Customer Reviews

ACT! 2006

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(50)

 

 

I started using ACT! back with ACT! 2000 (version 5) for our 5 member workgroup. That version was fraught with problems. Just getting it to run required monumental effort, with various Windows tweaks and Registry settings having to be modified. Once all that was accomplished the software ran, not well, but sufficiently well to serve our needs. It doesn't integrate well with Outlook or Word, which causes it to crash now and then, but mostly it works.

When version 6 came out, the marketing stated that it was more stable, faster, and better integrated with Office. I immediately purchased it, installed it, and ran it. Within seconds my system locked up and displayed the Blue Screen of Death. I rebooted, uninstalled, and called for a refund. I had visions of more weekends spent trying to get ACT! to play nice.

I skipped version 7. Then I received the Sage marketing pack for ACT! 2006, and read the very glowing claims that it put forth: Streamlined Productivity! Simpler Scheduling! Better Administration and Security! Time Savings! Guaranteed!

Hah! Here's the reality: yes, there are new features in ACT! 2006, like company records, a new group heirarchy, security enhancements, and scrolling mouse support. Unfortunately none of those features can be used because the program is so painfully slow. It hijacks system resources like mad but appears to use none of the memory or processor capabilities; it just hoards them away from other programs.

Open a menu and close it, and a ghost of the menu remains. Move a field in Template Designer, and it leaves ghost images along the entire path. The only way to be rid of these is to minimize/restore, minimize/restore, over and over until you want to scream.

For those who will scoff, I'm not using some ancient box from Tandy. I have a Dell Dimension 8200 with a P4 1.8GHz, 1GB RAM, ATI Radeon 256MB graphics card. I work daily with Paint Shop Pro and SolidEdge, and the PC never hiccups. I typically have Word, Excel, Outlook, ACT! 2000, Navision, and SolidEdge open at all times, plus the numerous background programs everybody needs like ZoneAlarm, AdAware, Norton AV, yada yada.

Sage support tells me the computer is at fault. That's what they told me with version 6. That's what they'll tell you when you call them. Trust me - Big Blue couldn't make this program run faster.

The sad part is that there is really no other product for individuals or small businesses that can compete with ACT!. So I'm staying with ACT! 2000 and returning my copy of ACT! 2006. Maybe they'll get it right in version 9...

I bought Act several years ago and was induced to upgrading with their special offer. Boy did that turn into an amazing time waster.

I downloaded the demo and it seemed to be OK although it was slow. I had a crash or two but figured I'd make the investment to learn it and decided to upgrade. I was never sent a serial number after purchase because their automated system failed. Two emails didn't help. Neither did a call where I was told that an email would be dispensed to their operations department alerting them this problem existed so I could be sent my serial number. Amazing. More amazing was no serial number. I sent 3 more emails. No serial number. Finally I bombarded sales and support and was sent a serial number after I told them I was interested in my money back. I'm going to send a reply to get my money back. Can you imagine what support is like if sales is so inadequate? Isn't this supposed to manage their own processes? Pathetic. Don't waste your time and believe the other reiviews.

I've been an ACT! cheerleader since v3. Last year I purchased ACT 2005 and could not believe they actually released a product that performed so poorly. Returned it for a refund.

** Fast forward to about 2 weeks ago **
I received a promotional offer for 2006 talking about all the performance improvements, etc. I called and spoke directly to a Rep to relate my tale of woe w/2005, and to be assured that I wasn't going to be wasting my time again. The expected response: As far as performance issues of 2005, "this was a totally different product" and "we know that version had problems and all of those have been resolved..." (ok he's a sales guy - what's he supposed to say: "Yeah, this version bites too"??)

Well, I bit...and bought...and hoped...and couldn't believe it - same old dog as 2005. Startup takes forever, screen writes take forever, lookups take forever (anyone sensing a pattern here)? I REALLY wanted this to be a fixable problem since as mentioned previously, I'm a huge ACT! fan. Tech support could ONLY say that "this is a really big program" and suggest some tweaks for improving the performance of my system (not the performance of ACT!). All this despite the fact that other "really HUGE programs" I use (including Siebel 7 and Oracle) manage to perform acceptably. My system way exceeds ACT's minimum requirements (P4 1.8GHz, 512MB RAM, 30GB HD) - unfortunately the 2006 product is just a pig.

I have less than 5,000 contacts but when using the ACT! 2006 address book from within Outlook, it takes more than 90 seconds just to bring up the contacts so I can select an email address. ** That's a minute and a half of my life that I'll never get back! ** :-) This was not just on the initial attempt (which in itself is unacceptable), but even pulling up the addresses again *within the same email* takes....you guessed it - another 90+ seconds!

I tried my best to use it for a solid week, did all the recommended tweaks, etc - but it's simply intolerable.

Looks like my v6 will be around for awhile longer.

Upgrade to 2006 is tragically not what I'd hoped for.

I started using ACT 2005 this past November, never having used it previously. Personally I would have chosen to role my own solution, however this is for my employer who already owned it, and has used ACT for several years.

My tasking was to customize the database fields, load all her clients and contacts into the system, then generate multiple marketing campaigns targeting various groups of clients and contacts throughout the year. I have two databases - one has 90 contacts, the other around 200. So this isn't anything huge, however I have the minimal system requirements, so I don't expect lightening fast speeds - just reasonable - you know, so I can remain productive in my day.

I was constantly frustrated by the grindingly slow functionality, the frozen screens when transitioning from one view to another, and the severely slow ghosting transitions from some views or screens. It was even worse when trying to launch a mail merge in MS Word, and often would drain my system's memory to the point of needing to reboot.

