Happy 25th Birthday #SageACT!

ACT! was originally released on the 1st of April 1987 – No, not an April Fools’ Joke

How many software product can maintain market leadership over 25 years?

Here are some images from the original hand drawn layout coding of ACT! – click on them to see full-size

 

This is the original computer used by Randy Haben to code the first ACT! for DOS … an AT&T 8086

I’ll be posting some more old pictures to the Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150296560008381.343995.196020083380

To see the history of ACT! timeline, see: The History of ACT!

If you would like some logos to use to celebrate this occasion, I have designed some (together with Geo of SJR) and made them available on this Dropbox page. There are various sizes so you can put them on websites, blogs, Facebook/twitter profile images, email sigs. The PNG files are transparent so will work on backgrounds of any colour.

 

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

A Spring Clean for your system and Outlook

As many of you will know, systems slow down with use and can cause many issues in Sage ACT!. Consequently, I recommend running an occasional maintenance of your system to deal with these before they become a noticeable problem.

With March 20th being the Vernal Equinox (first day of Spring, at least in the Northern Hemisphere) I thought this would be a good time to recommend a Spring Clean routine.

Many of these function are much easier if you have installed Xobni. I highly recommend this product for any Outlook user. There is a free version (Plus) for Outlook only or a paid version (Pro) that will link Gmail, Blackberry, Android and iPhone. You should install the latest 2.x (Pro) or 1.x (Plus) on a system that meets the requirements.

Although the steps below are generally safe, some systems are corrupted to the point of irreparability. Neither GL Computing nor Xobni is responsible for any data loss or other damage that may occur. We recommend that you perform regular full backups of your system, so that if anything should go wrong you can always revert to a good copy. For more about backup, see this article for Windows 7 or this article for Windows XP.

You should back up your ACT! databases, Outlook files and system first.

Not all steps are required and the technical difficulty level of each step is listed from easy to advanced.

 

1. Before You Start: Create a Restore Point (Easy)

To create a restore point

1. Open System by clicking the Start button , right-clicking Computer, and then clicking Properties.
2. In the left pane, click System protection. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
3. Click the System Protection tab, and then click Create.

4. In the System Protection dialog box, type a description, and then click Create.

For more information about System Restore, see What is System Restore?

 

2. Back up Xobni Data (Easy) – Xobni Pro user

Xobni Cloud is included with Xobni Pro, which keeps your Xobni data backed up and synchronized across multiple instances of Xobni. To ensure that your data is up-to-date, please perform the following step:

In Outlook, select Xobni > Update Xobni Cloud

 

3. Apply Microsoft Updates (Easy)

Make sure that your system is up-to-date by running Windows Update. 

  Click the Start button, click All Programs, and then click Windows Update. 

Apply latest service pack for your version of Office.

• Office 2010 Service Pack 1
• Office 2007 Service Pack 3
• Office 2003 Service Pack 3

 

4. Microsoft Office Repair (Easy)

Lot of issues are caused by corrupt Microsoft Office components. This can happen when one component overwrites another component, for example when multiple versions of Office are installed (say, 2007 and 2010). Microsoft recommends to keep all Office components the same version.  You may see COMexception errors in the InspectorX report in these cases. If you just installed the latest service pack in the previous step, you may skip Office repair.

To repair, please try these steps:

1. Click Start > Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs (XP) / Uninstall a program (Vista/Win7)
2. Scroll down the list and select the version of Microsoft Office you are running
3. Click the Change button 
4. Select Repair
5. Click Continue

 

5. Disable Add-ins (Easy)

In order to eliminate conflicts with other add-ins, please disable all Outlook add-ins using Inspector X:

1. Restart your computer 
2. Click Start menu > All Programs > Xobni > Diagnostics > Xobni InspectorX
   (Vista/7 users right-click to "Run as Administrator")
   If you don't have the latest version of Xobni installed, you can download InspectorX and extract the contents to your Desktop or other convenient location:
   For Outlook 2003, 2007, and 2010 32-bit: InspectorX.zip
   For the 64-bit version of Outlook 2010: InspectorX_x64.zip
   Right-click the InspectorX.exe file and select Run as Administrator
3. In Inspector X, select the Plugins menu > Disable all Plugins except Xobni

You can re-enable the add-ins you need once stability has been confirmed by using the Plugins > Plugin Manager menu option.

