GL Computing’s Mike Lazarus has become the first Certified ACT! Genius at Experts-Exchange
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Is #SageACT! getting too complicated?
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I was reading this article on Mashable: Facebook Is Getting Too Damn Complicated and can see a point.
Like Facebook, Sage ACT! has been the leader in it’s market for some time… and largely for the same reasons. It has had the right mix of ease-of-use and flexibility to deliver the solution – most of the time.
I discussed the typical process that decisions on new versions are made in a previous article:
How Are Product Management Decisions Made?
Both of the co-founders of ACT! (Mike Muhney and Pat Sullivan) feel that the product is losing (or has lost) the essence of it’s direction. You can see Pat’s comment here and Mike’s here
For a while, when David van Toor was running the product, he did this … and the two versions released under his guidance were the most well accepted on release for his efforts.
Additionally, I think they would benefit from dropping the annual upgrade cycle – with release date dictated by bean-counters’ needs for numbers boost prior to Sage’s end of financial year.
I’m not sure of the likelihood of the current management taking this path, but one can only hope.
What do you feel?
I was reading this article on Mashable: Facebook Is Getting Too Damn Complicated and can see a point.
Like Facebook, Sage ACT! has been the leader in it’s market for some time… and largely for the same reasons. It has had the right mix of ease-of-use and flexibility to deliver the solution – most of the time.I discussed the typical process that decisions on new versions are made in a previous article:
How Are Product Management Decisions Made?
Priorities are not easy to determine
The setting of priorities (as per above link) is a really difficult line that most software vendors walk… trying to keep the product usable in it’s target market and dealing with the need to create new functions that appeal to potential new users or encourage current users to upgrade. For those with responsibility for the development of Sage ACT!, this line is more fine than most:- The product has consistently outsold it’s competitors (many that are more functionally powerful) because it has had the reputation of being the easiest to use while still maintaining flexibility to cope with most users’ demands. New features should be implemented in a way that doesn’t increase the complexity unnecessarily
- There is a large core base of users that have been with ACT! for 10-20 years (or longer). Changes to functions (or worse, removal of them) causes users not to upgrade or even to look elsewhere. This was really evident in the first releases by both Symantec (3.0) and Sage (7.0) when items were left out - either because the new development team didn’t realise people used them, or simply didn’t know the function was there.
Not all the reasons are good ones
This process becomes even more complex when we add some of the less valid reasons for priority selection:- The need to stave off potential competitors by imitation a feature list;
- To avoid the perception of being stale; or the worst reason:
- To add items that produce PR content, while adding little to the user experience – sometimes this is exasperated by the product management decisions being made by people who don’t use the product “in anger” and don’t fully comprehend the scenarios it gets used in.
- They lack the depth of options for real-world use of the feature
- The UI makes the operation less obvious to understand and use
- They are often not properly integrated with all the current components
- Sadly, they are often done at the expense of “less flashy” but more useful improvements
Some examples
There has been a number of times in ACT!’s history where, in my opinion, product management has been guilty of such decisions… where features added that don’t seem to have users requesting them or are implemented in a questionable way that marks a checkbox, produces a press release, but falls short of being usable. Some of these include:- Sales Opportunities in ACT! 2000 (5.0) – these were hardly usable for a few versions
- Resources – can’t be used in a sync environment, making them unusable for many sites
- Smart Tasks – really don’t go far enough to be usable, can’t be administrated or run as service
- Social Networks – doesn’t link contacts to accounts (only search), doesn’t update data or record communications. See: Social Media and CRM – thoughts on how they should connect
- Google Integration – it leaves out the most important part, the ability to send and merge emails
- Web browser support – doesn’t support Chrome, Safari or current versions of Firefox and doesn’t support Office integration unless using IE
- Sage Connect – doesn’t support international phone numbers (neither does Outlook/Google sync)
Both of the co-founders of ACT! (Mike Muhney and Pat Sullivan) feel that the product is losing (or has lost) the essence of it’s direction. You can see Pat’s comment here and Mike’s hereIt doesn’t need to be like this
I think Apple are one of the best companies at avoiding this problem. Their iOS operating system (iPhone/iPad) lacks much power functionality that Blackberry has had for years (see this post) and Android are now doing, but their choice to have kept the UI simple (at the expense of those functions) has worked for them. Apple prove that you don’t need specific features for the market to accept the product as “cool”So, what does Sage need do?
