ACT! by Sage: To Upgrade or Not To Upgrade, share your Stories
August 3, 2006 by Travis
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Over the last few years, at this time of year, Sage software has come up with a new version of the popular contact management software, ACT!. This year appears to be no different, as marketing materials of the worlds most popular contact manager land in email and snail mail inboxes.
There was a key difference between ACT! version 6 and ACT! 2005 which released in August of 2004. It was rebuilt from the ground up a new architecture, Microsoft dot net and SQL. I likened this upgrade experience to going from a Jeep to a Hummer. A Hummer is roomier and even luxurious but is slow off the starting line compared to the Jeep. The Hummer can haul more, and once it gets going one could argue it is superior. For customers upgrading from ACT! 6, gone were the days of putting in the software CD, and hitting next a few times (installation wizard), and completing the upgrade in a few minutes. What was once and upgrade had become a “migration”.
So, what I’d like to know is your own experience when it comes to upgrading/migrating your ACT! software, the good, the bad, the ugly. Now I realize I’m opening a can of worms here, but I want your honest feedback. Allow me to encourage you to be polite, yet descriptive…professional. Keep in mind your post might be read by anyone, perhaps even the makers of the software.
There are many choices when it comes to contact management software for small businesses, realtors, and entrepreneurs of various disciplines, although fewer than just 3-4 years ago. Goldmine, Maximizer, MSCRM, and other contact manager users have their own tales to tell when it comes to upgrading. Another challenge is going to a different product entirely.
So go ahead and share what your experiences have been, and I just may respond with a few of my own.
I upgraded from ACT! 2000 to ACT! 2006. I had been using ACT! 2000 for years. Loved it. One of the worst mistakes I ever made was to get the upgrade. 2 weeks after I got it, I find they upgraded it again. The tech support to try to get ACT! 2006 to work was horrible. They deleted half of all my new entries and I could NOT get them back. I spent SIX (6) HOURS on the phone with their tech support people in India to try and get the synch to work and they never could. They blamed it on my hardware. I never had a problem synching ACT! 2000. This whole experience was awful.
I hated ACT! 2006 so much I went and bought GOLDMINE
Hey SALP,
I’m sorry to hear of your unpleasant experience. You are not alone in your frustration. This is one of the reasons this BLOG is here.
It is true that the days of the simple upgrade are over for those who are going from ACT! 3x-6x to ACT! 7-9 (2005-2007). The biggest thing I can say is P-L-A-N. It is important to identify what makes your database unique and plan for that as a part of the upgrade, and database migration.
The more I talk to users, I’m finding this true for many going to competing products as well.
Please let us know how your move to Goldmine went. It has been around for a long time, and has happy customers. Like any piece of software though, there is a learning curve.
Warm Regards,
Travis
I have assisted a client with the upgrade from Act 6 –> Act8 and they are now considering the next “migration” to Act 2007. This client has used Act since version 4 and has been “until now” very happy. We are based in Australia, but have similar experiences to many others when it comes to support and the product in general.
We did plan (luckily) as the upgrade process was far from simple. The only thing our client was doing differently with v6 was using Outlook Express instead of Outlook.
We took an image of the drive as a precaution so we could easily move back to a previous snap shot of the drive before the upgrade. Luckily we did this as we had to rebuild the drive from that image 6 times before we got close to having Act working. The integration with Outlook is sluggish at best. Emails sit in the outbox for an amazing length of time. The system regularly crashes.
What I was originally blaming Act for appears to be more a problem with bad programming from Micro$oft. I have another client using a financial analysis tool also backended with MSSQL MSDE version. It is also a memory hog and runs like a turtle.
As I mentioned earlier we are now considering the upgrade to v9 or Act2007. After reading many comments about nightmare experiences around the internet, we may end up jumping ship and trying one of the many web based offerings.
JayD-
Unfortunately many ACT6 migrations of shared databases are not clean, there is a fair amount of prep work to be done. While I cannot list them all here, I can say clearing out both cleared and uncleared activities is one of the top issues people neglect before migrating from v6 (or older) to the SQL versions. It is sad to say, I can almost predict who will have an unsuccessful migration by doing it themselves (or their IT consultant), and it usually doesn’t manifest for several business days or even weeks.
Not sure if you are aware of it, but you might consider the web version of ACT!, having it hosted takes you out of the Windows Client issues, and reduces the learning curve of going to a completely new system, and the cost of data migration.
Check out the product review at http://www.WhatsNewWithACT.com. You are welcome to call the office if you’d like to learn about our preferred hosting vendor.
800-871-6976
-Travis
I’ve used ACT since the DOS version and currently use ACT 2000, tried moving to 6.0 and gave up. Since I’m using not so state of the art hardware (on two different computers ) and everything works well I won’t be upgrading soon. When I must change it will probably be to an Outlook based program, of course that all could change when that time comes and I’m forced to make a change.
