installed, which I open on one specific computer. However, I also have the web version installed, which allows me to access my ACT! database from any browser. Now, I also have one other product linked to ACT! that adds the "cloud" component to ACT!. I use HandHeld Contact, which is a small app installed on the same machine as my ACT! database, but it's also service that syncs my ACT! database to my phone via their sync service. This is actually done via an iPhone app, so I can get my ACT! data whether or not I'm connected to the internet.

Really, what it comes down to is 1) which system provides you with the functionality you need for your business, and 2) how much mobile access is important to you. Don't jump on one bandwagon just because of what's "hot" now, make sure your business, and the people using the system, will be able to benefit from it.

CRM systems should make your work more efficient. Please contact me with any questions or comments. I can help you with optimizing your CRM system, or, if needed, converting to an updated platform. I convert old and new ACT! databases, Goldmine, Outlook, Excel, and more.

Richard Brust | CRM Consultant

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GTalk: rbrDataSolutions Skype: richard.brust

Sage ACT! ServicePacks and HotFixes

2011-05-27T10:52:00.000-07:00

Sage ACT! 2011 hot fixes are cumulative, so the latest hot fix will include the benefits of all earlier hot fixes for this version. It is not required to install earlier hot fixes prior to installing the latest hot fix.

However, you do need to install the SP1. Thanks to Mike Lazarus @ GL Computing for his blog article, which I've blatantly stolen to post :-)

Important: You must apply this hot fix to all machines that share the database – especially when using synchronization. This includes all machines that contain the Main Synchronization Database (Publisher), Main Remote Database (Subscriber), and machines that have the ACT! Network or ACT! Internet Sync Services installed. All machines must have this hotfix applied for synchronization to continue. Check installed version by going to Help and About Act!. Consult with your administrator before applying this in a sync environment.

Life and Times with ACT! by Sage: Sage ACT! 2011 SP1 Hotfix 4

ACT to ZoHo Conversion - What Gets Converted

2011-04-19T20:22:00.000-07:00

I've spent quite a bit of time this year doing ACT to ZoHo CRM conversions. i.e. People with an existing database in ACT! that they want "moved" - migrated is a better term - to ZoHo. What I'd like to do is provide a short synopsis of what exactly gets converted/migrated, and what to expect in the new system.

For this post, let's assume that the company is using everything in ACT - Contacts, Companies, Groups, Notes, History, Attachments, extra custom fields, Activities, and Opportunities. The version of ACT! does not matter, I can migrate all versions - from ACT 6 to the latest version 2011.

The migration process involves a middle step of exporting all data into Excel, so any data that might not migrate exactly can be "massaged" or edited to fit into ZoHo fields and records. It is critical you get someone that has the correct tools and knowledge to do this. I've done conversions/migrations for years to and from ACT!, and now ZoHo. Contact me to find out how this can be done for your data. Plenty of people can "export" ACT! data, not many can migrate it. Very important difference.

First, the items that come "straight" across. Contacts, and any custom fields, Companies (again, with any added fields) migrate cleanly. Companies are called Accounts in ZoHo by default, but you can change the name if desired. I've been an ACT! user for about 14 years, so I prefer Companies rather than Accounts. Anyway, if you setup the fields in ZoHo to match the fields in ACT, then all your data will come across fine. The only caveat here is that ZoHo does limit the number of custom fields you can add. Their limit is 130, divided up by field type. Generally not an issue, but I have run into limits if you've customized your ACT! database extensively.

Notes, History, and Opportunities (Potentials in ZoHo - again, I've renamed in ZoHo to be Opportunities) all come across with the information, it's just presented differently in ZoHo. As long as the data is manipulated correctly in the middle step in Excel, it will be a clean conversion. This is key to having someone know both the ACT! data structure and the ZoHo structure, otherwise you will lose data.

ACT is quite a bit more detailed in Activities - so recurrence, scheduling, alarms might not come over 100%. You'll get the majority of the information - enough to keep working without interruption or losing data. Dates will convert, you will have to edit some of the alarms and recurring schedules.

Groups is the one that has no match in ZoHo - there isn't even a grouping feature. However, that does not mean you lose the data! I have successfully converted Group information and kept it so that the users could still use the data they had in ACT! ZoHo has a few features that allow this to happen - one is views, which are essentially saved queries. By "moving" the group name to a field, you can create views in ZoHo that allow you to "group". A second option is to use another entity in ZoHo, such as Companies or Vendors, as the "group" level. This is too detailed to describe here, suffice to say that it can be done if you have someone that knows what they are doing, which, of course, is me.

One other thing I always tell people regarding a migration - ZoHo might not do everything *exactly* like ACT, but if you focus on your end result, and how to accomplish what you want to accomplish, you'll find a way to do it. Contact me for more information...

Can't Access ACT! Database Troubleshooting

2011-03-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

Have you ever gotten this error:

The database ACT11 demo could not be accessed in order to access this database check your network connection and verify that your database is server is available.

While there's many reasons why you might get an error about connecting to ACT! - firewall issues, bad database, network issues - lately (March 2011) there seems to be some commonality to what's happening. I want to share a quick check method to get you back up and running so you can at least keep working.

First, a short techie note. There are two main parts to ACT! software:
1. the screen you see - navigation, contact info tabs, menus, etc - is what I'll call the ACT! "program".
2. the data itself, however, is in a program called Microsoft SQL Server, which for most people, does not have an interface/window that you normally see.

It's the SQL Server that often is the cause of this, and what I'll focus on here. SQL Server is what's called a service in Windows - it runs automatically in the background when the computer starts, whether or not you're logged on or not. If SQL Server is not running, then your database is not available, and you get the error.

To check:

Go to Start>Run
Type in services.msc in the Run/Search box
Note: you might also find this under the Administrative Tools program folder just called Services
When that window appears, scroll down to SQL Server (ACT7)
The third column - Status - should have "Started" in it. If empty, SQL Server is *not* running.
If empty, click Start the Service link on the left part of the window [or right-click SQL Server (ACT7) and choose Start]

Now you should be able to login to your ACT! database.

Finally, although the reasons for this happening lately vary, often Automatic Updates is turned on, and Microsoft releases new updates mid-week, Wednesdays being the most popular day - which is the day I receive most emails from clients reporting this issue. If this happens to you every Wednesday or Thursday, that's why.

To fix, you need to identify the update that is causing SQL Server to stop and "remove" it from the update process. Contact me for more info...

ACT for Web from your SOHO

2011-03-22T22:11:00.000-07:00

You might know that Sage ACT! has a version that makes your ACT! database available via the web. People often associate this feature with either big offices with their own servers, or a costly hosting solution. Do you know that with just a few configuration changes to your router, you can have worldwide access (secure, of course) to your database that might be hosted in your home, or small office?

Now, there are a few components involved here, and I won't go into detail for them all, as there are excellent help articles that explain them. Of course, I'd love to help you get this setup - and could do so very economically, and quickly - contact me for more info.

First, the requirements:
1. ACT! Premium (vs. ACT! Pro, which does *not* have the web capability included). This is important, as you're not going to get this advanced functionality with the $89 version of ACT! off a discount web store.
2. Windows version with IIS - Internet Information Server. This is the web server portion of the setup, and what "hosts" your ACT! database. IIS can be loaded on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 - which probably covers 99% of the operating systems people reading this article have.
3. A router (wired or wifi - does not matter) that allows both a web browser admin login, and when in the login, Port Range Forwarding.

#1 and #2 I won't cover here - I want to focus on the configuration of #3, which is the key step in making it available - and is very simple.

OK, so once ACT! Premium is installed, and IIS is installed/configured, here are the steps:
1. Find the IP address of your ACT! machine. The easiest way I do this is to go to Start, and in the Run/Search box, type cmd, which opens a command prompt window. Now just type ipconfig, and in the result look for the line that contains IP Address (it may say more, but that's the jist) - something like:
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.105

2. Login to your router and find the Port Forwarding menu, which if often under the Applications/Services, and/or Gaming section.

3. There may already be a service called WWW or web with Start Port and End Port of 80 with a Protocol of TCP. If not, add this service (call it web, does not matter much), both Start and End Port are 80, and check/choose TCP as the protocol. Now, this may seem Greek to some of you, but in any router I've ever seen, there's only so many places to put values, and once you see your router screen, it'll make sense, just remember this:
Service: web
Start Port: 80
End Port: 80
Protocol: TCP

4. OK, one more very, very important value on this screen, and that's the "to" or "destination" IP address, which is the IP address you retrieved earlier, e.g. 192.168.1.105. Put that value in this field, and then click Save.

Now, technically, your database is available via the web, but you need to tell people (or yourself) how to access it. From a browser on any computer in your network, go to http://www.whatismyip.com The top of this page will have a large title that says something like:
Your IP Address Is: 70.143.5.52

That is the number (address) you'll use from the "outside" to access your database on the "inside". e.g. from outside your SOHO, open a browser and go to http://70.143.5.52, which will bring up the ACT! Premium for Web logon screen. Choose your database and logon, and voila - your data from wherever you might be.

Again, please contact me with any questions or assistance.