Don’t get me wrong – I still believe that Sage ACT! is the best product of it’s type… but an urgent cultural change is needed to maintain that position. Basically, I think they need to stop relying on focus groups and instead actively engage with users (and the ACT! Consultants who support those users) in public forums.For a while, when David van Toor was running the product, he did this … and the two versions released under his guidance were the most well accepted on release for his efforts.
Additionally, I think they would benefit from dropping the annual upgrade cycle – with release date dictated by bean-counters’ needs for numbers boost prior to Sage’s end of financial year.
I’m not sure of the likelihood of the current management taking this path, but one can only hope.
What do you feel?
What's New in #SageACT! 2012 – released Sept 1st
This is the official information from Sage. I will soon post an article on my opinions of the new version.
Update: Sage have release a day-0 Hotfix 1 … Any installs from now will get this update slipstreamed and there will be a download soon for the early birds. As soon as I find out what this fixes, I’ll let you know.
The Sage ACT! 2012 release is focused on a number of significant enhancements including Google® Integration, Scratchpad, Connected Services, Universal Search and much more. All this enables you to work and communicate more effectively, become more productive and efficient, and better serve your contacts. Click on one of the links below for more information on the specified topic.
New Features and Functionality
For details regarding each new feature, click the link for Knowledgebase article for that feature.
Google Contacts, Calendar and Gmail Integration
- Contact Synching capabilities from Google to Sage ACT! and Sage ACT! to Google.
- Contact Sync set capabilities to allow users to select a sub-set of their Sage ACT! contacts to synch over to Google.
- Calendar synching that allows users to update both their Google and Sage ACT! Calendars and have them synch regardless of where events were created or modified.
- The ability to choose which systems alarms display in for events.
- Users can select whether they want Sage ACT! or Google to “win” for conflict resolution when both calendars have been changed.
- Activity type synching options allow users to choose which activity types will synch. The defaults options are Appointments and Meetings.
- Scheduling synching options as frequently as one minute is available, but to limit performance impact, the suggested synching interval is 10 minutes.
- A new Google Integration synchronization panel from the Tools menu is available to set up both Contact and Calendar synchronization at once.
Sage ACT! Scratchpad
- Provide Sage ACT! users with a virtual piece of paper on their desktop to do the following tasks:
- Quickly jot down notes, reminders, and to-dos in one simple user interface, with or without Sage ACT! running
- Organize items in the list
- Check-off or delete items
- Print the list so you can take it with you
- Add items as notes, history or activity in Sage ACT!
- Items from Sage ACT! Scratchpad will be sent to the Sage ACT! database that the user is currently logged into.
Universal Search
- Users now have the ability to find that key documents or piece of information they need in their contacts, groups, companies, opportunities, notes, history, and attachments, because search is faster and more expansive than ever.
- The ability to perform advanced search using operators
- Filter search criteria by all dates, last 24 hours, last week, and last month
- View search results displayed by relevance and double-click on the item of interest to be taken to that particular field or attachment.
- Users can also filter search results for secondary contacts and products
Services Discoverability/Connections View
- A new Connections view within the Sage ACT! application that helps users sign-up and learn more about Connected Services that could improve their bottom line and efficiencies in running their business.
- Users can manage their existing Connected Services through this view.
Installation/Getting Started
- For new customer installs, third party applications such as Microsoft® Office, Microsoft Outlook® and Internet Explorer® do not need to be closed before Sage ACT! installation. Users can now continue to be productive while Sage ACT! installation is progressing.
- Installation panel that provides prerequisites and average times to install before installation begins.
Database Administration
- Improved usability in opening and sharing databases
- Shows all databases attached to the local SQL Server® instance and the most recently used databases in a dialog.
- Users can also share databases from within this dialog – no need to find the buried menu.
Import
- Import logs are now available to give counts of successful records imported and details of what records failed.
- Import log is displayed at the final stage of import.
