Send GMail directly from ACT!

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

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

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!

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

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.