Sage ACT! for Web, iPad, Safari, and Mobile Devices

Would you like your own Sage ACT! SaaS (Software as a Service) database?  How about putting Sage ACT! on your Mac, iPad, or Handheld Device?


Consider getting your ACT! data on the web.  We inadvertently created something of a splash with a recent email including mention of the web feature in ACT! 


With Sage ACT! Premium (all versions*) you can host your own database on the web.  That's right, everyone at your organization can log into your ACT! database whenever and wherever they would like.


Take ACT! with you wherever you go.


No monthly subscription.  You own it and it doesn't cost extra. 


All you need is a server enabled with IIS and Sage ACT! Premium.  The database you would see online is the same database you access on your server, desktop, or laptop now.  Changes made on the web are visible on the network immediately, and visa versa.

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Test Drive

Go to the official Sage ACT! webdemo and try it yourself:

1. Open Internet Explorer or Firefox
2. Go here
3. Username is "Chris Huffman" (no quotes)
4. No Password
5. Allow Popups
6. Give it a whirl

http://afwdemo.act.com/apfw/

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Sage ACT! for Mac, Safari, iPad, and handheld devices (smart phones).

This segment of the market is very fluid with products arriving in succession.  What solution you choose will likely depend on your existing scenario.  Let's run through a few.

Sage ACT! Connect.  Launched August 1, 2011 and working with Sage ACT! 2011 and Sage ACT! 2012, SAC offers connectivity to all devices with supported browsers, including Safari (for your Mac, iPad, or iPhone).  The data available in the browser comes from the most popular fields and features in Sage ACT!, including standard contact fields, activities, notes, and history.  See more on our Sage ACT! 2012 page.  Get $10 off an annual subscription from Zip City, normally $69.95/user/yr. for $59.95.

Log in to your desktop or laptop and run ACT! as though it is native on your device.  Using LogMeIn Ignition, a $30 app on the iTunes App Store seen here, above, you can easily set up a link from, say, your iPad to your Sage ACT! database.  Any  version and ALL features.  How?  Because you are logging into your own machine wherever it may be.  All you need to do is make sure your main machine is turned on and you will have access to your entire desktop, including email, Word, your add-ons, your custom layouts and fields, and custom tables.  GoToMyPC has a similar solution.


**UPDATE**  We recently learned of another solution.  The $10 version of PocketCloud allows the user to change screen resolution on the tablet, allowing for easier visual access.  This is our new favorite solution. 

Handheld Contact.  HHC recently released a version of their sync service for iPhone and iPad, adding to Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and Treo support.  No Android.  This is a sync product (not interactive and live) with broad acceptance among mobile users.  HHC requires some configuration on your server, but it can support many users with a centrally administered service.  HHC also maintains a separate calendar and address book from the native device calendar and address book.  So, as an HHC user, you will have two of both.  Some prefer this and others don't.  The premium service is about $240/user/year.  $179 for the first year.

DejaOffice from CompnionLink.  CompanionLink has been the best-selling add-on for ACT! for decades.  I love the guys who run the show over there and I can see their office across the Willamette from my desk in SE Portland.  However, the feedback I have been getting from clients indicates the solution has lost a bit of their former luster.  Comments about duplicate contacts and recent declines in what had been the best tech support in the ACT! add-on universe come up more now than in the past.  That said, the solution for handhelds is updated so frequently that one can say that there is no combination of Smartphone and version of ACT! that CompanionLink cannot work with.  All versions.  All phones.  Want something special for your Android, iPhone, or iPad?  CompanionLink has a free app on the iTunes App Store, DejaOffice, that offers basic ACT! functionality with an internet connection.  It even tracks expenses!  $129, one time (no subscription), links DejaOffice to your ACT! database with CompanionLink Pro.  You might consider buying their premium support package which includes initial setup (lowering risk of dupes), which is cheaper than having an ACC do it, but lifts the overall cost of the solution.

In Development.  The ACC community does have a resident Apple developer working on an application dubbed ACT! for the iPhone.  The working release title is iTrACT! and we are looking forward to updating this page in August 2011 with notes on its features.

Citrix Hosted Solutions.  If your organization has a number of users who wish to access a virtual desktops in the cloud, then a hosted Citrix solution may be what you seek.  The promise of this solution, like Ignition and GoToMyPC, is that your mobile force will be able to live on nothing but a tablet.  No more laptop bootup wait time.  Prices vary depending on what apps are being hosted, but you would have to own the software that is being hosted on your behalf.  The more apps, the more you pay.  Office, Sage ACT!, and QuickBooks, for instance might run $70/user/month.  But if you are a mobility freak and like the instant-on your tablet provides, this is becoming a very popular solution for teams.  Call us if this is something you would like to investigate.