 

6. Repair the Outlook data files (Easy)

This is arguably the most important step (with or without Xobni)! If you are experiencing stability or indexing issues, for example, if emails or contacts are missing information, showing up as "Empty", "No subject", or "Message body unavailable", this step will help you resolve this. If you use IMAP, please see this article as well. Make sure to complete all steps.

Warning: If you are storing .pst files on a network share, do not run scanpst. It is unsupported by Microsoft and can cause irreversible data loss! 

1. Restart the computer (if you have not already). 
2. Run InspectorX: Click Start > All Programs > Xobni > Diagnostics > Xobni InspectorX
   Or, download the latest version of InspectorX:
   Most people (those with Outlook 2003, 2007, and 32-bit 2010) will need the 32-bit version: InspectorX.zip
   If you have the 64-bit version of Outlook 2010, use the 64-bit version: InspectorX_x64.zip
   Extract the contents to a folder and run InspectorX by double-clicking the InspectorX.exe file 
3. Select  Special > Automatically Repair All Outlook Data Files

   

   This process may take from several minutes to several hours, depending on your data. It is recommended not to use the computer at this point, as it is very i/o intensive. The process may appear to be not responding, so please by patient. Do not attempt to click on the buttons - it is all automatic.

4. If Xobni is currently installed, please clear the Xobni data files:  

   Select Special > Clear Xobni Data Files...

   Note: This will remove any customizations or merging, although InspectorX will create a backup copy of the Xobni folder named "xobni.bak" in case you need to revert. Xobni recommends to back up your Xobni data using Xobni Cloud, which comes with Xobni Pro.  

5. Start Outlook

6. After Xobni does the initial indexing, start a full index operation:

   Select Xobni > Index Outlook Mail

   

   If you use Xobni Plus 1.x, you may need to re-activate  by selecting Xobni > Options > Xobni Plus > Activate.

 

7. Registry Cleanup (Easy)

1. Download CCleaner
2. Install CCleaner
3. Launch CCleaner
4. Click on the Registry button on the left
5. Click "Scan For Issues..."
6. After scan is complete select "Fix selected issues...". CCleaner asks to make a backup of your registry. Choose a backup destination and click “Save.”
7. After doing so click "Fix All Issues"
8. When that is done, you can quit CCleaner
9. Repeat as necessary (at least once a month)

 

8. Scan Disks for Errors (Easy)

1. Double-click My Computer, and then right-click the hard disk that you want to check.
2. Click Properties, and then click Tools.
3. Under Error-checking, click Check Now. A dialog box that shows the Check disk options is displayed
4. Use one of the following procedures:
   • To run Chkdsk in read-only mode, click Start.
   • To repair errors without scanning the volume for bad sectors, select the Automatically fix file system errors check box, and then click Start.
   • To repair errors, locate bad sectors, and recover readable information, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start.

 

9. Defragment your Disks (XP Only) (Easy)

Disks get fragmented over time, and Windows XP leaves it to the user to defragment them (Vista and 7 have automatic defragmentation). Fragmentation, in which files are not stored in contiguous blocks, will make your system slower over time and you should ideally perform this weekly.

1. Open My Computer.
2. Right-click the local disk volume that you want to defragment, and then click Properties.
3. On the Tools tab, click Defragment Now.
4. Click Defragment.

 

10. Repair System Files (Easy)

In order to repair the Windows system files, please follow these steps:

1. Open a command window as Administrator:
Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt (Vista/Win7: Right-click and select Run as Administrator)

2. In the command prompt, type:

sfc /scannow

 

11. Fix mapi32.dll (Medium)

If you see MAPI errors in the InspectorX report, it is commonly because another add-ins has overwritten the default mapi32.dll. To repair this library, please follow these steps:

XP: Download and run xpmapifix.bat.

Vista/Win7: Download mapifix.bat, then right-click it and select Run as Administrator.

