Return of SideACT as ScratchPad in SageACT! 2012

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.

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

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.

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

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. 

How to get Help in ACT!

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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
4. 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

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.