When to Upgrade

2011-03-08T12:10:00.000-08:00

I have found that people upgrade for one or two reasons - because there are new features or requirements that their current system does not have, or their current systems does not integrate with newer software.

So, how do you know if you should be upgrading?

I work with many CRM systems, either in passing because of troubleshooting, or actively because they are heavily used by my clients. The two mainly supported are Sage ACT! - a desktop and optional web based solution - and ZoHo CRM - which is strictly cloud based.

Using these two, here's why you might look to upgrade or convert:

ZoHo CRM is popular because it's cloud-based, so if you have a requirement to have access anywhere, on any device, you are probably looking at, or even testing, cloud solutions. ZoHo CRM is 100% web based, any browser, and any smart phone with a browser - basically, if you have a connection, you can get to your database. Note, the phone-based access is slightly limited in functionality, but you can get most of the contact information, activities, etc.

Sage ACT! also has a web-based solution, where you load ACT! on a server either you own, rent, lease, whatever, and load your database(s) to that server, which is available via the web. ACT! on the web has much of the same functionality as the desktop version, and is available on Firefox and Internet Explorer. There are third-party addons to bridge the gap to smart phones, but you will also have to be running the desktop version that "syncs" with the smart phone - i.e. it's not direct web access to your database via a phone. However, if you need access while away from an internet connection (bad service areas, airplane), then having web access *and* desktop access is critical.

As for integrating with newer software, and old version of ACT! will not integrate with Office 2010 (note: ACT! older that 2007/v9 will not integrate with Office 2007 or newer, either). If you're office is planning to upgrade to Office 2010, then this will have to be taken into account.

ZoHo integrates with GMail and Google Calendar (if installed via Google Apps), which is critical for GMail users.

One final note - both ACT! and ZoHo are excellent CRM systems. Depending on your needs, you will find out which one suites you best. ACT! is incredibly customizable and works seamlessly with Microsoft Office. ZoHo does have a plugin to work with Office, although not as integrated as ACT!, but also has the option to work with Google Docs and ZoHo Docs. ZoHo is a cloud-based subscription service, it's software is updated automatically, the user does not have to do anything. ACT! has updates and hotfixes, which do have to be installed manually.

If you are interested in the differences between ACT! and ZoHo, or different versions of ACT!, please drop me a note. Additionally, if you upgrade, or convert to another systems, you will want your data to be migrated, which is a service we offer - please contact me for details.

Integration Between Zoho Apps: Part III

2010-12-20T21:52:00.000-08:00

Integration Between Zoho Apps: Part III: "

This year we have focused a lot on contextual integration. This includes integration between Zoho Apps as well as integration with external apps. I want to briefly highlight some of the new integrations between Zoho Apps (also check Part I, Part II).

Zoho Wiki Integration with Zoho Projects

Zoho Wiki & Projects are two different types of collaboration tools. But when you have a need to collaboratively create content, then our Zoho Wiki integration with Zoho Projects can be really handy. Content can now be created in the context of the project you are working on. More details on this integration is available here.

Zoho Chat integration with Zoho Projects & CRM

As we mentioned previously, Zoho Chat is one of those apps that is integrated with most of our apps. This year, we integrated it with Zoho Projects as well as Zoho CRM. In case of Zoho Projects, we also enabled group chat between members of the project. More info here.

Zoho Creator integration with Zoho CRM & Invoice

Integrating Zoho Creator with our business apps is a frequently requested feature. We started this effort by taking some small initial steps by integrating Creator with CRM (more details) and Invoice (more details). Moving forward, we plan expand this integration.

Zoho Reports integration with Zoho Creator

While Creator is integrated with other Apps on one side, we also have complementary apps like Zoho Reports integrate with Creator. Users collect lots of data using their Creator apps. If you need to build reports from the collected data, you can do so with our Reports integration. More details are available here.

Tasks Integration with Projects & CRM

Zoho Tasks is one of those small applications that is part of our Zoho Mail Suite. We also have Tasks option in some of our other apps like CRM, Projects etc. We integrated tasks from other apps in Zoho Tasks providing an aggregated view of all your tasks.

Zoho Search

We launched Zoho Search this year. While a typical Search cannot be called integration, our actionable search is different. From the search results page, it opens the relevant application to open the content. An email result found in search is opened with Zoho Mail with options to respond to the email. Similarly, a document can be opened directly from a search result and can even be shared with other users right from the search interface. More information is available here.

Zoho Mail & Zoho CRM

We talked about this couple of times, but is worth another mention. Email integration with CRM can be great if done right. But there are many many vendors doing CRM and Email. As we do both, this puts Zoho in a unique position and we are able to integrate Zoho CRM with Zoho Mail as well as other email systems.

When you view the contact information of your customer in CRM, won't it be useful to also view the email exchanges you have had with that customer and may be even send out an email right from the CRM system? That was the thought behind this integration and we now have a good tight integration between these systems. More information about this is available here.

Link to Folder from Contact Field

2010-10-17T18:53:00.000-07:00

If you have a folder for a client, or a folder of important documents, and don't necessarily want to attach each and every document to an ACT! record, this field use "trick" will help. Using a URL field, you can actually type in a directory path, and - when clicked - will open an Explorer window to that directory.

Here's how to do this:

Go to Tools>Define Fields on the menu.
View Fields for: Contact or Company depending on where you want this field.
Create a new field, naming it whatever you'd like. The key here is to make Field Data Type: URL Address
Finish the field creation process, and then
Place this new field on your Contact or Company layout, again depending on where you created the field.

Now that you have the field, the syntax - or what to type in the field - is important:

The field value must begin with file://
The remaining text must be a valid directory

Here's an example of an entry in my ACT! database - a "Demo" directory under my Documents:

...and when it's clicked on, that directory opens in Explorer:

Hope this helps!

Updated Free Group Count AddOn Released

2010-10-04T20:33:00.000-07:00

I've released an update to the free Group Count AddOn. The new version keeps the functionality of the original - to quickly view a count of a Group and it's sub-groups - but adds a few features requested by users.

Specifically:

it will create a Group_Count field that can be added to a layout or a column in the Group List view
creates a new menu item that goes through all the groups and subgroups, counts members, and puts the value in the Group_Count field, or in a Note under the Group record (depending on type of database)
it auto-sizes the bottom left panel on the status bar - which allows you to view the entire group name instead of cutting it off
additionally, in that lower left panel, it also automatically shows the number of contacts in the current group [e.g. "Customers has 141 members"] as you click on each group

More info is on my site. Remember, it's a free addon, please enjoy and pass info along to colleagues and associates.

Sage ACT! 2011 Premium Review from PCMag.com

2010-09-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

Sage ACT! 2011 is less of an overhaul than an enhancement of last year's excellent offering. Improved Outlook integration, excellent SMB services, and general improvements throughout make the latest ACT! the ultimate contact management tool.

Full Review Review & Rating | PCMag.com

Lookup Contact Activity - Keep track of who's slipping through the cracks

2010-09-15T06:33:00.000-07:00

There's a somewhat hidden search option in ACT! that allows you to search almost all areas of a contact record for the last time that contact was edited. This search option can help you find those contacts that haven't been "touched" in a while, and not let them slip away.
On the main contact screen layout, there are a few fields (system fields, you cannot edit them) that show the last time a contact was emailed, had a meeting, called, sent a letter, etc. However, if you don't record every call, or every email sent, but *do* use Notes and/or History to record info, this search option is what you would use.

Go to the menu item Lookup>Contact Activity. A small window will come up asking if your looking for:

Contacts that have not changed (or changed)
a date to search from
what to search in: Notes, History, Activities, Opportunities, and Contact Fields

This search option also helps in that you can search all fields at once - you don't have to lookup Last Letter, Last Call, Last Email - but rather search all at once. Give it a try and find out which contacts are waiting for you to get a hold of them.

Professionals, amateurs and the great unwashed

2010-09-01T23:22:00.000-07:00

If you want something done, perhaps you would ask a professional to do it. Someone who costs a lot but is worth more than they charge. Someone who shows up even when she doesn't feel like it. Someone who stands behind her work, gets better over time and is quite serious indeed about the transaction.

Or perhaps you could hire a passionate amateur. That's a forum leader doing it for love, not money. An obsessive in love with the craft. A talented person willing to trade income for the chance to do what he loves, with freedom.

Please, though, don't hire someone who just thinks it's a job. This category represents the majority of your options, and this category is what gives work a bad name.

Editing Drop Down Lists

2010-08-25T12:10:00.000-07:00

One of the best ways to make ACT! by Sage "your own" and speed up data entry, and searching, is to customize drop-down boxes field choices - or List Values - to better match your business needs. Eliminating excess tags, or changing existing values cleans up the screen, and gets you to important data quicker.

Note: While you can free-form enter a value in a drop-down list box, that does not change the underlying values. Your free-form entry will "stick" for the record you edited, but it will not become a permanent part of the field values.

Clicking on a List Box shows you the choices available for that field. Every list box that comes with the default layout in ACT! has the option at the bottom to Edit List Values...