- Users can quickly get out of the import process (no need to confirm that they want to cancel an import process)
Outlook Integration
- When Sage ACT! detects that the user is attempting to integrate Microsoft® Outlook® 64-bit with Sage ACT!, a message dialog will be displayed that states that Microsoft Outlook 64-bit is not supported, and that the 32-bit version is supported.
Web Administration (Sage ACT! Premium web client)
- Ability to manage critical administration tasks from Sage ACT! Premium (access via web) client.
- Manage users
- Manage teams
- Lock/unlock a database
- Manage password policy
Fixed Issues for Sage ACT! Pro and Sage ACT! Premium
Synchronization – Remote Databases
- In previous versions, changing fields to a different drop down field list does not sync to remote databases. This issue has now been resolved.
- In previous versions, updates on the parent database do not get synchronized to remote if both sides modify the same contact. Original data on the remote replaces the changes on the parent. This issue is now resolved.
- The changes made in the document attached to a contact in the remote database are not synchronized to the document on the parent database. After editing and syncing to parent, a GUID number is added to the file and updated properly on the remote database. On the parent, the document is still linked to the original file name. On remote, the document is linked to the edited attachment. This issue is resolved.
- Outlook contacts are removed from the remote database after syncing to parent. Issue is now fixed.
- Resolved issue of not being able to change settings on multiple remote databases.
Outlook Integration
- There was an issue where Contact and Calendar sync were failing with the following combination of conditions: User Account Control (UAC) in Windows® is turned ON, sync is run from the Sage ACT! menu or sync is run from the Sage Integration menu, and both Outlook and Sage Integration are run as/by a Windows Standard user. This issue has now been resolved. In other user privilege combinations and if a failure occurs, the proper messaging guiding users on how to resolve the issue is displayed.
- Issue where the Outlook add-in for Sage ACT! displays a runtime error during loading when upgrading to Sage ACT! 2011 SP1, is now resolved.
- Performance degradation when loading task list after sending an email using Outlook. Specific to Windows 7 and Office 2007 environments. Issue has been resolved.
- In Terminal Services environment, Act.Outlook.Sync.exe errors display when logging in with multiple users. Multiple users can now log on to the same machine and sync Sage ACT! and Outlook simultaneously.
- When attempting to send an email to two separate distribution lists on the same email, the email will not attach back into Sage ACT!. Issue has been resolved.
Contacts/Companies
- Issue of not being able to continue using Sage ACT! without saving company name has been resolved.
- Salutation field is deleted when users have set a preference to not fill the salutation field. Issue has been fixed.
- Error while editing data in Company list view while in customize columns mode. Issue has been fixed.
- In the Company detail view, if a user creates a company with divisions and then expands the tree view in the left navigation to show divisions and then switches the layout of the detail view to another layout, the expansion in the left navigation collapses.
- Company name is right justified after performing a lookup. Issue is now resolved.
Import/Export
- If contact with several names is not mapped in the multiple contact name dialog, nothing is imported into the database. Issue has been fixed.
- Contacts of Opportunities are not exported when export from one database to another database. Issue has been fixed.
- Import from Microsoft Excel® showing incorrect date format. Issue has been resolved.
Security
- Emails sent to other users incorrectly adds the file to the attachment supplemental files folder. Issue has been resolved.
Lookups
- No response after clicking Go to Advanced Query link on Lookup Opportunities view. Issue has been fixed.
- Record Manager listed as Manager when doing lookups. Issue has been fixed.
Copy Database/Save As/New
- The issue of not being to delete users in empty copy databases after applying Sage ACT! 2011 SP1 has now been resolved.
- The issue of not being able to change default duplicate checking criteria in empty copy database after applying Sage ACT! 2011 SP1 is now resolved.
- Teams created when setting team level security in empty copy database.
Reports
- Gross Margin by Product calculated total cost incorrectly. Issue has been fixed.
- Opportunity by Product does not display correct information. Issue has been fixed.
- Issue of Group reports coming up blank when all sub groups are selected for selected groups is now resolved.
Smart Tasks
- Deleting or changing an attachment to a Smart Task step after that Smart Task has been set to auto-run will result in no attachments being included in the Smart Task step. Issue has been resolved.