So I was glad to hear they were coming out with multiple patches over a few months. Sadly only ONE such patch ever came out, and it didn't do anything to help. As such, I resigned myself to dealing with the terrible performance, forcing myself to put up with it every time I needed to use the software.

When they sent us a promo for pre-sale of ACT 2006, I spoke with a rep, read up on their web site about it, and figured it couldn't hurt to take the chance on it improving my lot in life.

I've had 2006 for a few days - the upgrade actually went smoothly, a pleasant surprise. And yes, some of the functionality glitches and slow speed issues have been resolved.

Unfortunately however, many of the same issues still plague me now. The screen transitions are pitifully slow still. Some of the time even trying to launch print-preview locks the system up. The first time I did this, for printing mailing labels (a whopping 200 records) ACT crashed and shut itself down.

When I try to multi-task, it's a hit and miss as to whether there's enough system resources to allow me to do ANYTHING besides have the ACT window open. After closing ACT, the SQLSERVR database remains open in system memory - for example, I exited ACT 20 minutes ago, and SQL Server is still in memory.

It's a shame that this company is bent on their new "annual upgrade" path, which means that once a year we'll be asked to shell out another $150 - $200 per license if we want to live in the illusion that each next upgrade is worth it. So far, this upgrade has NOT been worth it. Oh - wow - they now offer 60 days of "warranty" support. I'd rather they offer 30 days, and put the resources into dealing with the real problems.

I just downloaded ACT 2006 trial version since I knew that it had to be better than the 2005 nightmare. Although faster than 2005, it's still too slow. It also slows down all other programs on the computer. With the direction this company is headed, I am going to start exploring other options such as Goldmine. Act 6.0 was great but it doesnt sync with the best and most popular PDA phone available (Treo 650). This company is going downhill fast.

I installed the evaluation version of ACT 2006. Actually, the interface isn't too bad, if it opens up that is. I have a P4 3.33 Intel with a gig on board. It chokes on ACT 2006.
To make matters worse, I tried to uninstall ACT 2006, in uninstalled ACT 6! instead. ACT 2006 is still there. I'm having trouble importing my ACT 6 data base too.
How can a company be so unresponsive to the market and survive?

Everybody that is saying something negative is so dead on. It's like all of you read my mind. I can not stress the following statement enough... PAINFULLY SLOW! PAINFULLY SLOW! PAINFULLY SLOW! PAINFULLY SLOW! PAINFULLY SLOW! PAINFULLY SLOW! PAINFULLY SLOW! PAINFULLY SLOW! PAINFULLY SLOW! PAINFULLY SLOW! PAINFULLY SLOW! PAINFULLY SLOW! PAINFULLY SLOW! PAINFULLY SLOW! PAINFULLY SLOW! PAINFULLY SLOW!

I bought my computer specifically to handle major drains like ACT, and even to be fast with ACT, but it made no difference. ACT is a joke... After paying [...] to call customer support, they tell you that it's your computer. That's funny. I would like to hear them tell us about this magical computer that can process ACT at just tolerable speeds. Maybe at NASA.

The whole reason behind ACT! is to increase our efficiency, and it does the complete opposite!?!?!?!?! I just read a promo they sent me about Version 9 and nothing in there about speeding things up. I'm done with ACT. I think their whole deal is to give people terrible equipment and then make their real money by charging [...] for the customer support that ACT knows you will need for their already broken product!!!

I have worked as an IT professional with application software for over 20 years and several other CRM packages and ACT! is clearly in a league of their own. It is the most poorly architected application I have ever encountered, and clearly their is no effort made to test the functions of the application before it ships.

The application is cobbled together from MS SQL and Microsoft .NET and when there is a problem with the database there is no way to recover by using the ACT! application. When there is a edit check that prevents a database setup from occurring it leaves vestiges behind that prevent creating a new database or accessing the old. And there is a limit on the number of databases a user license can access so all these phantom databases end up disabling the program.

Uninstalling takes hours and so many pieces are left behind on the computer, with special services, the registry and the .NET framework, that a clean reinstall is not possible. If you have a hard drive crash and need to restore the application code to a computer and restore the database it can take days and even then your chance for success is almost zero.

[...]

Unless you have a professional dedicated database administrator with experience with MSSQL, the ACT! product will cause much grief and waste a great deal of time.

Considering the time and effort to try to get the application working correctly on a single PC, much less synchronize with other computers, it is a very expensive application to install and support.

I would not wish this software on my worst enemy.

As a marketing professional, I have used ACT! software for over 10 years. Never have I seen such consumer abuse as the new ACT! 2006 version. The program will rewrite your registry! You will not be able to remove it - plan on spending hundreds of dollars having an IT professional do it. ACT! programs no longer talk to each other, from year to year. Their customer service is argumentative and the hold times are enough to make you pull your hair out (28 minutes to be sent an "easy-to-understand" email from India). My IT consultant just told me about a woman who threw away her new computer because it was so corrupt after ACT! 2006 installation (after spending $800 on IT). Do yourself a favor and avoid ACT! 2006 at all costs!

Our six-person office has been using ACT 6.0 for about a year now and we have become increasingly disappointed.

The interface is attractive and the sales materials boast of tremendous capabilities. However, as we've come to use the software we have become aware of several problems:

- the learning curve is pretty steep -- and all of us have more than a decade experience each in using CM software

- The program periodically, and inexplicitly, loses whole sections of calendar data. Appointments made ten minutes ago and ten months ago simultaneously disappear -- though other appointments remain.

- Tech support is non-existent, unless you're willing to pay a substantial fee for slow, script-driven, help. (We've also been disappointed to find - on more than one occassion - ACT's tech support people speaking of how bug-ridden and unstable the program is.)

Though attractive the program is functionally unreliable.