This message from my website absolutely made my day: Visitor: “Do you work with Act! for DOS 1.1?” Me: “Is that a typo? You mean Act! 21.1, right? Act! 1.1 is nearly 30 years old.” Visitor: “Nope. Still using Act! 1.1. Attached a photo.” Before I moved on to Zoho CRM, I spent over 20…
Since the demise of Act Pro on September 15, 2023 my mailbox has been flooded with the same question: “Can I still buy an Act Perpetual license?” In a nutshell, my answer is “NO!” To fully understand perpetual licensing you need to understand two key concepts: End User License Agreement (EULA): Most software has a…
Act v21 Pro is no longer available. Sorry. It’s been discontinued. David F wrote this email to me today: “I’m using version 20.1.120.0 Update 8. I’ve been using Act! almost from the time of it’s entry into the marketplace. As I understand the situation, Act! Pro version 21 will become unsupported after Nov. 30, 2021 and…
You probably have already received a notification from SwiftPage that Act! v22 Pro will be the last version of the ACT! Pro product. You probably have questions so here’s what you need to know: This does not mean that you will “lose” your database. This does not mean that ACT! is “going away.;” you can…
I learned today that SwiftPage will be issuing an Act licensing update as of January 1, 2019. This change will impact all existing ACT! users. I have been selling, supporting and customizing ACT! for over 20 years and this change will have a bigger impact on ACT! than anything I’ve ever seen before. Honestly, at…
As the saying goes, I wish I had a dollar for every time an Act! user started the conversation with these words, “Karen, I am a long-time Act user.” In fact, there are millions of long-time Act software users out there because the Act! product has been around for over 30 years. And by the…
Wow! As hard as it is to believe the Act software program is celebrating its 30th birthday this year. If you’re into numbers that translates into 19 versions, six owners and millions of users. Believe it or not, it is not unusual for me to have a client tell me that he’s been using Act!…
In the past I’ve shared one of my favorite Act! tricks which is to copy the holidays from outlook to Act! so that you’ll have them on your Act! calendar. You might want to review my past blog article because this is a quick way to populate your Act! calendars with holiday information. Act! has…
ACT for WebWho says you can’t have your cake and eat it to? Not us! There are lots of companies who will sell you a “cloud-based” CRM solution – for a hefty monthly fee. And just try to wrestle your database away from them.
Are you still running an older version of the Act! software? Maybe you’ve thought about upgrading to a newer version, but were not sure it would fit into your budget. Act! is much more affordable than you might think, especially when compared to other solutions such as Salesforce. And Tech Benders will insure that you…
Whether your business is large or small you know the amount of time it takes to keep organized, track customers, follow-up with them, and market your products to them. It can be overwhelming to keep track of all the details and have everyone in your organization on the same page. This is where customer relationship…
We have to ask…what are some of the Salesforce.com causes for attrition and how may those considerations affect the choice your business makes when it comes to choosing the right CRM solution? “The financial metrics are clear enough — it doesn’t make sense to invest a lot of dollars in acquiring customers that may only be…
Act Ides of March Seminar Register Now for the Act Tech Support Webinar You probably love a good mystery – but not when it comes to your Act database! If you’re like most Act users you rely on Act to run your business and when your Act starts “acting up” panic sets in. I receive…
I have had numerous calls and emails from Act! users over the course of the last month asking me if Act! will work with Windows 10. I’ve also had a number of calls from users who have updated to Windows 10 with various outcomes. My advice? If you are using Act! v16 or older I…
The number of businesses that are moving over to VOIP phone systems is on the rise. VOIP phones offer many advantages, including lower monthly phone bills and nifty ways to connect your remote employees. For me, the biggest benefit of VOIP is that it allows you to integrate your office phone to Act!. Your computer…
On Thanksgiving, we take pause to appreciate what we have and to celebrate with family and friends. Numerous customers and even vendors impart the feeling of Thanksgiving within your company and your Act software makes it easy to thank them. As we begin to anticipate the new year, it’s the perfect time to think about…
Act v17 was release on October 23, 2014. E-marketing which means Act! users will have the ability to design and send e-marketing pieces in the newly designed editor and have more options for tracking their effectiveness directly within Act! . It also means that all users of Act v17 will receive a complimentary Act E-Marketing…
Back in 2008 I wrote a blog article recommending that you switch to an Act! E-Marketing account if you were sending out marketing blasts of over 50 emails/send. Here it is 2014 (gasp!) and I’m still passing out that same exact advice. However, as the world of the internet – and e-mail – gets more…
