Customer Reviews

Act By Sage 2010 [Old Version]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I would like to tell you about my experiences with ACT! but also provide some additional information about this program since there seems to be a lot of MIS-Information flying around. I do not work for this company and am not affiliated with Sage in any way. I am just a user. I have written database applications in the past.

I have been an ACT! 3.0 and then ACT! 6.0 version(s) user for a number of years. When I tried to upgrade to ACT!2006 there were some problems. I decided not to upgrade and wait until the problems were resolved. I recently purchased ACT! 2010 and am fairly happy with it.

These types of programs like ACT! are database applications. They are written using a database engine that lies beneath the surface of the part the user sees. This engine could be MS Access, MS FoxPro, R:BASE or some other program. Up until about 2004, ACT! was based on a MS FoxPro engine. In this situation, the database and the underlining engine are essentially one program. In about 2005, the company switched to using MS SQL server. In this situation, the application the user sees and the database engine are separate programs. The user's application (the part you see) is written using what's known as a "front end" program like MS Visual Basic, MS Access or maybe MS Visual C. (MS = Microsoft). The reason for the separation of the two sides of the program, is to allow the engine and the user's data to reside on a server somewhere other than the users computer. This way, several users can conveniently access the data at the same time. MS SQL server is a tricky program to talk to and it takes some time to get this right. This probably explains some of the problems with earlier versions.

Having two separate programs, however, slows things down a bit. There will be a slight delay compared to a single database application. This is similar to when you look up books on Amazon.com. Sometimes it does not respond right away. Usually though, the network traffic will be much less at your location than on the internet.

That all being said, ACT! 2010 runs pretty good, but you need to be aware of some things in order to get good results. I am using it on my own computer, not on a server, and have Windows XP, SP4.

1) The CPU in your computer should be fairly recent. Like at least 2.0 GHz for a desktop.

1) Because you are loading up two programs at the same time, you need more memory. I originally had 1 GB in my laptop and the ACT! program did seem a little slow. I upgraded to 4 GB (3GB usable) and there was a noticeable improvement in the response time. Like 25% better. Memory is cheap right now.

2) I ran Sages Hotfix#4 and that seemed to help a little too. Available on ACT! website.

3) Running the Windows defrag utility may help if you haven't done this lately. Having a fast Hard Drive is good - 7200RPM.

4) Because I have wide screen, I was using oversize fonts (120 dpi instead of 96 dpi). The program did not like this and ran "funny". I had to reset my video card back to the standard 96 dpi. When I did, the results were much better.

5) Like many other software, ACT!2010 has the ability to run 3rd party plug-ins or add-ins. My version came with a trial version of a marketing program (one of the tabs). I found that this slowed things down some, especially at boot up. I deleted it using some instructions I found on the user community forum. It was simple to do and it helped.

Since I can write database applications myself, I considered preparing one for my own use. This is a large undertaking for anything similar to ACT's feature set so I decided to just buy one. I looked at probably 30 programs. Commercial ones, free, shareware, trial copies and so on. I found that compared to the others, ACT! is especially well designed and laid out and is really the best program of its kind. When combined with Outlook, you really have a powerful setup for managing your daily activities.

Setting up ACT! to run really smooth make take a little more than some other stand alone programs, because of the two part database I mentioned earlier. For this reason, you might want to contact technical support to help you if you have tried my suggestions and the program is still not running right. If you are not technical, there are many consultants available who know this program well.

As far as technical support goes, when I had the problem with my font size, I was baffled about it because it didn't show up with any of the other programs I use. I called the Tech support line and spoke to someone there who assessed my problem and instructed me on how to solve it. I did not say anything about my engineering background so as to see what level of people they had answering the phones. I was pleasantly surprised at the high quality of the tech support people. They know their stuff very well.

All in all, I would recommend this program highly to users who have the appropriate hardware to run it fast and who will spend a little time (or money in the case of a consultant or extra tech support) to set it up properly. The program will repay you with lots of sales leads and help you manage your day better.

