Issues with ACT database software and email?
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Since posting the special seminar with the makers SwiftPage Snapshot two days ago I’ve been surprised with the response. There are still quite a few spots available for the call next week, no worries there, but it caused me to wonder…
You see, I have some experience with ACT email, as have those I work with. More important is understanding the experience those of you reading this blog have had (good and not so good) with email integration.
Given past responses, I recognize the potential problems by opening this up (possible can of worms?). So, before asking for your feedback, there are a few guidelines…actually just two:
1.) Be kind. The majority of you are very passionate about what you do, and that translates into other areas (like your choice of software :-), if you are troubled by a particular aspect of the program, say so. However, please avoid ranting and non-constructive language in your comment, it scares people from responding, and offering some constructive feedback (someone might give you a good suggestion here, who knows!)
2.) Be professional. It amazes me the response people have when I call them on the phone after placing an order for a product. People believe in the what I call “the myth of anonymity” on the internet. We are all real people, trying to serve our customers, and make a living. In a word, professionals… be one when you post.
Ok, with those two points in mind, in the boxes below, please share your experience (if any at all) with ACT email integration. What is your number one issue (if any)? Please include your ACT software version as well. You can check back for any responses, or check the box to subscribe to comments, and you’ll be notified with any replies.
Warm Regards,
Travis
Filed under: ACT Related, Technical
I run a 3.2 Ghz Dell with 2.5G of Ram. My version of ACT is 2005 single user. Also running XP pro with all the updates. I can be shooting out a number of emails and either the Act Email or Act itself will freeze. Then I have to do the old CTRL+ALT+DEL combo to kill it. After a number of repeats, I’ll reboot. I skipped 2007 because fo the horrible reviews, but was encouraged by what was supposed to be better Outlook integration. I hoping it’s better for 2008. I also hope 2008 continues to support PALM syncing. The email crashing is the biggest complaint.
Thanks…Dave
Dave-
A couple of items.
1.) I don’t recommend ACT mail merges much beyond 200 contacts at a time, depending on the number of fields you are merging. It is simply resource intensive, and truthfully ACT wasn’t designed for large mail merges. The latest version has improved performance, but not enough to change my opinion.
2.) Consider using a 3rd party product like Swiftpage Email which allows you to do reporting and call lists, etc. Next week I’m grilling them on their latest product, you can find out more about the Snapshot by Swiftpage teleseminar here.
3.) If you wish to continue with your current mail merges, make sure your system is clear of temp files, defragment the hard drive, close all other apps, and snooze your anti-virus software prior to the mail merge…all this after breaking up your merge into groups of 200 contacts each.
Hope that helps.
PS: there is another 3rd party product I’m testing, I’ll post results here when I conclude whether it is worth it or not….
Dave,
You could use one tool to do mailmerge, namely ACT! itself however a better strategy might serve you better. Use ACT! as Travis suggested for mail merges of 200 or less. This makes sense as its fairly quick to process a batch this size and its less likely that you will run into an ISP restriction on sending volume. It makes more sense however for multiple reasons to use a product like Swiftpage for bulk mailing. Swiftpage makes it easy to create a professional looking email template which you can use and reuse as many times as you like. It also integrates tightly with ACT! which makes it easy to send out bunches of emails based on your lookups in ACT! without having to export to a delimited file then import into an Address book like Constant Contact. More importantly however is that it not only tracks usage stats like how many people actually opened the email it will also make it much easier to manage opt-outs to be anti-spam compliant. This is a great option especially those small businesses that don’t have the financial or technical resources to deploy, implement and secure a mail server and also don’t want the hassle of email volume sending limits too. As nice as Swiftpage is however it also doesn’t make sense to create an HTML template for every smaller mailmerge that goes out, ACT! would do a better job handling that.
I have used Act 2006 as a single user on both a Sony Vaio and on Dell laptop, both with 2. G ram and using Windows XP.
Email issues have been my major source of problems with the ACT program. Even small mail merges many times cause the systems to crash much like those experineced by Dave B. I read your reply Travis, and I was curious to get a btter handle on “the number of fields ” that are being merged. Just replying to an email which I am assuming requires limited fields tends to crash the system. Are you talking about the total number of fields I have in my data base? or is there other criteria?
I can see how the steps you outlined could eliminate problems, but they are rather timely to use on a daily basis to get the email to work effectively. Im hesitant to put more money into the system with Add ons when the original company ACT cant seem to provide the solutions. Thnks
I upgraded from ACT 6 to ACT 2007 earlier this year — the data migration went smoothly and although it’s VERY slow to open the program, once it’s running, the performance isn’t bad. I also use SwiftPage which I like very much.
The problem I’m having is when working within Outlook — the ACT email integration includes two buttons added to the Outlook toolbar that are very tempermental. One button attaches an email message in Outlook to a contact record in ACT. When it works, it’s a great feature, but the button “grays out” for reasons I can’t figure out.