Activities/Notes/Histories
- When adding a resource to an Activity in Sage ACT!, the activity is duplicated in the task list if the filter criteria for the task list is set to “all users”.
Restore
- Database Restore does note restore custom layout.
Workaround: Use "Restore As" function instead of "Restore".
Sage ACT! Email Client
- Attaching emails to contact history is not working from the Sage ACT! Email client. History recording to Groups or Companies does not work as well for emails from Sage ACT! Email.
Other
- Error message displays when users select “Add Permissions” link in Manage Users dialog. The link now opens correctly without error message.
- Sage ACT! Office Add-in disables Quick Print function in Microsoft Word 2007/2010 after applying Sage ACT! 2011 SP1 update. Issue has been resolved.
- Company Web Info tab links are not refreshed with current entity data if Web Site field has never contained data. Issue has been resolved.
- Information on relationship between two contacts is not saved when using the Relationship hyperlink. Issue is now fixed.
- When printing calendars using Quick Print, data from days other than those showing on the screen are printing.
- When using the Facebook® and Google® links in Internet Explorer® 8, information will not display in the web info tab because of changes made by these sites to not display in frames. Issue has been resolved.
- OLEDB Provider – Ambiguous Column Name when querying table with spill-over tables.
- Alarms – Snoozing alarms causes error: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
- Follow up activities not marked private even though the preference of "Make new activities public" is unchecked. Issue is now resolved.
- If a user edits a layout within the first two minutes of opening Sage ACT!, Sage ACT! will switch between views and the layout designer 5 times. This behaviour is intentional; therefore we do not have plans to turn off background loading at this time.
Workaround: Wait for more than two minutes before editing layouts after opening Sage ACT!. - When performing a mail merge to a Microsoft® Word document using Microsoft Word 2010, no history record is created for the record.
Fixed Issues for Sage ACT! Premium (access via web)
Installation/Uninstall
- Syncconfigfile.xml file not copied during install, resulting in not being able to set up the Sage ACT! Internet Sync service. Issue has now been resolved.
Contacts/Companies
- Contact Detail view is blank after selecting contacts from the contact lookup list, and when users navigate to other views, they are logged out of the database. Issue has been resolved.
- Clicking on an email address in contact list gives a 404 error. Issue has been fixed.
- When Customizing Columns in Contact List view, the dialog is in a distorted view that displays only the Available Fields. Issue is not resolved.
Activities
- Resolved the issue of not being able to sort activities by date or time from Web client when start time is after 5:00 PM.
Outlook Integration
- Outlook displays error about missing .dll files when loading Outlook integration. Outlook integration is now loaded without errors.
- Sage ACT! address book is not listed as an available address book in Outlook for Outlook integration. Issue is now resolved.
- When updating the time on a Sage ACT! activity and checking the “send invitation email” box on the activity dialog, the sender will get an updated iCalendar invitation, but the time still shows the original time for the activity.
Workaround: The sender must manually change the activity time and/or date inside the email message. The manually updated message does update the receiver’s existing Outlook Calendar.
Note: Microsoft currently has no plans to refresh the cache more often or provide a mechanism for Sage ACT! to refresh their cache due to performance. - Act.Outlook.Sync.exe errors when logging in with multiple users in Terminal Services. Issue has been resolved.
Preferences
- Fixed the issue of not being able to change record creation options from the Web database client.
Opportunities
- Custom date ranges on opportunity list filters does not return any results/data. Issue has been fixed.
Lookups/Keyword Search
- Sorting on results of contact column after performing keyword search does not sort in any logical order. Issue is now resolved.
- Lookup Keyword Search does not find all records, specifically is searching the Current Lookup. Issue has now been resolved.
Mail Merge
- When Microsoft Word is set as the word processing editor for Sage ACT! Premium (access via web), if a user opens the mail merge fields dialog to add fields to the mail merge template, the fields are not in alphabetical order. Issue has been resolved.
- Mail merge to Microsoft Word and print does not record history. Issue has been resolved.
Firefox™ Web Browser
- Unable to perform advanced queries when accessing the web database client via Firefox®. Issue has been resolved.
