Who Is Mike Lazarus, the Act! Evangelist – A Bio

Mike Lazarus, the Act! Evangelist, was born and raised down-under in Sydney, Australia. He lives and breathes Act! CRM and has been involved with the software for nearly 30 years.

After going to NSW University to study Computer Science, he went into hardware engineering. First at IBM on 80xx series mainframes. Then at Digital Equipment Corporation, where he won an Engineer of the Year award. This was also when he moved over to the faster pace of the software side of the computing industry.

With personal computing taking off, he joined Sourceware as a Product Manager. Tasked with looking after the Australian and New Zealand marketing and support for a range of software products including the Australian-made, Tracker – one of the first Contact Managers.

In 1987, PC Extras, which had just picked up distribution of a new Contact Manager called ACT!, asked Mike to take over the Product Management role for it and other products. In the first year, sales went from four seats of Act! in the first month to a thousand in the twelfth. Thus began three decades of Mike’s association with Act!. It was also at this time that Mike Muhney (one of the co-founders of Act!) called him, what soon became his internationally recognised title, “Act! Evangelist”

In 1991, Mike got the urge to put into practise many of the ideas he’d been teaching Act! users to do. He started his own business, GL Computing, which specialised in small to medium business computing. Through his business, his love and passion for Act! continued to grow.

As part of his dedication to helping small to medium businesses reach their potential, Mike developed and added a range of skills to his own portfolio. He has helped a huge number of Act! users make the most of their customer data through training and support services. In addition, he’s supported many the Act! Certified Consultants to improve their skills. Mike also assisted a number of the Act! add-on developers with design input, quality assurance and beta testing for their products that provide a range of solutions for act! users. A special focus of his has been with products that enable Act! users to be mobile with smart phones, tablets and web browser access to their data.

On a personal note, he is very passionate about his family, friends, Rugby Union (a Life Member of the NSW Waratahs) and Blues music … Not necessarily in that order!

You can find links to other various on-line profiles here: About Mike Lazarus of GL Computing

Additional Achievements:

• One of the first ACCs to have a web site – 1995
• Selected to train Symantec’s technical staff when they purchased Contact Software International
• Served two terms on the Act! Advisory Board (the first member not from North America)
• Awarded the Community Contribution Award in 2002 – voted by all global ACCs
• Wrote the History of Act! and most of the content on Act! CRM Wikipedia page
• Is the most prolific Act! poster on on-line forums, since Symantec started them on CompuServe. This includes fourteen thousand posts on the Act! Community Site, alone
• Founded and administers the Act! Fanatics Group on LinkedIn, which has more members than the vendor's own group

 

Qualifications and Awards

• Swiftpage Act! Certified Consultant – 2014
• Certificate III in Micro Business Operations – 2014
• Experts-Exchange Certified ACT! Genius – 2012

• Sage – First ACT! Community Development Partner – 2011
• Experts-Exchange Titan Award – 2010
• Willy Award - Unsung CRM Hero – 2010
• Sage ACT! Community - Platinum Elite Contributor – 2010
• Experts-Exchange Titan Award – 2009
• itToolbox ACT! Top Contributor Gold Achievement – 2009
• itToolbox ACT! Enthusiast Gold Achievement – 2009
• Experts-Exchange Certified ACT! Sage – 2009
• Experts-Exchange Titan Award – 2008

• Sage ACT! Community Leader – 2008
• Experts-Exchange Certified ACT! Guru – 2008
• ACT! Certified Consultants - Community Contribution Award – 2002
• Symantec ACT! Certified Consultant – 1994
• Novell Certified Netware Engineer – 1994
• Contact Software International ACT! Authorised Trainer – 1992
• Digital Equipment Corp - Engineer of the Year 1986

 

Act! CRM Fanatic Links

If you’re interested, here are a few other Act! related feeds, forums and tools that I monitor:

• LinkedIn ACT! Fanatics - http://www.linkedin.com/groups/ACT-Fanatics-49896
• Twitter List - https://twitter.com/GLComputing/act-crm
• ACT! CRM Daily Paper - http://paper.li/GLComputing/actbysage
• Facebook Interest List - https://www.facebook.com/lists/10150654560093127
• Google+ ACT! Fanatics - https://plus.google.com/communities/109892208109008763279

 

Finding the hidden functions of ACT! with your Consultant

Part 4 of The Seven Day Blogging Challenge - Share a photo I took this week and tell you about it.