The second button is designed to add a new contact to the ACT database from the email information. This button worked beautifully at first, then it just disappeared for a while, and then it returned to the Outlook toolbar, but only in an open email message (when I first discovered it, it was available in folder and inbox views). Now when I click the button, it returns an error message that “the ACT database can’t be found - contact your administrator.”
I haven’t been able to find any documentation on these features. Does anyone know how to use or fix these quirky buttons? Thanks!
-Jocelyn
Third party products don’t make sense for everyone, for someone intending to use email as a lead generator then something like Swiftpage Email is a good solution for many of the reasons Steve states.
Sandy, good question, thanks for asking, as it was perhaps unclear to others. I’m referring to the number of fields you might be merging with an email template. This is not a concern for simple email replies, or using the ACT email software or integration. If you decide to go with an addon product (any addon for that matter), be sure to pick one with a decent reputation, and solid support.
Jocelyn, in previous versions there were only certain folders that enable that button for attaching an email to a contact, inbox, and sent items (maybe outbox). This limitation has been removed in the current v9 version with OL 2003. It you are having intermittent behavior, verify the extension is not disabled in OL (Help-About-Disabled Items). Also consider removing the integration, and readding it. Lastly, disable anti-virus temporarily to see if this is the culprit.
Dave,
One thing you might want to check is verify that the folder permissions are set correctly on your preferences folders. Also, make sure that you have made exceptions in your antivirus for the act email engine. The other thing is that as for Palm support one of the cheapest and effective strategies is to use Companionlink (Express Edition $49.00). It is designed from the ground up to be a much more robust product than the basic functionality that ACT! Link provoides. Another bonus is that they will keep upgrading it to keep working with ACT! and it also works with just about every Palm and Windows mobile handheld out there. So, if you upgrade your Palm unit to a newer one or over to the Windows Mobile side you are still covered as the likelyhood that it will work with Companionlink is good. The odds that a Link product for an older version of ACT! will support a newer handheld model is much less likely than companionlink supporting a newer handheld down the road.
I have both Act 2005 and Act 2007 installed on 2 different computers. Mail merge is very temperamental on both versions. It usually tells me that some of my contacts don’t have e-mails listed (when, in fact, all of them do), but I have figured out how to get around that. The big problem, however, is sending e-mails that display the graphic content on them!
I have tried using a template (the Special Offer template, for example), but when I send the mail, the images (.png files) won’t display in Outlook or my web mail. I have tried modifying and creating a new template, adding JPEGs instead, but that doesn’t work, either. I tried simply inserting a picture using Act’s e-mail client, but, of course, that did not work.
I really don’t know what is going on. When I look at the HTML that is rendered, the IMAGE files don’t have extensions. What could be wrong? The HTML works, as the text colors and sizes change, but the image tag just doesn’t come through. At most, I can read the alternate text.
After reading through the posts, I was starting to wonder if 3rd party software would help, but I just don’t know.
Has anyone experienced this?
If possible, please e-mail me and let me know what I can do.
Sincerely,
Richard
What about for a brand new user. Is it recommended to use the Act-Outlook integraton for email or is it okay to just use Act. I really don’t like using all of the programs like that. Would rather just use 1. Also when installing Act 2008 will it import all of my mail and contacs, etc from Outlook?
Bob-
Good question and point. I prefer using the ACT-Outlook integration over the ACT email client because ACT email is part of the SQL database, and I find Outlook to be a fairly robust application most people are comfortable with. Also, since ACT email is anchored to SQL, if something happens to SQL, not only can you not access your ACT database, but also ACT email.
As for the import, it can, however it doesn’t import everything (like things you may have written in the description box of an Outlook contact), you need a third party tool to do a complete import.
Hope that helps.
-Travis
Bob,
I agree with Travis in that Outlook is both more polished, popular and familiar to most ACT! users than the ACT! email client however I forsee a possible return to the ACT! email client in the future. Yesterday I had another client that ran into the maximum PST filesize in outlook (the file that Outlook stores everything in locally without Exchange Server). Its true that ACT! email is tied to SQL and that it could go down if the rest of SQL goes down but it is much more capable of handling larger volumes of mail than Outlook’s PST files. Because ACT! only stores a link to an email and not the message body itself it should be able handle geometrically larger message stores.
Richard-
As for the “missing emails” be sure to do database maintenance on a regular basis, I’ve seen it correct many issues.
You might consider this KB article regarding images, it is more or less a
workaround.
You can find it here.
Also, keep in mind that images don’t always show up when you are reviewing your emails “sent items.”
I plan to share a video about a third party product that makes email easier in ACT (not SwiftPage), which I’m currently testing.
I just installed Act 2008 Premium upgrading from Act 2006 Premium for Workgroups.