Many Act! users routinely head to the Export Wizard to send their information not realizing that there is a much easier method for exporting Act! data. You’ll find the Export Current List to Excel icon at the top of the Contact, Group, Company, Opportunity, History and Task List views. If the button is “greyed out”…
The Contact field can prove to be surprisingly confusing for both new and old Act! users alike. Although the field seems very straightforward at first glance, it contains a bit of “magical Act! functionality” that can prove to be either a help or a hindrance. Let’s start with the Salutation field. I often ask Act!…
As most of you know the “C” in CRM stands for Contacts and that’s the focus of these clean-up tips. I see a lot of databases in a variety of formats (Act!, SugarCRM, Salesforce, Zoho) and I’ve made one assumption: the typical database consists of 25% “dead wood.” I define dead wood as: Contacts that…
I came across a great post written by fellow ACT consultant M Scott Schaffernoth. I laughed for ten minutes when I read it and Scott kindly offered to share. Her Parts May Have Often Been Ditzy Blondes, But Marilyn Monroe Was a Smart Cookie and She Would Have Loved ACT! CRM It would have helped…
Any Administrator or Manager user can create an automatic schedule for creating backups using the ACT! Scheduler. Combine this power with your free Drop Box account to save your database “in the clouds.” Download and install Drop Box. In ACT, click the Tools menu, and then click ACT! Scheduler. The ACT! Scheduler – Create, Edit…
Every year many of my clients ask me if there is a way to get holidays loaded into their ACT! database. Unfortunately, holidays do not come pre-loaded in the ACT! calendar. Obviously, some holidays such as the Fourth of July and Christmas are easy to add manually. However, other holidays such as Easter and Chanukah…
I have a page on my website that offers free software for the old ACT! 6 product. Unfortunately, ACT! 2006 users frequently try to download and install those freebies and find that they don’t work. Let me make this abundantly clear – ACT! 6 and ACT! 2006 are not the same product. If you’re not…
Wow! As hard as it is to believe the ACT! software program turned 25 this month. If you’re into numbers that translates into 14 versions, five named owners and millions of users. I received an e-mail this week from a long ACT! user who was complaining about everything from the confusing naming conventions for ACT!…
Several years ago a marketing company offered to do a mailing for me to all businesses within a 50 mile radius of my office. This sounded like a great idea until I realized that areas to the east and south of me contained nothing but the deep blue sea, and a large portion of the…
Two books on the ACT software program by Karen Fredricks have been selected by Packt Publishing for inclusion in their R.A.W. (Read As We Write) program.
In the ACT! realm I’m happy that Sage just released ACT! 2011 Service Pack 1 (SP1).
If you’ve been sitting in the Stone Age and are still clinging to your tried and true version of ACT 6, you might want to take a look at the features that you missed by not upgrading previously. Here’s my list of the Top 10 best new features in ACT 2011.
Technology upgrades should be considered a necessary, recurring cost of doing business. You can’t run your business without a telephone and office supplies, and you shouldn’t be running a business with outdated technology. Ironically, technology is the single best way to lower the overhead of a business.
QuoteWerks integrates seamlessly with contact managers like ACT! and ACT! for Web, eliminating the need to re-type customer information. QuoteWerks also has its own built-in contact database.
This being Easter weekend I thought I’d share a couple of my favorite ACT Easter eggs. In case you’re not familiar with the term, a software Easter egg refers to a bit of hidden code in the software. Although these Easter eggs are all represented by fields and aren’t necessarily hidden, they do tie into…
Losing weight got me to thinking how I could apply the same concept to removing some of the “dead weight” often found in databases. Although I work with a variety of CRM solutions I find that my clients deal with the exact same issues.
If I need training on a rapidly changing site such as Facebook I’ll be using lynda where I know I’ll get the latest and greatest information.
It pays to advertise. After all, the harder “they” sell the more likely we are to buy.
You could market only to people who think – and communicate – the way you do. Unfortunately, that idea makes the somewhat flawed assumption that those people will still be around at the end of the next decade!
My dad taught me that when I pointed my finger at someone (or something) I was in fact pointing two fingers back at myself. Think about it the next time something goes wrong with your computer.
ACT! has been around for over 20 years – and it just keeps getting better and better! Find out if you should upgrade to ACT 2009.
It’s here – ACT! 2009 – right on schedule. So, do you need to race out and upgrade?