I have thought about today’s Challenge post for a while and, with this blog being about ACT!, there was not much I could think of to take a picture that would be relevant.

So I’ve taken a screen shot of a menu that describes how proper use of ACT! will benefit you:

If you can’t find these functions in your copy of ACT!, I suggest you speak to your ACT! Certified Consultant. These are the people who do more that the break-fix support you might get from a vendor support contact.

A good ACC will take the time to understand your business and the workflow of your operations. They will then assist you in designing ACT! in the best possible way to achieve your goals using functions within the product or some of the many powerful add-ons that extend it’s use.

The ACC can then assist with planning and implementing your installation roll-out including importing your data, connecting to other systems and training your users and administrators to properly get the maximum benefit from the product.

An investment in a good Certified Consultant will generate a Return many times in better managing your contacts

When looking at the ACT! Certified Consultant list, you may find many in your area. So here is an article on how you should go about picking the right one for you: How to pick the right CRM consultant

Should you have any questions on this, please let me know by posting the comments here.

Technorati Tags: ACT,ACT!,Sage,SageACT!,CRM,ACC

What’s the best CRM?

I often get asked or see on-line posts asking this question and people seem surprised when I, as an ACT! Evangelist, tell then that it can’t be answered without more detailed information. This is especially important in the SME market where there is a greater range of options available than in the Enterprise space.

Any recommendations without this info would be like asking for the best car or religion, and any suggestions would be akin to the adage "If the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems look like nails"

You need to identify your needs:

• How many users are you expecting to have? Now and over the next 12-18 months.
• How many records (contacts and/or companies)? Also now and over next 12-18 months
• Where is your data sourced from (initial setup and on-going leads)?
  For example: your web site, external companies, social media, Excel, paper entry
• What do you want to do with the data? Reports, email merges, news letters, etc
  You need to involve internal users at different levels (sales, marketing, management)
• Do you want to integrate with legacy systems – accounting, ERP or other software?
• Do you want to integrate with new technologies – social media, Twitter, LinkedIN, etc?
• Do you want remote access – remote offices, laptop users, smart phones?
  If so, do you have reliable internet connectivity?
• What sort of security is important to you? Eg should all users be able to see/edit all records?
• What sort of infrastructure do you have – operating systems, hardware, network.
  Would you be prepared to invest in improving this?
• Do you have your own IT? If so, will they need training to administer the new system?
• What sort of support do you think you’ll need?
• What sort of budget do you have?

One common issue is looking at management needs (administration and reporting) over usability... if the users find it to complex to use or un-helpful to them, they won't enter good data. Then any reports will be meaningless.

Remember that your customer database can be one of your most valuable assets and equipping your business with the right tools to mine that asset can produce valuable returns – especially when financial times are perceived to be tough.

Often the best way to to it right is to speak to a consultant in the field to provide some advice. Here is an article that I did on picking a CRM consultant: How to pick the right CRM Consultant

When speaking to vendors, and even many consultants, remember their competitive info isn't always accurate. You need to do your own research if you are comparing products.

You really want to know “What’s the best CRM solution for YOU?” Anyone who makes a recommendation without knowing or asking these questions can’t possibly be answering that.

Technorati Tags: ACT!,ACT! by Sage,CRM,SCRM,SME

How to Get Faster Technical Support for ACT! by Sage

As most of my regular readers and followers know, I do a lot of on-line technical support as well as providing support services to our resellers and ACT! Certified Consultants and one of the things I notice is that I regularly need to ask users the same questions to diagnose the problem and provide a solution.

This means that the support person’s time is spent asking these and so the incident takes longer to resolve and get the user up and running. So, I thought I would provide a basic list of items to include to help any support technician resolve an incident faster.

When asking for support via email or an on-line site, it’s much easier if you write your query and necessary information in short points rather than large paragraphs. They are easier to read and respond to. Also, if asking about multiple, unrelated issues, it’s often better to do each one separately.

I will probably update this list as other common items come to mind.

