Still using ACT! 6.0 or 5.0?

If you plan on buying a new computer, here are a few things you should know: ACT! 6.0 has limited compatibility with Microsoft Vista and is not supported. Also ACT! 6.0 is not compatible with Microsoft Office 2007.

ACT! by Sage 2009 with 4Advisors 3.0 Addon for ACT! is compatible with Microsoft Vista, Office 2007 and on 64 bit computers! ACT! is loaded with great new features such as Advanced queries, improved workflow process, dashboard, secondary contacts, company records, dynamic groups, security, highly improved email integration with Outlook, and so much more.

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10 Critical things you can't do with ACT! 6.0 but you can with ACT! by Sage 2009 or ACT! Premium Solutions.
1. Security - Anyone with rights to your ACT! 6.0 database files can take a copy of your ACT database without your knowledge and the password is easily hacked. The new ACT! includes a secure Microsoft SQL database, password rules, and 2 additional user rights for more added security. ACT! by Sage Premium adds field access restrictions and the ability to restrict access to certain contact records within a database. Securing the database with ACT! by Sage Premium now extends to selected contact, company and group records plus field level controls (open, read-only or hidden). Contact and field access rights can now be assigned to individual users or set by team.

2. Use Microsoft Outlook instead of ACT!’s email client. Stay in Outlook and easily attach sent and received emails to contacts in your database. Attached email access can be set private or public to secure what is shared with fellow database users. You can even create an Outlook Rule to automatically attach incoming emails to the desired ACT contact..

3. Unique Activity Types and Custom Priorities - Your activities are more than just Calls, Meetings, and To-Do's and your priorities are not just High, Medium and Low. ACT! by Sage 2009 allows you to create unique activity types and your own Priorities for those activities (instead of just High, Medium and Low). Now, your most profitable time and activities are prioritized with much finer detail. For example, set activity types for Birthdays, Anniversaries, Money Due, Service, Review and more!

4. Enhanced Activity Series – Activity Series in ACT! 6 automatically assign ALL activities to the scheduling user based on a start date or due date. ACT! by Sage 2009 allows you each activity to be pre-assigned to any user in the database so that each activity is scheduled for the correct user. The enhancement also allows each activity to be scheduled before or after a ‘target’ date negating the need for scheduling multiple activity series. Also, rescheduling any activity in a series will cause ACT to prompt to reschedule 1. all activities in the series or just the single one being rescheduled.

5. Company Records - You can manage a company’s record and not just individual contacts. New company records provides combined views of all the history, activity, notes, opportunities, and documents for all the contacts of a company, project, division segment or territory. Track employee benefits, qualified plans and other employer related data inside of the Company record.

6. Dynamic Memberships for Groups and Companies - ACT 6 allowed group rules to assign specific contact records into groups. However, these membership rules would not remove those contacts from the group if they no longer met those rules. ACT! by Sage 2009 provides a new dynamic membership where contacts are added or removed automatically based on the fields criteria. This happens automatically too, not just when the group rules are executed. It also allows date fields with date ranges to automatically populate. Birthdays, Anniversaries, Reviews, RMD and more date fields can automatically get populated.

7. New Field Types, Dropdowns, More Elegant Design - ACT! by Sage allows new fields such as add logical check-box fields (yes/no, true/false), memo (unlimited text) and even picture fields to your database. Drop down lists are also easier to manage.

8. Multiple secondary contacts - ACT! provides a secondary contacts table allowing unlimited additional contacts to be added within an existing contact primary record.

9. Dashboards/Opportunities/Reports – ACT! now includes a snapshot view of your important data, all within one view including graphs for better understanding. Opportunity management functions in ACT 6 were very limited and passed completely unused in many ACT databases. The new opportunity management design has evolved greatly, rich in flexibility and reporting features, now allowing you to stay on top of your progress and objectives.

10. Scheduled Automatic Backup and database maintenance feature is now included in all versions of ACT! 2009. Set the time and frequency and the backups are done automatically in the off hours when no one is in the database.

ACT! by Sage now uses Microsoft’s SQL database engine and Microsoft .NET technology to open up features and integration with other programs. As a result, there is a richness of add-on products, tools, techniques and enhancements far beyond anything possible on the old ACT! platform.

ACT!’s commitment to Microsoft SQL means that the database is far less likely to get corrupted and works much more efficiently for larger amounts of data.