Should I upgrade from ACT! 6, 2007, 2008 or 2009?

You might be one of our many clients who is using ACT! by Sage version 2009 or older. And you might be wondering what benefits there are in upgrading to the newest version. So we compiled a list of improvements from ACT! 2010 and ACT! 2011 for you to review. First the ACT 2010 improvements, then the list of ACT 2011 improvements:

ACT! 2010 IMPROVEMENTS

1. With the new look, not only will you get streamlined layouts, you’ll also have instant access to search from any view. Plus, you’ll get related tasks that provide you with more options for working with contacts, groups, opportunities, and more; consolidated menus with relevant feature options; big “easy” buttons for tasks you complete most often; and a new button that lets you create anything new, from contacts to activities.
2. See your customers on popular social networking sites and quickly understand more about their interests, their past work history, and their connections. Some of the sites included with ACT! are LinkedIn®, Facebook, Plaxo, ZoomInfo Contact, Google™, and Yahoo!.
3. Improve your marketing with end-to-end E-Marketing, including:
   • E-mail marketing—Create striking e-mail templates and send to contacts, lookups, groups, and companies in ACT!.
   • Drip marketing—Create a series of e-mails that are delivered to ACT! contacts over a period of time, automatically.
   • Survey and Web forms—Gather valuable feedback from existing contacts so you can build and grow your ACT! database.
   • Marketing results tab—Use a ranked call list of the most interested contacts so you know who to call first.
4. Maximize the way you manage leads with redesigned sales tracking functionality. Sales opportunities now behave and appear like contacts, groups, and companies, making them more flexible than ever, so you can add new fields and tabs; customize2 the product/services grid to include the fields you need to track your information; personalize the layout with the colors and graphics that best represent the look of your business; track activities, history, documents, notes, and more—all tied to the sales opportunity; and set security options.
5. Create custom reports with the new connector for third-party report writers (such as Crystal Reports®). It gives you the ability to run reports on everything you keep in ACT!, including user information, activities, groups, and companies.
6. See reports in the streamlined reports view and easily understand which ACT! reports are available to you, mark reports as your favorites for quick access, and customize report descriptions for a view that’s more personalized to your needs.
7. Track customers, sales, and users with new dashboards. Two new dashboards, 12 new dashboard charts, and 13 new opportunity reports have been added to ACT!, giving you at-a-glance snapshots of your customers, your sales opportunities, and even your users. New dashboards include Contacts Dashboard and Administrative Dashboard.
8. Do more with ACT! from the new Welcome Page. We’ve made it really easy for you to get the most out of ACT! with quick access to common resources, tips on using ACT!, where to go when you need more in-depth help, and ACT! news.
9. Send calendar invitations from ACT! to leading e-mail solutions. Not all your customers use ACT!, so now you can send ACT! calendar invites to customers who use iCalendar connected calendars and the invitations you send will appear on their calendar.
10. Share ACT! contacts with ease in vCard format to non-ACT! users with just a few clicks—no retyping or cutting and pasting required.
11. Use Mail Merge and Instant Quotes in ACT! Premium for Web with Microsoft® Word.
12. Create remote databases simultaneously, up to 50 at one time, for easy rollout of larger implementations.

ACT! 2011 IMPROVEMENTS

1. Automate key activities. Smart Tasks handle your marketing and sales to-dos with automated workflow. Get started with one of many sample Smart Task templates and accompanying email templates for the most common activities. These Smart Task templates will set in motion the most basic or advanced processes, including reminders of your best customer’s birthday, customers that haven’t heard from you in a while, or welcoming a new customer. And, best of all, you have total control over the timing, contact lists, and opportunities for each and every Smart Task. Apply Smart Tasks right out-of-the-box, make changes to fit your specific needs, or create your own.
2. Take communications to the next level. Since Smart Tasks are fully integrated with Sage E-marketing for ACT!, you get access to templates that allow you to send cheery birthday greetings and welcome new customers, among others. You can edit those emails to include additional content, graphics, and links.
3. Track the interest level of emails you send that are associated with Smart Tasks, like sales opportunity follow-ups, by viewing which customers are opening what you’ve sent.
4. Sage E-marketing for ACT! also enables you to request updates or missing contact details from your customers by emailing a link to an online survey. Once the survey is completed, those details are automatically populated back into Sage ACT!.
5. Unlock a rich source of new leads. Add fuel to your sales and marketing machine with Sage Business Info Services for ACT!, which pulls highly targeted prospect lists and business information from Hoover’s 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.
6. 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.
7. 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 integrate your Sage ACT! and Outlook contacts, plus keep your calendars in sync. Everything will be kept updated in both places. No worry about duplicates.
8. 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.
9. Watch your productivity soar. Benefit from additional enhancements made to Sage ACT! 2011, including the option to import data directly from Excel®, a re-designed Welcome Page with featured videos that help you get the most out of Sage ACT!, and security settings that prevent sensitive email history from attaching to Sage ACT! user records.
10. 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.

So, what are you waiting for? Need a web CRM demo or price information? Just give us a call! We’d love to help you. If you live in Orange County or San Diego, we might even be able to work out a live demo of how online CRM can work for you. Our team has been working with ACT for over 10 years and can hopefully answer just about any question you can throw at us.

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