One final comment. When upgrading from earlier versions, this is not a plug and play process. You need to carefully think about doing this, review the on-line notes, manuals and so on. There is a users forum with helpful info. ***BACK UP*** your database before proceeding with any upgrades, including backing up the Outlook data if you are going to work the programs together.

I recently purchased the new ACT! 2010 edition with high hopes that this would be a great new upgrade from previous editions. I have been an early adopter of ACT, having first used the product in 1987 and have used subsequent versions since. I stopped using ACT when they wouldn't run on Vista when Vista first came out. At the time, I was surprised that a company like Sage would not have properly planned for the launch of Vista to at least have a product that would work with it.

Fast forward to now and my latest experience with ACT! 2010. What a disaster! At first, the downloaded version seemed to install correctly. But then I wanted to link my Outlook database with ACT and that didn't work properly. Simple fields like "State" and "ZIP" were incorrectly matched so that "State" showed up under the "City" field in ACT and "ZIP" showed up in the "State" field.
Then another problem happened. I opened up my Outlook 2007 program and found a major fault. In short, Outlook was no longer able to send emails out, but I could still receive incoming mail. Somehow, ACT was forcing you to send emails within ACT and not through Outlook directly. I then re-started my computer hoping that the problem of not being able to send within Outlook would be resolved, but when I tried to open up Outlook again, it had become completely corrupted and was asking me to set up Outlook as if I was using it for the first time!

I immediately called ACT tech support and the solution they suggested was to uninstall Outlook and reinstall it. In other words, the solution was to wipe out every email I had ever sent or received and start over again. I have now spent the past several days reloading backed up versions of Outlook and trying to delete every instance of ACT 2010 on my computer.

This new ACT product does not have its act together and if you use Outlook at all, then ACT 2010 will become your living nightmare. My recommendation is to stay far, far away from ACT 2010 and avoid the aggravation and hassle of having to rebuild your Outlook files.

I used Act! Version 1 over 20 years ago and it worked well. Switched to Goldmine version 4.0 and then version 5.7 about 10 years ago hoping it would have better synchronization with other users, and because it easily imported Act Databases. Became disatisfied with difficulty in customizing Goldmine. Then Goldmine abandoned support for single users. Stayed with Goldmine longer than I wanted because it was difficult to export 10 years of client data to another program because of Goldmine's complicated structure of its data tables. Finally ACT! made available Migrate Admin 2010, a program that made it easy to export all Goldmine data into Act!2010. The migration program cost a steep $300, but the hours of time and data it saved was worth it for a once in a decade data conversion. The migration worked well. I am not an IT person but I am a "hands on" user. ACT! 2010 works well. It is easily customizable. It requires more RAM memory than Goldmine to work well. It works fine on my desktop with 4GB of RAM. I had to upgrade my laptop to its max of 2 GB of RAM. I was skeptical about ACT!'s claim to synchronize with Outlook, but it really does work well. I had three occassions in the first 30 days of use to call Act! tech support due to problems that turned out to be related to my system,not the ACT! program. The Act! tech support was manned by foreign sounding voices but it was excellent. Quick, competent, courteous, decisve and complete. Could not ask for more from a tech support. I highly reccommend ACT! 2010 for ease of use, ease of customization and Outlook synchroniztion.

As the line in the old TV show went, might be appropriate for ACT. I am not using a CRM of any sort relying on Outlook and an Excel spreadsheet. I have looked at a lot of CRM software and for the money I am of the opinion ACT is the best. However, I downloaded their 30 day free trial to try before buying and after doing my review I have to say I was quite impressed. Well I shut the program down and opened Outlook to check on my emails to find that I can't send or receive emails now. What's with this??? I was up until 1AM blowing ACT off of my computer and looking for and deleting ACT files in some of the strangest places on my hard drive. I'd delete and then check Outlook again and again followed by searches on my hard drive for ACT files hidden in some nook or cranny. After a lot of time I found the magical file that once deleted allowed me to use Outlook again for email. Good grief, how long has ACT been around and why would SAGE put out a product with this bug when they have known about it for months? I thought they would have had it fixed by now. I just don't get it. Needless to say, I'm not going to be buying ACT.