The idea is to be more productive, I just don’t see the ROI for me with the “new version”!
JoeFallon-
Sounds like you are satisfied with the version you are using. Version 5 and 6 (while no longer supported by Sage) are especially nice if you have older hardware.
Should the time come to upgrade your hardware, make sure all your critical business applications will run on the new operating system. Case in point, have a look at this post which talks about compatibility with a recent release of a Microsoft operating system.
http://actblogger.com/2007/01/18/vista/
They have a distinct advantage, as they are the ones who own the operating system. When they release a new one, third party software companies scramble to make their products compatible.
I have used Act for the last 7 years and had to dealt with their sloppy releases throughout. Latest experience occured while travelling overseas. Act v8? chose to revert to a trial version with zero copies left, so I was unable to use or correct the issue. ONLY alternative was to download and install 2007 V9.0.
That worked and I was able to continue my business. Upon return, I committed to convert my dsktop computer to be compatible. I could not uninstall V.8 either thru Act or the MS settings capability.
Spent 2 hours on web remote while Act rep did a manual delete.
OK…
To transfer email from one computer to another you have to do it thru a back-up file. Seemed to work, but it did not transfer the most recent back-up file, but previous one, so email was lost. I think this is caused by the error message that occurs on every shutdown of act or email and as a result fails to acknowledge changes in settings.
Therefore it is difficult to initiate setting changes and have them accepted. Need to do it from tools preferences in Act vs Act email to have changes acknowledged. This does not work for email itself, just email settings.
Act released an upgrade yesterady that did not solve this problem and in fact requires email to be set up on reboot!!
Only way to protect data is to back-up (no actual command available) by using transfer email.
I have been on hold now for 45 minutes waiting for an ACT rep…music is good, but service is obviously not.
I will investigate Goldmine. Any other suggestions?
i guess it is clear now why the no-refund policy is part of their accepting terms of use.
I would definitely not recommend this product or company.
Peter-
Sounds like a real hassle you have been through. If you are committed to leaving I think it is appropriate to determine the cost.
Many times in business and life people want to leave something because it is painful, but in all their leaving they miss the opportunity to consider the cost of changing to something else. What will it take to get the data transferred? How quickly can I learn the key functions I need in the new application? What can I live without? Who will be providing support? What about training my staff/peers? What is a realistic budget amount?
I would like to give you some other options, Goldmine, etc. But all have their own problems, perhaps you can live with them, perhaps not.
As for the “no refund” policy in your comment, last I checked the refund policy was extended from 30 to 60 days, and they are including support free during that period. So for those considering buying, make the most of those first 60 days.
ACT isn’t for everyone, to be sure. If you are going to something else, I’d encourage you to setup your criteria for another contact manager.
Hope that helps.
Travis,
I have been a user for many years and a big proponent of the software until the last couple of years. I can appreciate your analogy with the Jeep versus the Hummer - but at least the Hummer has four tires. After Symantec sold the software to Sage service went downhill and while the upgrades were serious attempts to improve overall performance it was as though Sage decided the user community was going to do all the beta testing. Sounds like the latest version is following the same path.I refuse to upgrade. I will stick with the previous version for now. But even that has it perils.
I recently changed laptops and now get an error when I attempt (I say attempt) to reload ACT “Please start your server (LANMAN Server) Service before continuing with this installation.” Since I am the only one that uses ACT in the office I do not attempt to run it on a server. My IT folks are scratching their heads as well and told me “reload XP, something must be corrupted.” I now have no access to my contact data. Not very reassuring…. Enjoy the weekend.
Joe G.
Joe-
True the newer version of ACT has more features, but as both the operating system and the software has built in more features, it becomes more challenging that the legacy (non-supported) versions. Couple this with the prevalence of computer security software, and there is some dialing in that has to take place for some to get it working properly.
If you get a bad tech at ACT, you might consider dialing back in, if you’d rather not wait in the queue, you can request another tech (be nice though, promise!?). Lastly you could call your ACT Consultant, as we live and breath these issues on a regular basis.
I just finished a conversion from ACT 4.0 which has woorked wonderfully for years and has only recently become a bit unstable in our environment.
I have to say, I am pretty conflicted here, the scheduling changes are great. But gone are a number of features that we had learned to love, some very simple. The loss of Macros is pretty disappointing and will likely be the kicker that gets us into bed with Frontrange.
Support has been less than ideal with workarounds to fix pretty fundamental usage problems.
Lucky, I used the trial version to figure all this out! Ok, maybe I’m not as conflicted as I thought
If you are going to go it alone, I would recommend testing the trial (on another computer if possible). Open up the demo database, and determine if the functionality is something that would make you more productive.
Then I would test a migration from your current version (which you did). Depending on the outcome you can plan to move forward or not.