Clicking that brings up the editing window with *all* the values assigned to that field:

Most list boxes, with the exception of State, come with either too many values, or values that just don't match your business requirements. There are three options in this window:

Add, which adds a blank line for you to enter a value
Delete, which removes the highlighted line
Double-Click on the field, and your cursor will be placed in that field in edit mode - just change/over-type/etc the existing value.
Note: this works for Value *or* Description

Hope this helps you "clean-up" your data a bit, and will certainly help streamline data entry.

ACT! E-marketing Extreme Makeover

2010-08-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

ACT! E-marketing is getting an extreme makeover with the upcoming launch of Sage ACT! 2011, starting with its name. From now on, our E-marketing service will be known as 'Sage E-marketing for ACT!.' This will help us be consistent when we roll out additional services for E-marketing and other categories.

Along with the name change, Sage E-marketing for ACT! will have a new icon on the contact, company, and group toolbars - a more stylized version of the current users have seen, which conveys a greater sense of motion or action as well as a consistent style with other ACT! icons. Go check it out!

But the makeover doesn't end there - there's lots of new features inside Sage E-marketing for ACT!, including:

Integration with Smart Tasks Sage E-marketing comes integrated with ACT! 2011 smart tasks out of the box. When you're designing smart tasks, you can easily add a step to send an e-mail or add a contact to a drip campaign and directly access your email templates and campaigns. Talk about a personal assistant!
Ability to edit imported templates At long last! Sage E-marketing for ACT! now includes an Advanced Editor which can edit imported templates. Instead of having to make edits using the source tool and re-import, customers will be able to apply edits to the already imported templates. Customers who regularly import templates are going to love this!
Landing pages You can now publish email templates as landing pages, bringing sophisticated campaign capabilities to your fingertips. Don't have time or money to add web pages to your website? Create them instantly and let Sage E-marketing for ACT! host them for you!
A new template manager Sage E-marketing for ACT! has a new template manager which makes your life much easier. Organizing, publishing, and distributing email templates is much easier. And you can upload images and documents into a library for repeated use. Speaking of documents - you can now link PowerPoint, Excel, and text files to your templates in addition to pdfs!

The Engine Behind Smart Tasks #SageACT

2010-07-28T10:02:00.000-07:00

By now you’re already super excited about the Sage ACT! 2011 (used to be ACT! by Sage) pre-loaded Smart Tasks that let you automate your marketing and sales activities. This new functionality alone provides unmatched levels of productivity in Sage ACT!. But there’s more there: a much larger foundation is part of Sage ACT! for Smart Tasks.

Underneath the flexible user interface to manage smart tasks, and supporting the execution of Smart Task steps, lies a very powerful workflow engine. The technology supporting Smart Tasks is Microsoft® Windows® Workflow Foundation, a technology leveraged by several CRM products across the industry. For Sage ACT!, that means enjoying capabilities that have blossomed and evolved (e.g. persistence, scheduling, and support of visual design). It also means Sage ACT! can support a range of scenarios: from the automation of steps in-product to enterprise-level workflows. That’s right, custom, complex workflows can be created outside of Sage ACT! and be run in Sage ACT!, for unique customer specified business processes, or flexible system integration. That’s just a taste of what can be accomplished by partners and third-parties alike with Smart Tasks in Sage ACT! 2011.

If you’re technical savvy and want to learn more, stay tuned for Developing Custom Steps for Smart Tasks webinar next month.

Keeping Track of Lookups

2010-07-27T22:15:00.000-07:00

One of the most common tasks in ACT! is to create a lookup of either an individual contact, or a group based on some criteria (e.g. Prospects, people in NH, contacts named Bob, etc). Performing a lookup returns a contact list, but when you go to another contact, narrow the lookup, click on a Company name, or most other navigational options, you loose your original list.

Instead of going through the steps to re-create the contact list, ACT! keeps track of the last 9 lookups you perform, allowing you to navigate between lists and/or contacts. To get to this option, just click Lookup>Previous on the menu, and you will see a list of your past commands:

Using ACT! by Sage to Track Events & Job Duties

2010-07-22T16:35:00.000-07:00

Had a unique request from a client the other day - to attach existing contacts to an event, and assign them to particular tasks/jobs. In this example, the event was a day-long fundraiser that included a cookout, info tables, and other activities. By using a Company record and Relationships, here's what we did to configure ACT! to track the event.

First, create a Company record which is the Event - in this case "August Cookout".
Second, create "contacts" from that Company [Companies>Create Contact from Company menu item] that are job duties, or tasks - e.g. "Setup", "Cleanup", "Ticket Taking", and so on. Create as many "contacts" as needed to define all the tasks.
When viewing the record in Company Detail View, you'll have and event with duties, (which corresponds to a Company with Contacts)
OK, now to put it all together, link, via Relationships, an existing Contact with a task for that Event. e.g. link Joe Schmoe with Setup - and use the Role field of Relationships to define extra info about the specific duties Joe will be performing on Setup.

Hope this helps you think of ways to utilize ACT! to customize it to your needs. Contact me for more info!

p.s. This is definitely easier seen then described, here's the start of the configuration, nothing too detailed, but you should get the idea.

Event with Job/Tasks (Company with Contacts)

Contact Relationship to Job/Task

Integrating E-marketing with ACT! 2011

2010-07-20T12:48:00.000-07:00

ACT! 2011 has a cool new feature called Smart Tasks. Smart Tasks help you manage simple tasks that you do every day. Smart Tasks are intelligent, too, so you can combine multiple steps into a single task to keep you focused on the important things - much like a personal assistant! Here's the best news: you can use Smart Tasks with Sage E-marketing for ACT! (the service formerly known as ACT! E-marketing) to make your personal assistant even more powerful!

Here's an example: maybe you have a regular welcome email that you send to new contacts after you add them to the database. Without Smart Tasks, you wouild have to call up the E-marketing interface, select a template, type in the subject line, choose the contact(s), and send the e-mail. With Smart Tasks, you can store the email template and subject line and then just fire the smart task whenever you need to! You can even incorporate this type of functionality into a multi-step Smart Task, so that clearing one step (for example, making a phone call) initiates the next step (send a thank you email).

There are several Smart Task samples that come with ACT! 2011 that will help you try this out. If you send certain E-marketing templates frequently, you'll want to create Smart Tasks to help you save time and effort.

Please give it a try once you have ACT! 2011, and be sure to tell us how it works for you!

Sage ACT! 2011 - What's New

2010-07-14T19:11:00.000-07:00

Sage ACT! 2011 helps you get more of what you value most—time
and money—by automating key activities and unlocking a rich source of new
leads.

Sage ACT! Overview

Sage ACT! 2011 contact
management software helps you get more of what you value most—time and money—by automating key activities and unlocking a rich source of new leads. Let Smart Tasks handle the things you need to get done every day. Think of it as a personal assistant that sends emails for you and puts activities on your calendar so your customers get the service they expect.
Once your customers are taken care of, shift your focus to Sage

Business Info Services for ACT!¹, which pulls highly targeted prospect lists from Hoover's^TM and puts that info directly into Sage ACT!.

Upgrade Sage ACT! today!

Do you work on a team?

If so, consider Sage ACT! Premium. It's designed for people like you who need to efficiently share relationship details. Even if your business is scattered in different places, Sage ACT! Premium gives you and your team access to a central database from Windows® and the web. Plus, it has features teams need to succeed, including enhanced security, group dashboards and reports, and advanced administration.

Features and Benefits

Automate key activities.

Smart Tasks handle your marketing and sales to-dos. Get started with one of 10+ pre-loaded Smart Tasks and accompanying email marketing templates for the most common activities. Smart Tasks will drive processes that allow Sage ACT! to take care of things like reach out to customers that haven't heard from you in a while or notify you of any sales opportunities that have been stalled. Smart Tasks will even contact customers that are missing key information from their contact records with a survey that automatically plugs that data back into Sage ACT!. Best of all, you have total control over the timing, contact lists, and opportunities for each Smart Task. Apply Smart Tasks right out-of-the-box or make changes to fit your
needs.

Unlock a rich source of new leads. Add fuel to your sales and marketing machine with Sage Business Info Services for ACT!³, which pulls highly targeted prospect lists and business information from Hoover's^TM and puts that data directly into Sage ACT!. It helps you fill in the gaps in your database and gives you access to more than 65 million companies and 85 million executives. Find new leads based on the traits you're looking for and make sure
your mailed materials find their target with addresses and phone numbers that are properly formatted when imported. Start with a free version for basic company, financial, and industry info, or sign up for a subscription to get more detailed contact, company, competitor, and lead information.

Eliminate double entry.

Sage ACT! manages all the details of your business relationships and Microsoft® Outlook® manages emails, basic contact details, and meetings across your team. Now you can share your Outlook and Sage ACT! contacts and calendar using two-way sync. Create new Outlook contacts from Sage ACT! and new Sage ACT! contacts from Outlook.Everything will be kept updated in both places. Don't worry about duplicates.

Keep your busy schedule updated in both Outlook and Sage ACT!, no matter where you add or modify activities and meetings. Sage ACT! will help you cut back on meeting conflicts with rules that handle them automatically. Choose which contacts and activity types in Sage ACT! sync back to Outlook.