I just installed it on my computer and created a test database with some contacts.
One of the main reasons we upgraded was for the Act-Outlook integration touted in the 2007 version. However, the integration fails.
When adding an address book from Act, it adds the database but then outlook tells me it was not configured correctly. When adding it from Outlook it does not even think the database exists. I spent an hour on Technical support with no results and no changes.
Act Email has always been loads of trouble for us but now it seems easier just to return the upgrade if we keep running into problems that we cannot feasibly solve.
Mark-
Did tech support verify with you that the ACT 2008 software was properly installed?
I have seen it working with this configuration quite well. I find one of the most common issues with erratic or non-functioning features is a bad install. You also have to make sure you prep your system properly before installing (like uninstalling ACT 2006).
Am currently using Act! 6 and would like to know if there are problems upgrading to Act! 10. Is this possible, what are the risks or experiences of others who have tried? Thanks.
I did not uninstall Act 2006. I did test the install on a different workstation, however, and it worked fine. This means that one of the .Net Framework components or something simlar that I use in application development is not playing nice with Act.
I moved on from that issue, as I do not need email integration and installed Act 2008 on a third machine to demo it to the Execs. Now the install had hiccups, so I did uninstall Act 2006 and then uninstalled SQL Server then installed 2008 (and SQL Server). But now the Add-in for the email integration (Act Extensions) does not even show up in the Add-In Manager.
In conclusion, it seems I have a different issue on each workstation no matter how I install it.
Alkes-
Thanks for the post, you might want to do a search on the blog (upper right) to see if there are articles here that might help you.
The short answer is yes, you can upgrade ACT 6 to ACT 2008, you just need to plan it out, and test it first, so you have a good understanding what to expect.
Allow me to encourage you to visit the following:
Considering Upgrading ACT software?
What about all those horrible reviews?
o Part 1
o Part 2
Hope that helps.
Travis
Mark-
Consider uninstalling again, from add/remove programs. Then download the act uninstaller.exe from the act.com support website, run that to clean up the registry, and completely remove SQL. After reboot, reinstall…
Report back, and let us know how it goes.
Mark,
I agree with Travis, make sure that you do download the latest version of the uninstaller from the website instead of using the one from CD. Also, there are a couple things you should consider doing before running the uninstaller: One is that it works best when the install has been done to the default location but more importantly make sure that you did not install ACT! to the root or mapped to a root folder especially if its on a server. This may cause unexpected deletion results where you may have to resource backup. The second thing which I came across once is make sure you backup the temp folder in the user’s profile and the Windows temp folder too. I had one workstation that lost its screensaver theme after running the uninstaller as another screensaver application that was installed previously left a needed data file in one of the temp folders and it got deleted with the rest of the files in the temp folder. Thankfully there was another copy available in the source download archive.
I use Act 2008 and Outlook 2003 with a Blackberry 8830. I found the synch only works if I use Outlook as the central depot (synch Act with Outlook; synch Outlook with BB).
Question — my Act contacts are in the Outlook Address Book (I did the e-mail set-up procedure), but how do I put them in Outlook’s Contacts area?
Is there a simple step I’m missing?
Steve-
Congrats on getting rolling so early with ACT by Sage 2008.
If you want to get your ACT contacts on to your blackberry, you have two choices. Over the air (cell network sync to ACT db), or cradle sync. Use the CompanionLink addon product I mentioned here. (And the coupon code) I’ve found it to be a solid product.
Hope that helps.
-Travis
I am using Act 2008 and Office 2007. I too suffered through he nightmare of ACT\Outlook integration with Act 2007, but am now very satisfied. I also have a Blackberry 8830 and use Companionlink to sync directly from Act to my device. Outlook is used for e-mail and “notes” only. Occasionally I will use Companionlink to sync my Act database with Outlook, just to keep it current, but I do not sync outlook to my blackberry.
After a horrible ACT! 2007 experience, i have to say i am very satisfied with the Outlook integration.
Bob-
Glad to hear you are satisfied with what you are finding in the ACT! by Sage 2008 upgrade.
When you think about it Sage has a tall order. Integrate with what some find to be a competing product (Microsoft Outlook), on the same platform (Microsoft Windows) as the competitor, using two key technologies of said competitor (Microsoft .NET, and Microsoft SQL Server).
Regards, Travis
I just purchased Act! 11 or 2009 and have taken the test flight. I tired to do a mail merge and after waiting 30 minutes for it to initialize decided the mail merge was a difficult point. I was only trying to use the command “write” and “letter” for one record. Perhaps I did something wrong and it is trying to merge the entire datebase?
It usually gives a progress bar when it is merging. If you just installed you may want to reboot and try again. If that doesn’t work, and you are using MS Word as your word processor in ACT!, you may have a corrupt normal.dot file (Word), which you could delete and Word will recreate it.
Hope that helps.