Outstanding ACT! 2012 new features

Written by Jordan Ofri | 10 February 2012

Often I am asked by our clients if ACT! 2012 would be a suitable upgrade for them. As an ACT! Certified Consultant, I look to make my answers specific to the client’s needs, budget and expectation. In general, I have found a number of noteworthy feature upgrades in Act! 2012 that I would like to highlight in this article.

Sage has kept up with current trends which allow a user to access their ACT! data from numerous locations, devices or web services. In light of these trends, the move to connect ACT! to Gmail, Google Contacts and Calendars makes sense. Any Gmails that you send are recorded in your ACT’s History. Also your ACT! contacts and calendar can synchronize with their counterparts in Google. I’m impressed.

Also added to this version to assist you in having your ACT! data anywhere (aka in the cloud) is Sage ACT! Connect. What this feature does is synchronizes your local ACT database to a server in the cloud that enables a web page to display your Contacts and Calendar. This data can be seen on any PC, numerous popular Smart phones and also a iPad. This is not a full version of ACT!, simply a web program to keep you contacts and calendar in front of you to help you navigate the business of the workday.

Also, Sage has improved the internal search feature inside of ACT, aka Universal Search It’s almost like doing a web search (like Google Search) within ACT itself. If you had a client that mentioned that they were a fan of ‘hang gliding’, you would be able to scour every corner of the ACT database if you forgot where you typed that phrase. You also limit the search to note or history are a particular location in ACT!.

Worthy of Mention - Pre-existing features:

Even though the next feature is not new to 2012, I have seen distinct upside to using eMarketing (Swiftpage) in conjunction with the ACT! database  Most business will benefit from staying in front of clients with professionally done email pieces, newsletter, surveys etc., and Swiftpage in conjunction with ACT does these all well and cost effectively. Being that Swiftpage is built into ACT! it can conveniently:

• Develop your own email templates using the online editor
• Send out large broadcast email jobs (Quantity in 1,000s) from Swiftpage servers
• Design Drip marketing campaigns that intelligently control what email response is sent to your contact's based on their response or lack thereof.
• A variety of well-designed reports that give you precise feedback as to who opened you emails and even those who have opened them multiple times. This helps you follow up with the recipients who have the most interest (great way to develop a Call List.)
• Lastly, this product come with training webpages replete with videos that will help you get started on your own.
• To learn more about Act! eMarketing check out www.swiftpage.com.

Overall, I can recommend ACT! 2012 as a good upgrade choice. The program and database are stable and reliable and the overall feature set relevant and useful. But, we’d like to hear from you. Please post any questions about this upgrade or let us know how we could be of assistance to you.

To read more about What's New for ACT! in 2012 dowload our PDF.