Compare Versions

ACT! and SQL Server Firewall Rules

2010-06-22T05:58:00.000-07:00

While ACT! is the program you are "seeing" on the screen, the data is hosted on a Microsoft SQL Server database - possibly on your computer, possibly on a server, depending on your setup. Often when ACT! "doesn't work", or is "broken", it's really just a simple network connection issue, or more likely an issue with SQL Server.
The two main problems I come across are SQL Server Service not running, and Firewall issues.

SQL Server Service - type services.msc into the Run/Start Search box on Windows, which launches a listing of all programs that run in the background when the computer starts. Scroll down that list and find SQL Server (ACT7), the third column should contain Started. If ever ACT! does not open your database, check this first, as it is the most common.
Firewall - the Windows and/or other firewall programs can interfere with the ACT<->SQL connection. Even disabling the firewall might not work. Occasionally rules for ACT!, SQL Server, SQL Browser, and SQL TCP/UDP ports will need to be added for the connection to function. Here's the process for checking/adding these rules (note, your setting may be slightly different depending on your ACT! and/or SQL versions - feel free to contact me with any questions):

Open the Firewall control center, either via Control Panel, or typing Firewall in the Run/Start Search box.
Choose Allow a Program through Windows Firewall
ACT!: You may already see ACT! by Sage, but if not, choose Add Program..., then choose your ACT! version.
SQL Server: Choose Add Program... again, then choose Browse..., and browse to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Binn and select sqlservr.exe. Follow the Open/OK prompts until you're back at the Firewall Settings
SQL Browser: Once more choose Add Program..., again Browse..., and browse to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared and select sqlbrowser.exe (note: the "90" could be 80 or 100 in the file path). Follow the Open/OK prompts back to Firewall Settings
SQL TCP: This time choose Add Port..., type SQL TCP in the Name field, 1433 in the Port field, and ensure TCP is the radio button checked. Click OK.
SQL UDP: Finally, choose Add Port... again, type SQL UDP in the Name field, 1434 in the Port field, and change the radio button to UDP.
Click OK to exit the Firewall Settings.

You've done it! Please contact me with any questions - certainly the different Windows versions and SQL/ACT! versions might not be exactly named as described above, and I'll help where I can.

Zoho CRM Professional Edition

2010-06-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

Zoho's suite of full-featured, online collaboration tools has matured quite a bit over the past several years. The service rivals Google Docs in its power and sophistication. The company's foray into CRM (customer relationship management) software is slightly less successful, as I found in my tests. Even so, the service offers a highly functional system at a very low price, and is particularly effective for existing Zoho users as well as current Google Apps customers.

Editions and Pricing
Zoho offers three basic CRM packages.
The free edition comes with basic sales force, marketing, and customer support automation with reporting, forecasting, and Web forms (which I'll get to below). The Professional edition costs $12 per user per month, and adds inventory management, plus custom data, security, and workflow management. The top-level Enterprise edition costs $25 per user per month; it provides group chat, Web tabs, auto-responders, case escalation rules, and some additional data manipulation tools.

Overall, the Professional version seems to be the best value for most SMBs, while the Enterprise edition's extra support-related features are good for vendors needing that extra capability. On top of those costs, separate Zoho Mail, Outlook, and Office plug-ins cost extra; pricing for those ranges from $3 to $5 per user per month, depending on the package you've signed up for. Unlike Sugar Professional 6 (Beta) ($0.00-$60.00 Direct), Zoho CRM is a pay-as-you-go service; you can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel at any time. While the costs can add up, Zoho Professional doesn't come close to approaching those of our current favorite CRM app, Salesforce.com Professional Edition ($0.00-$250.00 Direct), which will run you $30 per user per month.

Interface, Leads, and Workflow
Zoho CRM's layout looks pedestrian, but it's also straightforward and easy to understand. For example, the Home page is rather drab looking, but it's also completely customizable; you can place modules showing specific data sets anywhere. Zoho CRM comes with plenty of pre-built dashboards that you can set to appear on the home page. The three Potential Dashboards in particular are useful, because they show you at-a-glance how close you are to closing specific deals. Overall, it's a workable arrangement, but its stock views lean a little too close toward "individual windows full of text" rather than the slicing and dicing of sales data you get with Salesforce.com and SugarCRM's Sugar Professional 6, or the robust social network monitoring and hand-holding you get with BatchBlue Software's BatchBook RoyalBlue Edition ($9.95-$99.95).

You can set up individual accounts for customers, and assign multiple contacts to each account as you meet more people at a particular organization. Zoho CRM tracks contacts and leads separately, though the overview pages are fairly static and don't present you with a lot of useful information at first glance. For example, the Leads overview page lacks a status field, though you could move things around and add it. In fact, one persistent issue I noticed throughout the various tabs is that Zoho CRM requires quite a bit of customization to get the most out of it. To some extent, that's true of all the major CRM packages I've tested recently, but Zoho seems to require it even at the very beginning. Without spending some time and really digging in right at the start, Zoho CRM feels a bit too much like Act! By Sage 2010 ($299 direct).

Digging deeper into the program, I found that Zoho excels at managing leads and contacts, particularly among multiple salespeople. To populate the system with data, Zoho can import Excel, CSV, and VCF data and convert it into active leads or other information. Each edition of the product has a different maximum number per batch, though even the Free edition is probably enough for many SMBs (in this regard at least). One big plus, introduced in March 2010, is a Google tie-in that lets Google Apps customers access Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects from within Google Apps.

Web Forms, E-mail Marketing, and Conclusions
Zoho's support for integrating Web-based forms in your company's Web site is particularly compelling. Here's how it works: a customer can input a name, address, and other key info on your Web site. Once they submit the details, everything transfers to a Zoho CRM contact. You can create these forms within CRM: Web to Lead. You can also choose a return URL (such as a "Thank you" page), or assign new contacts secured in this fashion to sales reps around the country, based on location. And since everything is cloud-based, you just embed the form as HTML code in a Web site. The same method works for creating customer support forms and trouble tickets.

For campaigns, you can set up basic e-mail marketing templates. You can also pull fields from your contact and lead databases and insert them as variables. While Zoho CRM hooks into external pieces for e-mail, support tickets, and other tasks, they're still Zoho products, and share the same look, feel, and overall user interface. To cite one example, Zoho has integrated its Meeting product into CRM, letting users send a screen to multiple customers, or take over a customer's screen using remote assistance for troubleshooting issues. On the mobile side, Zoho has an iPhone and Android-formatted site available at mobile.zoho.com/crm; the company is currently beta testing a BlackBerry version as well.

In the end, Zoho still has a ways to go before it approaches the level of sophistication Salesforce.com and SugarCRM offer; fortunately, Zoho is cheaper than those two services, though Zoho's Enterprise suite comes close to the SugarCRM's similarly-featured $30 tier. Zoho's design is also not as inspired as BatchBlue Software's BatchBook, which emphasizes social networking and includes an entrepreneur-focused interface that almost seems to walk you through the process of populating your CRM database. Zoho doesn't include any social media tracking at all. Still, Zoho CRM's database-like, left-brained interface could be just the thing for detail-oriented business owners looking to empower their salespeople.

New Features are Coming! New Features are Coming!

2010-06-11T12:30:00.000-07:00

ACT! E-marketing is getting a makeover, and you'll be able to enjoy the results soon. The enhancements are centered around the template editor, which will have a new look and feel and add some new capabilities as well. The most significant change is that you will now be able to edit imported html templates. Hooray! And with the new editor, you will find it easier to organize and manage your templates as well.

In addition, we've added image and document libraries so you can store commonly used graphics and documents for use with your templates. This makes the editing process much simpler. Documents like Powerpoint slides and Word documents can be stored on the serviers and linked into your template for your email recipients to download easily.

But wait, there's more... (I've always wanted to say that)! Swiftpage has added a fantastic new feature: email templates can be published as landing pages, so you can add an online element to your campaign with the same look and feel as your emails! And best of all, Swiftpage hosts the landing page for you! You have to try this out...

Swiftpage has been hard at work developing and beta-testing these features for months now, and they're about to be unveiled. Watch for a formal announcement soon!

3 SwiftPage Tricks to Help your eMarketing

2010-06-08T17:26:00.000-07:00

If you want to get better use out of SwiftPage eMarketing, here's three tips & tricks that are easy to implement. Additionally, if you are currently using another email marketing program such as ConstantContact, you might want to take a look at SwiftPage (if you're an ACT! user, or keep all your contacts in Excel, it's a must!!!) - contact me and I can show you the benefits of switching.

Tip #1: Embed your web form/survey in your website.
Although you can customize the SwiftPage background to mirror your branding, sometimes it's better to actually host the survey/form on your website. For example, to turn a lengthy survey into multiple columns for better screen layout, or use JavaScript to check fields. Extended details are available in this support article, but here are the basics:

Create survey/form
View Source of HTML page and copy the “form” part of the HTML to your own web page
Change the information after "action=" to the full URL of the survey - which is just a techy way of saying the original URL of the survey on SwiftPage's site
Now you keep users on your site, but when they click Submit, the data is transferred to your SwiftPage account

For an example, my Contact Us page is actually a SwiftPage survey embedded on my site, matching the style of my site. Responses still go into your account, and then get sync'd with ACT!, Excel, or SalesLogix, depending on your CRM system.