I know many will disagree to this final point, but when I was going to do a website, once I knew what I wanted, I hired an expert. It is an integral part of my business, and I want it done right.
I would encourage you to do the same, if you only hire an expert once for you ACT database, do it upon migration. I have seen many a database, not properly prepared, someone does the migration, and after two weeks start dropping activities, and the system is crashing. I don’t like calls from people after a failed attempt to migrate, they generally are angry, and can even end up resenting their hired vendor. I haven’t had that experience, but know it happens.
You don’t have to hire me, but hire someone, just make sure they are qualified and have experience (a documented process) for migrating an ACT database to the latest version.
I used to be an extremely loyal ACT! user back in the day. I cannot believe how this software has been messed up. It is extremely disappointing because I still believe that the layout and overall functionality is unrivaled in the CRM world. I attempted to upgrade from version 2005 several years ago and finally gave up because the new version was so buggy and obviously poorly written. Fast forward two years to today. I downloaded 2007 and it is absolutely horrible. I tried to uninstall it and cannot…it gives me all kinds of errors. I don’t know who a company could (without deliberate intention) mess up a software package so badly. Is there any chance that Sage will sell the software to anyone that could possibly fix it?
You invited sharing…
I was just investigating ACT! 2007 for a client and noticed a problem on the act.com website. They had an image that was broken in Mozilla on every page of the site. It was broken because they used the wrong slashes i.e. “\images\sidenav_horiz_dotted_line.gif”, a stupid careless mistake. Being in a good mood, i intended to let them know about the problem.
I went to the “Contact Us” page, where there is absolutely no way to provide such helpful feedback. No form to fill out, no email addresses, just phone numbers. There was a dropdown with options that was totally unhelpful (redirects you all over the place).
So i decided to call them - only to have a corporate sales representative blame mozilla (and make it pretty clear that he couldn’t care less about my customer experience). I could not find the information i was looking for - and he didn’t really care.
Not the response i would hope for from a software company. Hopefully someone from ACT! actually reads these types of comments and gets their “act” together.
Bryce-
Much like DOS was simpler than Windows, and Windows 95 was simpler than Windows XP, so it is with many application development cycles. The new version has some great enhancements over version 6 (besides the fact that version 6 is no longer supported). That said, I think ACT can do a better job communicating new features and system requirements for successful operation. (Check out http://www.WhatsNewWithACT.com for more info).
As for your situation, did you make sure your machine was free from temp files, the drive was defragmented, and anti-virus and firewall software was disabled before attempting to install? I’ve found these to be keys to successful installations.
I would advise you and others who read this, if you embrace a “do it yourself” mindset on matters of software, setup a test system for new versions to make sure it is ready for primetime in your business. Test the install, and certainly the data migration if you are upgrading.
I have no idea if the ACT division of Sage Software will be acquired. While I could be wrong, I have a feeling they are finding it doing well in the marketplace and intend to keep it for some time.
Paul-
I think they responded to you or someone else. Their site looks good on my browsers (both firefox, and IE). I have seen their site go down before, but then again I’m referencing it on a fairly regular basis.
I could say the same things about ACT 07 that I could say about Windows Vista Business… Oh crap! but you know, unless your planning on staying with XP for the rest of your life (or hope Microsoft’s next OS is better) you’re going to have to make the best of it. If you go to Vista the old doesn’t work.
Dan-
I think your comment makes sense. We can be frustrated with Microsoft, Sage Software or other vendors, and sometimes for good reason. The bottom line is software is suppose to solve real business problems (problems that are resulting in lost revenues). Business is moving forward, and business professionals who plan to move their tools and staff forward with the market will have an advantage over those who do not. This means planning, and budgeting resources toward these efforts. Many businesses simply don’t do so, and suffer for it when change is thrust upon them.
Planning is the Answer
We need a list - A little list!
SCOPE OF PROJECT
How many users
Spread over how many sites
How many records
What type of CRM - There are a number of choices.
Hosted within the office. LAN
Hosted on remote computers. Sync and VPN or Web.
Available on any computer. Web hosted solution.
Combination of all of the above.
What sort of interconnectivity from the CRM system.
To accounting package
To word processor.
To Email system.
To Excel for reporting.
Other in-house systems - list.
USE
Mange existing client base.
Use to prospect new opportunities.
Use to hold suppliers information.
All of the above
Other information - List here
The list goes on and if you are really serious about going for a CRM system you really need an expert to visit and help you through the process of choosing the right CRM system for you.
Oh and there is that other little thing called a budget?
Lastly, if all the above has been done correctly you should also be able to arrive at a ROI figure that may help you push the budget up a little.
Hope this helped.
Chip Stevens
Senior CRM Consultant UK
Sorry
“Planning” was regarding another users CRM question.
Chip
ACT!
