Act!

Pros

The fact that I was able to use the product immediately with no instruction was a great pro. Entering data and retrieving info about a client is easy, and building history of calls, Email messages, letters in a record is great.

Cons

I am not happy with support as all they do is provide a fix when there is a problem, but not direction in how to build reports or use other functionality. I have had to fix the same problem with direction from their service group several times. If I ask for help with reports they tell me I need to find a consultant for that.

Pros

I like the fact that a team of 5 can share effectively in real time, I like the ease of changing layouts and adding fields, and with Seamless the ablity to easily prdcue high quality documenation. It's link to outlook and ODBC is good and it is a stable, which being at the core of our business is a good thing

Cons

There are many things I think we could do to be more productive but can't, and we do see fields being changed or lost "by themselves". The web version was a poor version of the Pro, and we haven't been able to make it available when offline, which is a frustration.

Alternatives Considered

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Act!

Pros

I have used this produce since the 90s and its consistency of value has remained. It's easy to use after learning just a few basics. Reports are easy to generate and are customizable to your field.

Cons

Only that it did not link to specialized software I was using in the field.

Pros

Contact management, diary management, Opportunity management.

Cons

I need my CRM to integrate with Google so that potential customers can book appointments with me. The software is sold with Google synchronisation. I even asked if the software would synchronise with Google. 4 months later the software still does not synchronise and they cannot give any answer as to when it will be fixed. No worries I think, I could synchronise with Microsoft's Outlook instead… Except that doesn't work either!

Pros

I loved ACT when I used to use it. It was by far the best CRM at the time.

Cons

Last time I used ACT and granted it was many years ago, it wasn't cloud based. At one point my computer crashed and I lost my entire ACT database that hadn't been backed up in the last few weeks. I was devastated and decided I had to switch to something that was in the cloud.