Tip #2: Use Dynamic Groups to track survey/form respondents
When SwiftPage is setup in ACT!, it creates a few fields, one of which is "SwiftPage Import Status". By creating a dynamic group based on that field containing data, every contact - whether created or updated via a survey/form - is added to that group. This way it is very easy and direct to pull contacts who've entered data on your web forms. Be sure to read my blog on dynamic groups.

Tip #3: Route Survey/Form Contacts via eMail Rules
This tip is very, very powerful and is actually a feature of your mail system using SwiftPage data. If you would like different survey/form responses going to either different people (e.g. members of a sales team), or into different folders in your mail system, you'll want to use rules to scan the submissions and route them effectively. I have configured this to distribute entries to sales people (using Microsoft Exchange Server) based on the geographic location of the person filling out the form, and I personally use it to put different responses into different labels using GMail.

For starters, you only need two things: 1) ensure that each time a survey/form is submitted an email is sent, and 2) that the email it is sent to can handle rules. After that, on your mail system/account:

specify a rule that scans the incoming mail messages from the SwiftPage server
choose your criteria (text to scan) - e.g. "State=CA,OR,WA", "Request=demo", or "Request=support"
choose the email addresses, or any other action - such as move to a folder - and finalize the rule

This is very different for each mail server, as well as for each survey/form, so please contact me for details relating to your system and requirements. I'd love to help you get better use from SwiftPage.

What’s New in ACT! by Sage 2011

2010-05-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

Automate key activities. Sage ACT! Smart Tasks handle the things you need to get done every day. Think of it like a personal assistant that sends e-mails for you and puts activities on your calendar so your customers get the service they expect, with little work required by you. Smart Tasks just get it done.

Unlock a rich source of new leads. Add rocket fuel to your sales and marketing machine with Sage ACT! Business Info*. Sage ACT! Business Info pulls highly targeted prospect lists and business info from Hoover’s™ and puts it directly into Sage ACT!. It helps you fill in the gaps in your database and gives you access to more than 65 million companies and 85 million executives.

Eliminate double entry. Sage ACT! manages all the details of your business relationships and Microsoft® Outlook® manages emails, basic contact details, and meetings across your team. Now you can have the best of both worlds and share your Outlook and Sage ACT! contacts and calendar using two-way sync.

Also, get in-depth information about Sage ACT! E-marketing:
With Sage ACT! E-marketing, you can do so much more than simply send emails and track open rates. It’s about knowing your customers. Capture leads with web forms on your website, nurture those prospects automatically with Drip Marketing plans, and quickly identify your hottest leads using a ranked call list that tells you which prospects are most interested—right from the contact record in Sage ACT!.
See if a demo roadshow is coming near you...

The History Behind Nimble

2010-05-19T18:29:00.000-07:00

The History Behind Nimble

When to Upgrade

2010-05-18T00:04:00.000-07:00

While you are used to your CRM program, it's ins and outs, quirks and nuances, there does come a time when you either want to, or have to, upgrade. I've been working in the IT industry since 1994, and believe there are 4 main reasons why people upgrade - not just CRM systems, but office suites, browsers, operating systems, etc.
We'll focus on "desktop" CRM systems in this article, not online (i.e. "cloud") systems.

Here are the 4 reasons I see upgrades:

New machine. With a new machine, you will have to reinstall the application anyway, so this is a good time to purchase the upgrade, sometimes on special with a new PC, but sometimes just to start fresh. Additionally, if you don't have old media, often you cannot download something that is 3 or 4 years old, so the vendor may require you to purchase a newer version.
New machine with incompatible operating system. For example, a new 64 bit vs 32 bit system, or new OS, like moving from XP to Windows 7. Older CRM systems like GoldMine or ACT! 2000 won't run on these systems, so an upgrade path is necessary.
New office suite. This one is a bit tricky, and is hard to forecast. For example, Office 2007 will only work with ACT! v2008 and newer. If you're running ACT! v2007, you will not see any errors, but the export to Excel functions and Word document merges will not work in ACT! (grayed out menu buttons in ACT! are the tell-tale sign) ACT! 2000 will open an Outlook mail message, but there is no Excel export and it does not work with Word.
More or better features. Eventually, if you're CRM vendor is in for the long run, they will continually update the program, and eventually the new and improved feature set will be such that you will be able to work more efficiently with an updated system. The integration of SwiftPage into ACT! is an example of this.

Finally, the steps to upgrade can be extremely simple - moving from and older version of ACT! to the latest release is as simple as opening the "old" database from the new version. Moving from GoldMine or Maximizer to an updated system most likely will involve a time intensive export/import of data from one system to another, and customizing layouts, documents, and reports. There will also be a learning curve to adapt to the new system, but I find that most popular CRM systems are built with the user's most common tasks in the forefront, and the adoption process is very rapid.

Hope this helps, please contact me if you have any questions about moving up to a newer, or different, CRM system.

Social CRM: Does it mean what it says?

2010-05-15T08:04:00.000-07:00

This is a good article describing other facets of CRM - namely that it's not only pre-sales and sales process software, but keeping in touch with your clients as well *after* purchase. By integrating social media you can track what they are "talking about" and react to their needs.

Social CRM: Does it mean what it says?

Attaching Documents Quick Tip

2010-04-22T21:26:00.000-07:00

If you use Companies (i.e. where the Company Name is it's own record, and Contacts are linked to that Company), and you attach documents, then you've noticed that attaching documents on the contact record Document tab only show up for that contact, and are not shared across the Company record. Here's how to fix this...
When you attach either a shortcut or file to the Documents tab, here's what you see:

As stated earlier, these files are not visible when viewing the Company record. However, if you use the History tab, and use the icons on that tab:

...you will get the same end result - i.e. attached documents that sync - but will also be able to see the docs on the Company record where you can see *all* detail for all linked contacts. This especially helps if you have multiple contacts linked to a company, and each contact might have their own attachments - you still get the "roll-up" view in the Company record. Here's the view of the same attached docs in the Contact record and the Company record:

Put those outdated or extra computers to good use

2010-04-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

Do you have extra/outdated computers (or just hard drives) in your storage room/garage that you don't know what to do with? Tired of wasting time looking for data, not knowing in which drive it resides? Tired of not having your data accessible to all computers all the time? Would you like a central location for important files and backups? NAS - Network Attached Storage - is what you need, and it can be done for little, or no, cost.

Network Attached Storage provides a central place to securely store and share all of your data. To easily understand, NAS can be thought of as a hard drive or multiple hard drives for your entire network rather than for just one computer. With Network Attached Storage, multiple PCs and Macs (even those connected via the Internet) can instantly access the same shared files. For added functionality, printers can be attached to a NAS device to share the printer between all computers on the network and multimedia content stored on the NAS can be streamed to TVs throughout the network.

There are plenty of NAS options that you can purchase that are fantastic, such as the TeraStation by Buffalo Tech, or one of Seagate's solutions are just two examples. However, my goal in this article is to explain you how you can do this with what you might already have. Or, if your business is on a tight budget, then this could be a lifesaver of an option.

Your basic requirements are a computer with enough storage to make this a viable "server", the FreeNAS download, and a network card. You'll use the keyboard and monitor to set it up, but will remove them later - it will be a "black box" which you manage via a web interface.

There are plenty of articles describing every step, so I don't want to re-hash what they've done, what I'd like to do is give you examples of what we use this for.

File Server (central location for all shared files)
Print Server (no more hoping a co-worker's computer is on so you can print)
Backup location (QuickBooks, ACT!)
iTunes server (everyone with iTunes can listen to the music on this machine)
Web Server (used for testing before you publish)
Automated Backups (each user's computer is automatically backed up to this machine)

Here are some follow-up links if you want more details:
FreeNAS site
YouTube how-to
YouTube in-depth video
Daily Cup of Tech how-to

Hope this helps you improve your work flow! Thanks...

Create a Google Map from ACT! Contact List

2010-03-19T13:46:00.000-07:00

Creating a Google Map from a Contact List can be done in just a few clicks with two simple ACT! AddOns. Using the ACT2Excel add-on from CRM AddOns ($69*), and a free Excel template from the Batch Geocode website, we’ll do a simple export to excel, where the mapping will take place.

The bulk of the work is actually done in Excel, defining the cells that will hold the address data. The spreadsheet comes with some sample data, which you’ll want to delete, then replace the Address, City, ST, and ZIP fields with the corresponding ACT! field, and save. Then, it’s back to ACT! to create a contact list and export it to the template you just edited. When Excel opens up, you’ll have the list - address, city, state, and zip - in an Excel sheet.