Not all of these will be relevant to all support calls, but the more you provide the more likely you’ll get a faster solution.
If running on a LAN, supply any relevant items for both workstation AND server.
While these are targeted for support of ACT! by Sage, many are applicable for other software products also.

Should Have:

These items are usually necessary for any incident:

• Include the full version and build of the software. This is usually found under Help | About
  It is worth-while checking to see if there is an updated version available and, if so, applying it.
  Remember that every ACT! system sharing a database MUST be of the same build and Hotfix.
  If running a Premium version with a sync server, this includes the sync server.
  If related to ACT! connecting to a Microsoft Office product, also include the version for Office.
• Include the operating system – also note the service pack and if it’s 32-bit or 64-bit
  In Microsoft Windows, you can find this by right-clicking on My Computer and selecting Properties
• If you have an error message, include the full error.
  Hint: If sending the error via email or posting to a web site, don’t do this via a screen shot.
  For most Windows software, this is most easily done by clicking on the error box and pressing Ctrl-C.
  Then going to the email or web post and pressing Ctrl-V.
  This means you get the full error without having to re-type it and the technician can copy directly from it into any search engine they might need to access for information.
• If you still think a screen shot will help to convey the problem, don’t paste it into Word.
  Open MS-Paint (usually in Programs | Accessories), paste it there and then Save As a JPG file.
  This makes the file smaller in size and easier for the technician to read.
• If you can replicate the problem, include the EXACT steps you take.
  Identify what you expected to happen and what actually happens.
• Did you first notice problem after an update to ACT!, Windows or anything else on your system?
• Do you regard yourself as technical or not?
  This will help a good technician provide support at the right level for you.

Consider Adding:

Which items from the following list are necessary will depend on the type of problem you have:

• Include hardware specs like RAM, Processor and, if known, Hard Drive speed (in RPM)
• Include database specs like number of contacts and file size
• If the problem is related to emailing from ACT!, include the email client you are using:
  Outlook, Outlook Express, Lotus Notes, Eudora, Internet Mail (POP3/SMTP) – include the version
• If running any add-ons or plugins for ACT!, name them if they might be related (or if not sure)
• If for an issue with a PDA or Smart Phone, include the operating system and version
• What brand of anti-virus or firewall are you running?
• If your problem causes a crash or other error, see if there is anything logged in the Windows Event Viewer or ACT!’s logs. For instructions to do this, see: Tools for Viewing Error Logs
• If the problems seems database specific, have you tried to repair it? For instructions, see either of: ACT! by Sage Database Rebuild and Repair Procedures or ACT! 5.0 or 6.0 Database Repair Options

What Have You Tried:

You should also include anything you might have tried to resolve the problem. Some items you might try doing, depending on the type of problem could include:

• Have you checked the ACT! Knowledge Base?
  This should be your first port of call as finding an answer there will take less time and get you up and running faster, especially for common questions and errors.
• Does the problem happen with another database? Try opening the demo database and testing.
  Hint: The login user for the ACT! demo database is “Chris Huffman” with no password
• If running on a multi-user database or network:
  Does the problem happen when logged into ACT! as a different user or from a different workstation?
• If related to a template, report or layout, does it happen with other files?
• If a connection issue, have you tried disabling the firewall and anti-virus for a test?

Other Tips:

Remember that the best and fastest support option for ACT! by Sage is by working with an ACT! Certified Consultant. They are not only well trained, but can personalise their support to better suit your specific needs and can look at your environment and business needs to suggest improvements in ACT!’s operation, design and usefulness to your business

If you don’t need an answer urgently and are more technically capable, these are some useful on-line forums that you can get peer-based support: ACT! Community Site, Experts-Exchange and itToolbox

For better web searching of ACT! related information, links to support and other useful sites as well as updates on ACT!, please download the ACT! Fanatics Toolbar

To keep informed with the latest information, join both of these:
If you are on LinkedIN, I also recommend joining the ACT! Fanatics Group
If on Facebook, Like the GL Computing Page

Please feel free to add a comment with any suggestions you might have to improve this list.

Technorati Tags: ACT,ACT!,ACT! by Sage,ACC,Consultant,Sage,Support,Technical Support