ACT 6 was the last of a long line of upgrades and was almost bug free.
ACT 7 was the first of a brand new product and was released a year too early. It had many bugs in it and completely under advised on the hardware needed to run it. If the bugs did not kill the programme the inadequate platform it was expected to run on usually did.
ACT 8 = ACT 7 without many of the bugs are a more realistic suggested platform.
ACT 9 gave us outlook integration - by 9.02 it worked.
ACT 10 now gives a working security model over all 3 main tables - improved look-ups & A Dashboard that was available as an add-on from ACT7 days.
What is now stable, usable, secure, and scalable is the ACTforWEB version of ACT 10 and this is where I think ACT may come back to lead.
All they need to do now is to allow users / developers to add extra tables!
WATCH THIS SPACE
Chip-
Welcome aboard…
Nice summary…
I think it is fair to break down the Outlook integration. Email integration with Outlook has worked for some time, many didn’t know how to optimize it. Activity sync with Outlook has had it’s share of problems, and I’ve always recommended a third party product for customers who require that.
-Travis
We’ve recently upgraded from Act 6 to Act 9.0 We had no choice as our hardware was upgraded and expanded and we were forced to buy new hardware with the Vista OS. Only Act 9.0 was available and we were told that we would have no problems running it on Vista. We used to run Act 6 and sync to our handhelds and phones for contacts and schedules. This is now impossible!!!! All this money and time wasted on a software product from a company who refuses to acknowledge their mistakes. We won’t be supporting or recommending this product or company to anyone, in fact the reverse. Vista uses Windows Mobile Device Centre and Act requires Micro Soft Active Sync - completely incompatible - makes you want to cry.
Robert-
Sounds like you have had your share of frustrations…
It also sounds like you were improperly advised. It is unfortunate that this happens as often as it does, and is one of the reasons this blog exists is to help users before they move forward. However, it sound like you found us too late…
I’m not going to take up space here speaking to all your points, as I’ve addressed these issues in other parts of the blog (just search a term in the search box upper right for info). What I will say, is when it comes to syncing a handheld device, I find more and more that companionlink software is the best option. There are so many devices, versions of ACT, and versions of the Windows operating system. Their stuff just works.
Don’t cry… as frustrated as you may be, there really aren’t many other windows-based contact managers as robust, and feature rich, at this pricepoint.
Now if we can just navigate through the technical issues…
Act2000 user. I have used Act from DOS days and in retirement use 2000 extensively after a recent equipment upgrade OS XP Home Act2000 will not load ANYone in Actland had and resolved this problem
Bob-
Unfortunately, ACT 2000 is not supported anymore… You might verify you have the latest patches (5.04??, it’s been a while) from the ACT website, and then try installing again.
If you are on a limited budget, and in retirement (?), you might consider this approach…Although ACT 6 is no longer supported either, you might also give a look for a copy of ACT 6 online, and try installing that version. Database upgrade is fairly straightforward in the ACT “classic” DB format.
Travis,
Thank you for replying I have just today solved the conundrum. In parallel to the ACT problem my new system developed snag on shutdown (WMS IDLE )which when I googled laid the onus fo this fairly and squarely on Nero Scout. Once that was disabled the error message disappeared! I then thought what the h… I will try 2000 again and in it went sweet as a nut. Thanks for all your time
Regards
Bob
Bob-
Glad to hear you got it fixed! Thanks for reporting back.
Regards,
Travis
ACT 2009 (beta) performance is killing me.
I have a 4 year old Dell Inspiron 8600 with 2GB of Memory and an Intel® 1700mhz Pentium® M processor and ACT is dragging my system down.
Anything I do in ACT - opening templates, adding notes, oking a future Activitity or Clearing an Activity drive my processor to 100% load with 90% of that as pure Kernel Time. Since I listen to the radio on the internet it ends up sounding like reverb gone wild
I have no control over management to switch to a Web based version of ACT and I’m not looking to change (buy) a new notebook.
Does anyone know of anything I can do to get better performance out of ACT with out dragging my system down?
Is there a way to force ACT to operate with more memory (fewer I/O’s)?
Thanks for your help.
Please disregard my last comment / request.
It seems that in this newest version of ACT, ACT is automatically started in start-up, but not as an application you can use - you can only see it in the Windows Task Manager - Processes list.
I had been terminating it there and then firing it off manually.
So after posting my previous post, I rebooted and did not terminate it in the WTM.
Now while I might have high processing loads, it doesn’t kill my system.
Mark-
You are not alone, many forget to do a reboot every once in a while. Apart from that, you can determine if security software is the culprit by disabling Firewall and Anti-virus entirely and testing performance. More often than not, it will be tied to overzealous security software.
For those with more questions on ACT! 2009, check out the ACT! 2009 FAQ.
Hope that helps.
-Travis