Finally, just a button press in Excel will create the map. The image below is 5 addresses from the ACTDemo database:

Click here to download the Excel file - GMapsInExcel. Of course, you’ll need the add-on to put the whole thing together, but you can experiment with this template. Please contact me with any questions or comments! Hope this helps…

* Note: this ACT2Excel add-on is a must-have for ACT! users. You can perform customized data exports, create invoices/quotes, execute calculations which can then automatically populate fields back into ACT!, and much more. Check out their page for all the details…

ACT! Dialer with VoIP

2010-02-01T22:58:00.000-08:00

Back in the "old" days, all you had to do is go to Tools>Preferences, and on the Communications tab click the Dialer button and tell ACT! the modem to use (if it hadn't already), and the dialing preferences, and you were able to dial a contact's phone number within ACT! VoIP does not use a modem, so here's how to keep (or recapture) that functionality...

Now that VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is gaining popularity, we're seeing more of these lines in both homes and businesses. Since it uses the network/internet connection, there's essentially no modem to choose, and even if you have one, it's a dead end with VoIP. The key is a intermediate (a.k.a 3rd party) program that runs on your computer, configuring the system to see the VoIP phone line as a "modem". This faux modem shows up in the ACT! preferences in the modem drop-down, and when chosen, ACT! thinks it's a modem, and will dial. Actually, it's a bit more involved that that, but it's done behind the scenes, and once configured, to you and ACT! it works as expected.

One caveat, there are multiple VoIP providers, and phones/phone systems. I've gotten this to work just fine with some systems, usually with a few settings given to me by the company that intstalled the phone system. If you're thinking of integrating the dialer with your VoIP system, I'd love to help!

p.s. configuring VoIP to integrate with your computer system actually opens up this functionality to all programs that use auto-dialing. e.g. the Outlook Contact interface has this capability as well.

Save Report Filters - Get Report Faster

2010-01-12T21:56:00.000-08:00

If you run reports often, you are very familiar with the window that comes up when you start a report - the “General” tab to choose output format and contact lookup, and the other Note/History/Opportunity/Activites/etc tabs where you need to specify both the date range and type of information to output to the report. Furthermore, if you utilize reports often, you find yourself performing the same clicking/selecting on every tab editing dates and checkboxes to get the same report run time after time.

There’s a shortcut to these options, and it’s in the report editor. Go to Reports>Edit Template…, and choose the report you want to edit. When the report editor loads, choose Edit>Define Filters:

This will bring up the same familiar window you get when pulling a report. However, now when you select your criteria - e.g. Send the report to an HTML file using the Current Lookup for All Users, and only select Notes and History for the Current Week - and save the report, those setting will be your defaults for that specific report. If you want the same report format, just with different selections, save the report template with another name. You can have “Notes/History by Week”, “Notes/History by Month”, and so on.

As a bonus, you can also take the most common reports and put that specific report as an icon on the toolbar:

Right-Click the toolbar, choose Customize
click the 5th tab - Custom Commands and choose "New"
Give the command a name, click Browse, navigate to your reports folder, and choose a report (might have to show all files) This is your "command line"
Now, go back to the 2nd tab - Commands and choose Custom Commands from the "Categories"
The name and command line you specified on the 5th tab will be in there. Click and drag the new command to any spot on the toolbar.

That's it, your custom filtered specific report is now one-click away from running.

Find the steps you seem to repeat over and over on a regular basis, and look for ways to make that process more efficient. Chances are, it can be done in ACT! Hope this helps…

Attach a Web Page to an ACT! Contact

2009-12-10T07:45:00.000-08:00

A little known, but very useful feature in ACT! and Internet Explorer is the ability to attach the current web page you are viewing to a specific contact. This can be used to save a specific story about a company, news about a contact, a GMail message, or a blog post from a colleague.

This integration is intalled by default when you install ACT!. You can find it in Internet Explorer under the Tools Command Bar. This is not the menu bar (i.e. File/Edit/View…), rather is usually found towards the right-hand side of the screen, just above the actual web page. If you have tab viewing implemented, it might also be on that same level.

Click on that menu item, choose Attach Web Page to ACT! Contact, which will bring up, from ACT!, the Select Contact window. Choose a contact, and click OK.

Hope this helps, thanks…

Send GMail directly from ACT!

2009-12-03T21:30:00.000-08:00

Basically, over the last year, I have received numerous inquiries into integrating GMail with ACT! I have blogged about integrating via Outlook, but often people either don’t want to use Outlook, or don’t have it. This add-on addresses both those issues.

Features:

send mail directlyfrom ACT! through GMail
HTML editing window
supports attachments
automatically populates To: field from current contact
HTML Signature - even with images. GMail does not even do that!!!
save/open messages as templates

More info and screenshots are at http://www.rbrdatasolutions.com/products.htm

The add-on creates a new menu item under Tools called WebMail Sender. It is also a toolbar button. Choosing that option will bring up what essentially is a New Mail Message window, with the email address of the current contact in the To: field. Now, fill in the Subject, the body of the email, (and CC: if desired), and click Send.

After sending, if successful, a new History item will be recorded with the date & time, and the Subject of the email as the “Regarding” line in the History item. Additionally, the Last E-Mail system field in ACT! (on top half of screen, under Latest Activities) will be updated. If selected, the body, and names only of the attachments will be recorded in the same History entry.

Please check it out at http://www.rbrdatasolutions.com/products.htm Thanks!!!

New vCard Utility released

2009-10-26T21:26:00.000-07:00

An update to the popular add-on for ACT! 2007 - 2009 (versions 9 - 11), the new vCard Utility not only sends contact information by automatically attaching a vCard to Outlook, it now Saves to File… vCard information, and Imports a vCard into ACT!, creating a new contact record.

More information can be found at http://www.rbrdatasolutions.com/products.htm

Thanks!

Time Zone and Scheduling Activities

2009-10-06T23:13:00.000-07:00

Often ACT! users either share, or synchronize information with other users across different time zones. How do you schedule a conference call with 5 people in 3 different zones? What happens when you send an activity email, or calendar invitation to another user?

Luckily, this is something ACT! takes care of automatically, and you don't need to worry too much about it. ACT! stores times in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), or GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). Basically, ACT! will store the GMT time, and the localization preferences on your computer will determine the time zone (TZ) offset. In short, based on your computer settings, the ACT! program takes the data (date & time in the database), converts and displays it correctly for you, and any other users to see.

How does this work in action? Let say I have a conference call Friday, October 7th at 11:00am. I put that on my ACT! calendar at *my* time, not converting or adding time zones of the other users. However, if you open the hood and look into the database, you will see the time stored as 2009-10-07 18:00:00 So, if I synchronize with a user/server in another time zone, that date is *still* stored as 2009-10-07 18:00:00 ACT's back-end database (SQL Server) does not care what TZ the computer is in, it's up to the ACT! program itself to convert and display the date correctly. Now, when the user accesses that data on their computer, ACT! automatically converts it to their local time. If they are in Boston (go Sox!), they will have a conference call scheduled at 2:00p, on October 7th.

Sending an Activity eMail, or a calendar file invitation works the same way. Although I can't help if someone in Boston schedules an 8:00am (EST) conf call for colleagues in California (5:00am PST), I do hope this helps you use ACT! more efficiently.

Note: There is one caveat to this system. If you are in one time zone (e.g. CST) scheduling *for* someone in another (e.g. EST), you *will* have to take that into account. i.e. If someone in Pennsylvania specifically says "schedule a meeting for 9:00am", you will need to add it on your computer at 8:00am if you're in CST, 6:00am if you're PST, and so on. When ACT! syncs, they will now have an appointment for 9:00am.

Send contact information as vCard from ACT!

2009-08-22T17:09:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wanted to send either your contact information (the “My Record”), or another contact’s information to someone else? I have had a few inquiries asking how to do this, and unfortunately using Outlook and ACT! it is not possible. So, I have created an ACT! plugin that:

gathers a contact’s main information,
formats it according to vCard standards,
creates a new email message, and
attachs the vCard to that message.

More information and some screenshots are at:
http://www.rbrdatasolutions.com/products.htm

This is the first version, written based on the feedback from current clients. If you’d like something added, please feel free to send me a message @ rbrDataSolutions@gmail.com

Thanks!

Automate Scheduling with Activity Series

2009-08-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

An activity series allows you to schedule a pre-defined series of activities with one or more contacts, as well as select an "anchor" date for all activities in the series. Then, by scheduling the anchor event, *all* other events (activities) are automatically scheduled.

Before jumping in to using the function, it is helpful to ensure all the activities related to you, and your business, are defined. The Activity Series only uses the activities currently in the database (i.e. call, meeting, to-do), so if you have something unique to your business process (i.e. Conference Setup, Follow-Up email, Send Quote, etc), define those first.

So, for starters, go to:
Schedule>Manage>Activity Types

The current set of activities will show up, click Add... to customize to your business processes. You can add what you want, but often it's helpful to prefix the activity with the business process as well. E.g. if you have a follow-up email that goes out, and the email is different depending on where the contact came from, you could have a "Conf - eMail", and a "Cold call - eMail" activity. This way, you can define Activity Series for all business processes, not just a generic "eMail" task.