Login
- User logs in and in a varying time from 5 minutes to 20 minutes, the user will start getting a pop up message stating "Continue to stay logged in". The user then receives this same popups every 1,2, or 5 minutes asking them to click to continue. Issue has now been resolved.
Can Sage treat ACT! as a global product?
There has been a discussion going on in the LinkedIN ACT! Fanatics Group for some time on how to find ACT! Consultants in international regions. The discussion can be seen here: Finding ACCs around the world...
There has been some good comments from Consultants, users and Sage staff. This has helped me to a few thoughts on what the problems are and I thought I would describe them here.
Regionalisation
The first problem is regionalisation (at least the way Sage do it). This causes issues in the product design AND in the support of users and channel. While this does work in the ERP world, that Sage comes from and where every country/region needs different handling, it actually harms the proper selling and supporting of CRM.
ERP users (even in small multi-nationals) don't usually spread usage of their accounting system across country boarders. However, CRM users regularly do and even those based in one country will travel and want access to their data. There are many areas of the product that are designed with North American defaults that don't work as well for others – multi-currency, scheduling for different time zones, phone formatting and country codes to name a few.
From the support point of view (especially the channel support), this is left to the individual Regional Operating Companies ... and they simply don't have the resources or budget to provide this for Sage ACT! at the same level as North America. It is this area that has caused some regions (eg Asia) to drop ACT! altogether.
I offered to help Sage with training and support ACT! resellers in Asia, but was told they weren’t interested.
Sage has a corporate marketing team that directs all the OpCos about the logos, colours, etc ... they need to implement a similar method to ensure that ACT! (and probably other CRM solutions) have a similar global uniformity in dealing with their partners and users.
Responsibility with Authority
The second problem that is endemic across Sage is that those given responsibility for an area or project rarely (if ever) also have the necessary authority to make changes... and those with the authority rarely understand the product.
Over the past years, I have spoken to many staff who agree with many of these issues… but the regional staff tell me it’s corporate and those with global responsibilities tell me that decisions are made by the regions.
Management Communication
The third issue is the lack of public communication on ACT!'s road-map from management since David van Toor left. I highlighted this in this post: Better handling of rapidly updating environment (yet to get a response from Sage). If you haven't added a Kudo to that post, please do.
Even the Press has Noticed
You'll see that I'm not the only one who sees some of these issues ... read this ZDNet article:
ZDNet - Sage Summit 2011: CRM at a Crossroads
This is a mostly positive article, but his conclusion that says corporate needs to "rejigger its thinking" in how they handle their CRM products is spot on.
Moving Forward
Should anyone at Sage Group Inc. or the ACT! team wish to discuss any of these points, I’d be more than happy to talk and help to come up with a way to address them. Like you, my aim is to provide the best experience for users and partners with their investment in Sage ACT!
Sage ACT! 2011 SP1 Hotfix 4
This documentation applies to Hot Fix 4 for Sage ACT! 2011 SP1 for the following versions:
- Sage ACT! Pro 2011 SP1 (version 13.1.111.0)
- Sage ACT! Premium 2011 SP1 (version 13.1.111.0)
- Sage ACT! Premium 2011 (access via web) SP1 (web server version 13.1.111.0)
| This hot fix requires that Sage ACT! 2011 Service Pack 1 (SP1) be installed. If you have not yet installed SP1, please do so before applying this hot fix. Instructions for downloading and installing SP1 are in the following Knowledgebase article: How To Download and Apply Sage ACT! 2011 Service Pack 1 (includes Hot Fix 1) Do not apply this hot fix to any other versions or builds of the software. To determine the version of the product you are using, select Help, then About ACT! from the ACT! main menu. |
Important: You must apply this hot fix to all machines that share the database – especially when using synchronization. This includes all machines that contain the Main Synchronization Database (Publisher), Main Remote Database (Subscriber), and machines that have the ACT! Network or ACT! Internet Sync Services installed. All machines must have this hotfix applied for synchronization to continue. Check installed version by going to Help and About Act!. Consult with your administrator before applying this in a sync environment.