If you wish to run the commands manually, follow these steps:

XP:

1. Open a command prompt as Administrator:

Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt (Vista/Win7, Right-click and select Run as Administrator)

2. Run the following commands:

ren %windir%\System32\mapi32.dll mapi32.dll.bak
fixmapi

You may copy the text above, then right-click in the window to paste.

Vista/Win7:

1. Open a command prompt as Administrator:

Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt (Vista/Win7, Right-click and select Run as Administrator)

2. Copy the following commands:

takeown /f %windir%\System32\mapi32.dll
cacls %windir%\System32\mapi32.dll /g %username%:c
ren %windir%\System32\mapi32.dll mapi32.dll.bak
fixmapi

3. Right-click in the window to paste the commands.

 

12. Reinstall .NET Framework (Advanced)

Xobni depends on the Microsoft .NET framework, which may become corrupted over time. You can repair your .NET framework by removing it completely and installing from scratch. Make sure to complete the backup steps (#1 and #2) prior to starting this process.

Windows XP

1. Restart your computer.
2. Download and run the Brute Uninstaller. (Vista and Windows 7 users, please right-click to "Run as Administrator")
3. Click Start > Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs / Uninstall a program
4. Scroll down and remove each and every .NET framework entry, including service packs and hot fixes that have the word ".NET" in the program name.
5. After every trace of .NET has been removed from your machine please restart your computer.

Vista/Win7

1. Restart your computer.
2. Download and run the Brute Uninstaller. (Vista and Windows 7 users, please right-click to "Run as Administrator")
3. Click Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs / Uninstall a program
4. Scroll down and remove each and every .NET framework entry, including service packs and hot fixes that have the word ".NET" in the program name.
5. After every trace of .NET has been removed from your machine 
6. Click Start > Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features
7. Find the product named Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.1 and uncheck the box
8. Please restart your computer.

Trouble removing .NET?

If you are experiencing problems during the uninstall steps, please download the .NET cleanup tool:

1. Double-click the .zip file to see the contents (or extract to a folder)
2. Double-click cleanup_tool.exe to run the tool
3. Select .NET all versions
4. Click on "Cleanup Now"

Re-install .NET:

Download and install .NET 3.5 from Microsoft's download link.

If you had .NET 4 installed, please install from this link.

Download the latest version of Xobni

Please use this link.

 

13. Create a New Outlook Profile (Medium)

If all else fails, please follow these instructions on how to create a new Outlook Profile. It's totally safe. You can always revert to your old profile. Please refer to this article for instructions. If you use Google Apps, please see this article.

 

Attachments:

• mapifix.bat
• xpmapifix.bat

Reprinted with permission (with minor changes and edits) from:
https://support.xobni.com/entries/198041-how-can-i-improve-the-reliability-and-performance-of-my-computer-without-purchasing-a-new-one

Technorati Tags: corrupt,corruption,scanpst,Outlook,Xobni,maintenance

Certified ACT! Genius @ExpertsExchange #SageACT

GL Computing’s Mike Lazarus has become the first Certified ACT! Genius at Experts-Exchange

Click image to see EE Profile or here to see PDF Certificate

Technorati Tags: ACT,Sage ACT!,GL Computing,Experts-Exchange

Is #SageACT! getting too complicated?

{EAV:5878844ce463310a}
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.

When feature bloat is attributed to this last item, new functions are typically plagued with a number of flaws:

• 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 here

It 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?

Technorati Tags: ACT,ACT2012,CRM,Sage,SageACT!,Sage ACT!

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.

Knowledgebase article: 27988

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.

Knowledgebase article: 28077

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

Knowledgebase article: 28034

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.

Knowledgebase article: 28094

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.

Knowledgebase article: 27964 (Sage ACT! Pro), 27971 (Sage ACT! Premium)

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.

Knowledgebase article: 28142

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)

Knowledgebase article: 27976

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

Knowledgebase article: 28095

 

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.

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

Can Sage treat ACT! as a global product?

Those who know me know that I love and support ACT!, but there are some issues with Sage that I believe need work.

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!

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