Now, after defining a set of activities, go to:
Schedule>Manage>Activity Series Templates

Follow the series wizard, adding activities as needed. Note that you can also schedule any one, or more, of the activities "for" any other person in your organization (this is the bottom 1/3 of the Activity Information window). A call could be scheduled for you, a letter for the secretary to send, and so on. When you are finished, that series is now available to be scheduled.

Go to: Schedule>Activity Series, chose the series (template) you would like to schedule, the anchor date, and if desired, click on any of the activities, and change the "Scheduled With" (middle of the window). [Or, highlight all of the lines, and change them all at once.] Basically, when scheduling an Activity Series, all activities in that series default to "Schedule With" the contact you are currently viewing. Being able to change the "Schedule With" allows you to choose another contact - e.g. the email task might go to the person you met at the conference (Bob @ XYZ, Inc.), the media packet mailing might go to the president (Frank @ XYZ, Inc.), and so on.

Hope this helps. Again, if you find yourself repeating the same task over and over, or you think "ACT! should do this automatically", you are probably correct. ACT! has many built-in capabilities - let ACT! make life easier.

Inexpensive or Free Communication Methods

2009-07-20T14:37:00.000-07:00

Normally this blog is about ACT!, but since most of my clients are individual users, small companies, or “smaller” divisions of companies - all of who are constantly looking for more ways to operate more efficiently and stretch their budgets - I thought this might help open up a few new ways to use technology to your advantage.

Over the last few weeks, I have come across a number of people - business and personal - that have needed to communicate either long-distance, or overseas, but did not want to break the bank doing so. Personally, I have an unlimited cell phone plan, so calling domestic is not an issue, however, overseas is another story. I’ve travelled extensively in Europe, and know what cell phone charges can be when calling back to the states. So, how does one do this frugally, while being able to utilize a professional connection. If you don’t have unlimited cell phone minutes, or just don’t like using the cell for every call, this might be for you.

There are three tools that I’ve used, and all are excellent, and free - Skype, Google Talk, and Yahoo! Messenger.

Skype - This is (or could be with all the options) a full telephone package - send/receive calls, video calls, SMS, call domestic and international “regular” numbers (small fee), and Skype-to-Skype calls. You can even get a phone number for a minimal charge, eliminating the need for a land line. I use this program for long distance if I just don’t want to use the cell phone, or for domestic/international Skype-to-Skype calls, which are free.

Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk- basically the same program with similar functionality, just different vendors. I have both, and use both, and performance seems very equal. You might know of these programs as just for IM-ing, or instant messaging. However, with either, you can “call” another computer, video call another computer, and of course send IMs. In Google Talk, calling another computer will actually “ring” that computer, and when the other person picks up, you have a voice connection. Very cool, below is GTalk’s buttons on an IM window:

I have used Yahoo’s talk feature while working in Mexico to talk with engineers in Germany - all at no charge.

In addition to these free programs, there are two other services I use or recommend that will help keep costs down - VoIP and GoToMeeting.

VoIP is phone service over your high-speed internet connection. Being an IP connection, there are a few options available on these types of phones that are not on typical phone systems (or at least not available at the same price point). There are interfaces available where you can view the status of all users, call and IM/SMS those users, transfer calls or dial extensions to remote users as if they are within the same building, and so on. Additionally, there are cost savings vs a regular phone line, or lines. A bit more than I want to cover here, just FYI for you to look into.

GoToMeeting is a monthly subscription to a PC-PC sharing service. I use this constantly for support & training, installation, general help, and other activities that would normally have required an onsite visit to a client, or worse - an hour phone call to describe how to fix an issue. No business person want to sit on the phone for an hour clicking away when it could be done (by someone else) in 5 mins. With GoToMeeting, I can connect remotely, see the other user’s desktop, and take care of the issue promptly. Additionally, GoToMeeting is very useful for training or demonstrations to multiple users.

Hope this info helps…

Using ACT! Reader & Microsoft Access to read ACT! Data

2009-06-22T23:20:00.000-07:00

Using Excel OLE/DB is a very quick and easy way to get data out of ACT! for reporting or analysis. However, this method is constrained somewhat by the pre-defined views that are available for use. If you need more data, or more detailed data, you might want to look into using the ACT! Reader utility, which opens up ACT! data to be used via ODBC.

Note: ACT! Reader is only available to ACT! Premium users, or those who purchase the utility.

So, the quick and dirty instructions to getting this to work. (I am assuming you have some familiarity with Access and ODBC.)

Open ActReader.exe. This utility is used to set a password on the SQL Server instance that the ACTReader "user" will use for an ODBC connection.
Open Microsoft Access. We will be using this in our example, but you can use other tools, I prefer Access.
Go to External Data>More>ODBC Database
Choose Import, or Link tables, then OK
Click the New button to Create a New Data Source (File or Machine - does not matter)
Choose SQL Server for the driver
Create a name, and description for the data source. The Server can be any machine, but if you are running ACT! locally, choose your machine. Also, append ACT7 to the end of the machine name. e.g. MYLAPTOP\ACT7
Click the "With SQL Server authentication..." radio button.
Login ID is "ActReader", and password is whatever you set using the utility.
Change the default database to the ACT! database you would like to work with

After Finishing, you will be presented with all the tables in the ACT! database. You can now use them like any Access table - build a report, application, analysis, etc. For example, I created an application for project and time tracking. Certain ACT! users are tagged with a Yes/No field in ACT! that sets them to an "active" status. Then, in Access, I created a macro to import *only* those contacts with the field set to "Yes", and append them to the master table in Access, which is the cornerstone for the tracking system. This way, I always have the most current contact data in Access, directly from ACT!.

Hope this helps!!!

Using Notes vs. History

2009-05-14T10:35:00.000-07:00

History and Notes are two quite different things. History is for tracking everything you’ve done with the contacts in your database… emails you’ve sent, calls you’ve made, meetings you’ve had, letters you’ve written, etc. It’s for recording the day-to-day history of your relationships. Notes are more general - useful for tracking impressions of a person or business or recording more long term items of interest.

Notes and Histories need to be separated as uniquely different. An ACT! Note should only be used for commentary regarding the contact. It should not include any information regarding any action that has occured. Consider using notes for commentary such as likes and dislikes, product preferences, personal highlights, etc - generally for those things you want to remember or reference quickly.

On the other hand, History is the audit trail of the things you have done for a contact - a chronological accounting of all things that have been done with or for the contact. It is the point of true “contact management”. A completed call and held meeting history will automatically update fields on the contact screen labeled as Last Reach and Last Meeting. These fields are searchable, sortable and reportable.

A few more differences:

Unlike Histories, Notes cannot be categorized. There is no Regarding field for a note.
Second, Notes do not have a classification or status such as Call Completed, Call Left Message, Meeting Held, To-Do Done, etc.
Third, Notes do not have a field to track duration. How much time did this activity take?
Fourth, Notes do not update system fields like histories such as “Last Reach” or “Last Meeting” thus making it harder to determine when the last ‘true’ contact or touch was made.

Separating Notes from Histories is smart if the user understand the difference between the two. Instead of simply typing a note the next time a contact calls you, right mouse click and choose “Record History” (anywhere on the contact record), or use the icon on the history tab (see below). Over time you will be glad you did.

Utilizing Group Membership effectively

2009-04-20T23:53:00.000-07:00

Often I run across users that manually add and delete members from a group based on certain criteria. It could be the state they are in, the "type" of contact with which they are working, or the status based on where a prospect is in the opportunity cycle.

If you find yourself performing the same actions, or repetitive actions on a regular basis, that is a signal to look at your program and find out if what you are doing could be automated.

Groups in ACT! can be populated by something called a dynamic query. Here's the quick directions to get started:

In the Group window, create a new group called Opportunities, then on the right-hand side, click the Add/Remove Contacts... button
The top half of the window is where you may have been manually adding contacts. What we want is the bottom half, labelled "Dynamic Members"
Click the Edit Criteria... button
Create the following using the drop down boxes: Type: Opportunity, Field Name: Status, Operator: Equal to (=), Value: Open
Click Add to list, and if desired, click the Preview button.

You have just created a dynamic group, and any contact where an opportunity is opened will be automatically added, and a contact where an opportunity is closed or removed will not be incuded in this group. There are many options with both the Opportunities and Contact fields to help you manage groups of contacts more effectively.

p.s. it is totally possible to have both Dynamic and manually added contacts.

ACT! Reporting using Excel with OLEDB

2009-03-23T12:01:00.000-07:00

Sounds confusing for the non-technical user, but once set up, this functionality can be extremely helpful. Furthermore, if you need data formatted/reported on using specific calculations or parameters, automating with macros or Visual Basic can prove to be an incredible time-saver.

The first couple steps of getting OLEDB setup is a bit different depending on which version of Excel you are using, so here’s a quick start for 2003 and 2007 versions.

Once set up, you can reuse the connection, so this does not need to be done every time!