Sage ACT! 2011 hot fixes are cumulative, so the latest hot fix will include the benefits of all earlier hot fixes for this version. It is not required to install earlier hot fixes prior to installing the latest hot fix.
Hot Fix 4 for Sage ACT! 2011 SP1 is designed to resolve the following issues:
- You see that Microsoft® Outlook® takes a long time to load when the Sage ACT! address book has been added and Exchange Cache mode in Outlook has been disabled.
- You are using a localized version of Sage ACT! and see that umlauts are stripped from the content of any email that also contains a graphic.
- You are using remote database synchronization and see that record information is not being exchanged correctly when changes are entered to the same record at both the parent and the remote sites during a single sync cycle.
- You see that attachments with file names exceeding 15 characters are stripped from email messages received using the Sage ACT! Email client.
- You notice that Keyword search fails to return all expected records.
- Your database contains one or more custom entities that include spillover tables and the following error displays when running a query on one of those tables: “Ambiguous column name ‘EventsID’.
- You have edited a template in your Sage ACT! Premium (access via web) database and are unable to save the template to a public directory.
- You see that attachments with names that exceed 15 characters are stripped from email messages sent using Sage ACT! email.
- You are using a localized version of Sage ACT!, and see that the Maximize button in the Keysearch window is unavailable.
- You are using a German version of Sage ACT! 2011, and see that the word ‘location’ is translated incorrectly in the Appointment Activity Send Email invitation.
- You are using Sage ACT! with Microsoft® Windows® 7 and Microsoft Office® 2007, and see performance degrade after sending an email through Sage ACT! to a contact and then creating or clearing an activity.
- You are using Microsoft Outlook Integration with Sage ACT! and see performance degrade after sending an email to a contact, opening the calendar, and then opening the task list.
- You are using Sage ACT! 2011 Service Pack 1 with Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010 and notice that the Quick Print function in Word 2007/2010 is disabled.
- You have cleared the Allow history creation for email sent from a user of this database to another user option (Tools>Preferences> Admin), but find that email sent to other users incorrectly adds files to the attachments folder.
- You are using Sage ACT! 2011 Service Pack 1 with ACT! Email and see the options to attach a file or a photo are unavailable.
- You are using Sage ACT! Premium for Web and, after using Lookup to find a group of records, you see that the Contact Detail page is blank, you are unable to page through the Contacts returned in the lookup, and returning to the Contact List view causes you to be logged out of the database.
- You are using Sage ACT! Premium for Web and are unable to change Record Creation options in the Web Client. You are using an English language version of Sage ACT!, but the new Data Chart properties display French options.
- You are using Sage ACT! with Outlook Integration over Terminal Server and see an error if more than one Sage ACT! user is logged in.
- You are using Sage ACT! Premium 2011 (access via web) with Microsoft® Outlook® integration enabled and notice that Sage ACT! is not listed as an available address book in Outlook.
- You are using Sage ACT! Premium 2011 (access via web) and see a distorted view when attempting to customize columns in the Contact List.
- You are using Microsoft Office® 2007 with a Dutch language version of Sage ACT! and see, that when you create a quote from a new opportunity, the Excel® portion of the quote fails to populate.
- You have applied the SP1 update to Sage ACT! 2011, made a copy of your database via the File > Save Copy option, and see unexpected error messages when attempting to set your duplicate checking options in the copy of the database.
- You have applied the SP1 update to Sage ACT! 2011, made a copy of your database via the File > Save Copy option, and see unexpected error messages when attempting to delete a user account in the copy of the database.
- You have applied the SP1 update to Sage ACT! 2011, have remote databases, have setup Outlook Contact Synchronization, and are seeing data inconsistency between the Publisher database, Remote databases, and Outlook when synchronizing.
- You have applied the SP1 update to Sage ACT! 2011 and are now unable to use the Outlook Add-In for Sage ACT!.
Downloading the Hotfix:
Sage ACT! 2011 SP1 Hot Fix 4 (English)
Sage ACT! 2011 SP1 Hot Fix 4 (French)
More detailed information available from ACT! Knowledgebase KB27440
ACT! for Notes 9.0 is ready for Shipment!
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