While this list doesn't include all applications for remote connectivity with Sage ACT!, it represents 99% of the market.  Short of a native application built by Sage for your device these are your options.  

Happy mobility!

*versions...
ACT! has supported web-enabled databases since 2004.  If you have your original disks of the better version of ACT! (equivalent to the current Premium product) you may have the installation files for Web Access.

Prior to ACT! by Sage 2010 you are stuck with what you have as Sage no longer supports those versions.  ...and 2010 will be sunsetted later this year.  IF your organization has additional users who would need licenses AND if you are using a sunsetted version THEN you will want to upgrade.  We can set you up so contact us now!

Bevan Wistar, ACC

Zip City

Portland, OR

503-381-5654

bwistar (at) zip-city DOT com

Building the Perfect ACT! Database

It's all about relevance.

When we step back and look at our Sage ACT! database objectively, we want to feel as though it invites us back in to continue working.  Can our database do this?

In a word, yes.  It can.

The path your organization may take to get to this state may seem like an arduous one after reading the rest of this post, but the benefits are tremendous.  Imagine a database that reflects our mission, our processes, and the unique relationship we have with our customers and prospects, and know that hyper-relevance is possible in the ACT! database we use every day.  We can wake up to it, and much later we can put it away only because we have other things to go and do.

Because ACT! enjoys a uniquely powerful design engine we will look at implementing ways to make your database so compelling a tool you will keep it in front of you everywhere you can.

Relevance.  When we look at our ACT! screen and see a couple fields we rarely use, we tend to ignore the fields around them.  Good design principles would have us rearranging the fields in such a way that the fields mimic our actual use habits, allowing us to pay attention to information grouped in more useful sections.

The ACT! layout designer is a very powerful tool, flexible enough to allow us to place objects anywhere, resize them as we need, and even put boxes around related information for clarity.  We can keep it clean and line everything up.

From your Tools menu, select Design Layouts, and choose the entity where you would like to start.  Contacts and Opportunities tend to be the most popular areas to customize first.  Make sure to save your layout with a different name.

Define Fields. Analyze your business and analyze the processes you use to close business.  Does your existing database include all the ways you would categorize your contacts?  ID/Status and Referred By may not be enough. 

Consider adding a field like Role to describe whether a contact is a "Decision Maker", an "Advocate", a "Gatekeeper", or a "Speedbump", something we would not find on their business card, but should be right next to their Title field on your ACT! layout.

Opportunities.  No one ACT! feature offers us more than this entity offers. No other feature is so universally underutilized.  Now is a great time of the year to think deeply about how you segment your revenue and the processes you use to address each area of segmentation. 

How transactional is your business segment?  I use a sliding scale for my clients that range from 1 (the equivalent of buying a cup of coffee = highly transactional) to 10 (brokering a bank sale = highly relational).  Where does your business sit?

Write down your processes (or flow chart them).  When you think about how you work, think of the gates you pass through rather than the tasks you must complete.  These gates will become the stages in your process.

If you have a varied catalog, like:

• Sales and Service
• Free Samples
• Buy, Lease, Charter
• Business Development and Renewal
• Clients and Candidates
• Grants, Donors, and Membership

...then each of these requires a separate process with its own stages.  Make sure to keep it simple. Four or five stages is the most you will want to track.

Spreadsheet Rut.  Who doesn't love MS Excel?  But, really? 

If you are tracking data against your accounts in Excel, Access, Filemaker, or some other application, then you should take comfort that ever since ACT! 10.03 custom tables work inside of ACT!, eliminating the need to keep a separate set of analytics running independently of your real data in ACT!

Custom tables can roll up the math and track independent data points against all related entities in ACT!  I have written custom tables for Event Management, Software Support (of course), Insurance, Commissions, Project Tracking, Automobile, Order Entry, and more.

The data output can be routed to reports, Word, Email, and yes, Excel.

Custom tables deserve an post all its own, so look for more later.  If, in the meantime, you have questions about building your own perfect database, then please feel free to contact me.

Good design is good business.

Bevan Wistar
ACT! Certified Consultant
www.zip-city.com
bwistar at zip-city dot com
503-381-5654