2003: Data->Import External Data->Import Data
2003: Click “New Source” button
2007: Data->From Other Sources->From Data Connection Wizard
following are common steps for both versions
Choose Other/Advanced, then Next
choose Provider as “ACT! OLE DB Provider for Reporting“, click Next
choose a database file (e.g. *.PAD file), fill in User Name and Password if necessary
Test Connection if you want, then click OK

You will now be presented with all the available tables. Choose one specific for reporting, or uncheck the “Connect to a specific table” option, which will allow you to go back and pick other tables using the same connection. Personally, if you are setting this up for automation, you will most likely have one table in mind. Click Next to choose a File Name under which to save this connection, add a description, and click Finish.

Now, here’s the fun part. You can leave the settings of the “Import Data” pop-up as-is, and it will import all the data from the table into a “table” grid in Excel, or choose to create a Pivot Table or Chart directly from the new connection, or Edit Query, limiting the subset of data imported into Excel. The table is pretty straight-forward, and the Pivot Table/Chart creation is outside the scope of this blog (but is inevitably is the end result - so if you aren’t familiar with them, get familiar!) I want to finish by going over the Edit Query option, as that will help limit the extra/excessive data you do not need in a report.

In 2003, on the Import Data pop-up, click the Edit Query button. In 2007, on the Import Data pop-up, click Properties, and then the Definition tab. Change the Command Type to SQL, and change the Command Text to:

SELECT "Contact Contact", "Contact Company", "Contact ID/Status"
FROM "ACT11Demo"."dbo"."VRP_CONTACT"

This limits the data to just Contact, Company, and ID/Status info. Of course, from there we can create a Pivot Table if needed, perform any analysis functions, or whatever else is desired.

Hope this help you better utilize the power of Excel accessing and reporting on ACT! data…

p.s. In Excel 2003, if you go to Data->Import External Data->Import Data again, your saved connection will be there. In Excel 2007, it’s Data->Existing Connections that will bring up the saved connections.

Whitepaper - Relationship Between Social Networking & Business

2009-03-03T10:51:00.000-08:00

For those of you who Blog, Twitter, Facebook, and more, a very interesting Whitepaper from Forrester about how social networking is impacting business in a positive way.

Definitely a must read for those of us who are in the technology services, but the some of the main points relate to all avenues of online B2B marketing.

Click to download:
Social Technographics of Business Buyers.pdf

ACT! and Outlook email processing – Behind the Scenes

2009-02-19T19:55:00.000-08:00

In this blog, I’d like to review some key characteristics of this feature. It often works behind the scenes with little operator intervention, but occasionally you will need to know what’s happening, and why.

Act.Outlook.Service.exe
First, the Act.Outlook.Service.exe is not technically a service – it is a program that is started on log in. You can verify that it is set to start automatically by going to Start>Run, then type in MSCONFIG in the Run box. When MSCONFIG appears, click on the Startup tab, and look for Startup Item “Act” (there may be more than one) and the Command “C:\Program Files\ACT\Act for Windows\Act.Outlook.Service.exe”. If it’s checked, it will start. [Note: “Act for Windows” may also be “Act for Web”]

So, what does this program do? When you send an email from ACT!, this process takes the email address, matches it with the email address of the contact, and attaches the email to the contact history. Exactly *what* it attaches will be discusses a bit later.

When you receive an email, there are three things that can happen:

If you have an Outlook rule setup to attach, that rule determines if the email address of the contact can be matched in the ACT! database, and if so, will attach the message.
If you don’t use an Outlook rule, you can either use (manually press) the Quick Attach icon which will match the email address(es) to determine a match, or
You can use the Attach to Contact icon which will attempt to match the name with an ACT contact name.

If any of these processes are successful, you may see an icon in the taskbar area appear and disappear quickly. This is good, if it disappears, the process was successful. However, if the process fails, you will see this icon:

This is telling you *something* failed. Right click on this icon, and choose Show Progress. This window has three tabs:
- Progress: these are successfully attached messages
- Advanced: settings for the log files
- Not Attached Messages: this is the tab you want. It will show messages that did not get attached, and tell you why (i.e. “Status” column).

Not Attached Messages
The next item I’d like to discuss is what happens to the emails during and after this process. There is actually a middle behind-the-scenes process that copies the email to a temp file, and if the attach is successful, that temp email file is deleted. If the attach fails, a copy of the email is kept in this temp file, and ACT! will continually attempt to find a match. Well, you can imagine what happens after months go by and you have numerous failed attempts. Not only does the temp directory get filled up with old email files, the Act.Outlook.Service.exe process starts to run longer and longer, eventually causing resource issues.

This directory can be found at “C:\Documents and Settings\%user%\Application Data\ACT\ACT for Web\HistoryQueue”. Under that directory are messages that have not been attached, usually with the name tmp**.msg (where the two asterisks are a number or letter). One more directory down, under Holding, are related XML files. All of these can be deleted if you want. Once they are gone, ACT! will no longer attempt to process them.

Alternately, you can highlight one or more of the messages and click the “Remove” option. This takes care of all the files in the queue. Obviously, this option is preferred, and easier.

Sensitive eMails – what exactly gets recorded
In ACT! under Tools>Preferences and then the E-Mail tab, if you go through the E-Mail System Setup, there are options to keep the messages (inbound and outbound) private, and options to recorded nothing, the subject, subject/message, or subject/message/attachments. These same options are available on a toolbar in Outlook when you are composing a new message. The options in ACT! are database-wide, when set they apply to all messages, the options in Outlook are message specific, so can be used to override the ACT! defaults.

For example, in ACT!, if you have the settings for all messages “Public”, and to record the subject and message body, but are sending something sensitive, when you are composing the email in Outlook, either choose “Private”, or choose to record nothing.

Hope this helps you understand this process better…

ACT! and GMail integration

2009-02-07T23:27:00.000-08:00

The ability to keep track of your emails within ACT! is huge, but what if you use a web-mail service such as GMail? Following are instructions for getting GMail messages - both inbound and outbound - connected with ACT!

There are 3 main steps - enable IMAP in GMail, set up Outlook to access GMail, and then set up ACT! to work with the new Outlook/GMail account. The first step is Google specific, the last step is needed for *any* e-mail account setup to work with ACT!, it is not necessarily GMail specific. There is really only one area that is different than other e-mail accounts, and that is the IMAP settings. [Note: Once Outlook is setup, the ACT!/Outlook link is the same for any e-mail account - ACT! does not care if it's GMail or whatever.]

GMail Account setup

1. Set up a GMail account. (I suspect you have already done this.)

2. Enable IMAP in GMail

a. Sign in to GMail.

b. Click Settings at the top of any GMail page.

c. Click Forwarding and POP/IMAP.

d. Select Enable IMAP.

Outlook Access to GMail Account

3. In Outlook, go to Tools > EMail Accounts

a. Click radio button “Add a new e-mail account”, then click Next

b. Click radio button IMAP, then click Next

4. You should have a small(er) window open with various “information” boxes. Fill in all necessary fields to include the following information:

User Information

Your Name: Enter your name as you would like it to appear in the From: field of outgoing messages.

Email Address: Enter your full email address (username@gmail.com).

Server Information

Incoming mail server (IMAP): imap.gmail.com

Outgoing mail server (SMTP): smtp.gmail.com

Login Information

User Name: Enter your full email address (including @gmail.com or @your_domain.com

Password: Enter your GMail password.

5. Click More Settings… and then click the Outgoing Server tab.

6. Check the box next to ‘My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication’ and select Use same settings as my incoming mail server.

7. Click the Advanced tab, and check the box next to ‘This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL)’ under Incoming Server (IMAP).

8. Check the box next to ‘This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL)’ under Outgoing Server (SMTP), and enter 465 in the Outgoing server (SMTP) box.

9. Click OK.

10. Click Test Account Settings… After receiving the message ‘Congratulations! All tests completed successfully’, click Close.

11. Click Next, and then click Finish.

ACT! to use Outlook/GMail account

1. Tools > Preferences, then click the E-mail tab

2. Click E-mail System Setup button

3. Choose Microsoft Outlook as your E-mail system

4. Add the ACT! database you would like Outlook to access

5. Choose Microsoft Outlook as the E-mail editor

6. Choose Record History option (I chose to stick with “recommended” settings)

7. Choose Attach to ACT! Contacts options (”recommended” on these as well)

So that’s basically it. I would recommend also restarting both ACT! and Outlook to get them working in sync. To verify it is working, click an email address within ACT!, and it should open an Outlook new message window, then from Outlook attempt to attach an email message to a contact within ACT!

Welcome

2009-02-02T21:29:00.000-08:00

Hi, and thanks for checking in. My name is Richard, and among other hats I wear, I am an ACT! Certified Consultant, or ACC. ACT! is the most feature rich and powerful contact management systems available, with so many features and aids to increase your productivity that many users either don't use it to its full potential, or struggle getting it to work best for *their* business.

My goal is to pass along - every so often, maybe once per week - various tidbits of help, tips, ideas, epiphanies, etc that I come across in my day-to-day ACT! work. Hopefully, these items will help you solve a problem, conquer a new task, or just learn something new.

Feel free to comment, and check out all we do at http://www.rbrdatasolutions.com/

Thanks...

Richard Brust
ACT! Certified Consultant
rbrDataSolutions@gmail.com