I have been using the ACT software since 1998 and upgraded often. I recently upgraded to the new 2010 version and I am so very dissapointed. I am a busy guy in sales and in today's business worl, your blackberry is your life. You would think that ACT would have a better merging software than 1-2-3 Syncronize to do it. Not only does ACT not have their act together but they in no way have their finger on the pulse of today's top salespeople and what we need in our aresenal of business software. These two programs ruined my Outlook files and calendar and I had to rebuild and clean everything up that took me days to do. Will ACT or 1-2-3 Syncronize re-imburse me for what I spent and the precious time wasted when I could have been making money?!?! I highly doubt it. I will work with my Outlook 2007 and blackberry and that is it, bye bye ACT, I am not wasting good time and money in your direction again!

The promise of what is offered is wonderful but the features don't work. Here are some things I couldn't do and some observations. Couldn't register ownership key online, had to do it over phone. Couldn't import Act 6 database. I spent a several hours trying then spent 2 1/2 more hours on the phone with tech support. At the end of this time, tech support said I needed to hire an Act consultant because they no longer support Act 6 and the database must be corrupt. But, my Act 6 works fine. So I don't think there is a file corruption problem. I think there is an Act 2010 problem. A cool Act 2010 feature should map the current clients address, but it doesn't work. It takes you to the map site but doesn't recognize the address. You still have to type it in. In the open program, clicking certain places causes pop-up ads for additional services. This is built into the software and I couldn't find anyplace to turn it off. As for the documentation, hitting myself in the head with a hammer would be less painful that pacing my brain to follow the recorded tutorials included on the installation disc. Regarding CRMs, any solution would be better. I read the reviews on Amazon but bought Act 2010 anyway thinking the reviewers that gave it low ratings might not be computer savvy. I was wrong.(sorry) Save your money and - most of all - save your time. A one star rating is too high.

I'm leaving ACT for good, hello [...]! I'm SO looking forward to THIS move!!!

I don't care if it's 3x the price and I have to "pay as I go", I need functionality! This new version of ACT is atrocious if for no other reason (and there are plenty) than it can't even run a query! What good is a database if you can't run a multi-field query? "Lookup By Example" as they call it. You know, when you want to find a 1. Distributor, that is 2. a Current customer, in 3. Denver. I have to look up ALL distributors, then sort by "status" (Current vs. Prospect), look up only the "current distributors" then sort that list by state. NOT a good way for me to impress callers asking where they can find my product...This renders ACT to be nothing more than an electronic phone book.

Too much $ and time wasted, I'm gone. GOOD BYE AND GOOD RIDDANCE ACT AND SAGE!!! WHY DID YOU EVER MOVE TO A SQL BACK END? Everything was fine until you broke it. >>FLUSH THAT POS!<< GRRRRR!!!!!

I had Act 6 for years and loved it. I had to upgrade to 2010 to be compatable with new Windows software and I have had hours of problems trying to print 5x7 envelopes. After spending hours and hours and hundreds of $$ with a certified consultant, he managede to talk to the high end tech support in the US who said "it was a known problem". They gave the consultant a fix for the lousy template. It worked on my old printer for a while. Then I got a new printer and now it won't print envelopes on my new printer. I am fed up and disgusted.

I have been a loyal Act! user for many years. A few years I bought a copy after Sage took over and it was in Danish or similar language and was unworkable. I bought the latest version through Amazon a few months ago. Ever since Sage bought the product it has become harder and harder to use. It does not update old Act! databases well and the one thing I want it to do - email mail-merge - it flat can't. I am so disappointed in my purchase. Of course Amazon's pricing and service are great as usual, but Act! has become a total dog. I wish it weren't, believe me, I need what it USED to do very simply: email mail-merge. Over the years I have bought Act! for myself and various businesses at least 6 individual times. Sage charges you for any support. Booooo!

Nothing works right. Calendar is stuck in year 2026. No client counter for scrolling through lookups. Lower fields disappear and no support available. I looked at the tutorial. It describes what the program is suppose to do. Unfortunately it wont do. A client database is useless without a calendar.