Company
Product
Price
In-Depth Review
Executive Summary

In-Depth Review

ACT! by Sage Premium 2008

Sage Software Inc.

8800 North Gainey Center Drive, Suite 200
Scottsdale, Arizona 85258 USA

Telephone: 480-368-3700
Fax: 480-368-3799
Toll Free: 888-855-5222
Email:
Web: http://www.act.com/

About the Company:

Sage Software began not as one company, but as the efforts of many entrepreneurs who built their successful products and businesses with a sincere focus on their customers. Today, our company represents the culmination of that combined entrepreneurial spirit, drive, and vision.

For more than 30 years, companies that have joined the Sage Software family have assisted small and medium-sized businesses with a wide range of business management applications and services. With roots reaching back to the 1970s, our company has grown and developed to meet the evolving needs of our customers through a combination of internal product development and acquisition.

Currently we support more than 2.4 million customers in the U.S. and Canada. Our sole focus is to provide business management software and services to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Our applications cover a full range of business requirements including accounting, customer relationship management, contact management, human resources, warehouse management, specialized industry needs, among many others. To address our customers' needs, we market our applications in two customer-focused divisions: Small Business and Mid-Market.

Our parent company, London-based The Sage Group, plc., reaches a global client base that numbers 4.7 million SMB customers worldwide. It serves these businesses through more than 8,000 employees in operations in North America, the UK, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, South Africa, Australia, and various countries in Asia.

See also:

http://www.sagesoftware.com/index.cfm

http://www.sage.com/

Product: ACT! by Sage Premium 2008

Current Version: 10.0

Category: On-Premise SOHO CRM Solution

Sub-Category: Contact Manager

Client Platform: Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Vista

Server Platform:

Database Platform: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition

About the Product:

Renowned for its ease of use, ACT! can be tailored by each user and integrates with the tools you use everyday, such as Microsoft® Office, Lotus Notes®, and handheld devices. ACT! is an easy to use solution that offers a low total cost of ownership.

ACT! works in a single user or networked environment for up to 10 users. If you need to network more than 10 users, please consider ACT! Premium for Workgroups.

ACT! allows you to:

Centralize critical contact and customer information and stay organized
Manage and grow business relationships through top-notch communications
Prioritize your work to stay on top of appointments and tasks
Forecast and track sales opportunities for an improved bottom line
Access and report on information quickly for a complete view of customer interactions
Stay productive by taking critical information on the go

For further details about ACT! by Sage Premium 2008, please see:

http://www.actoffer.com/slpremium/icon_descriptions.aspx?adcode=A19814E#icon1

Price:

For pricing details, see:

http://estore.act.com/?campaign=buynowtop

In-Depth Review:

We recently honored this program with our Willy award for:

Best On-Premise SOHO CRM Solution

A fully updated review of this product will be available in January - 2008!

Strategic Vision

Tactical Execution

Core Capabilities

Total Relationship Management

Looking Forward

Have a question about this program?

Then please just email me your question! If the answer is short & sweet, I will pop you back an answer. If the question requires further research, I will look into it and post the reply on my blog, AskRichBohn.com, to share with others. As always, you can email me at rich@sellmorenow.com !

Executive Summary:

The program does a great job with the following:

The program does an acceptable job with the following:

The program needs improvement with the following:

Company – Financial Condition
Company – Management Team
Sales & Marketing Strategy
Pricing
Credibility
Research & Development Strategy
Software Quality
System Architecture
Customization & Adaptability
Application Integration Capabilities
Business Process Management Capabilities
International Support
Ease of Use
Documentation
Training Support
Technical Support
Interaction Capabilities
Database Synchronization Capabilities
Implementation Issues
Account Management
Contact Management
Activity Management
Time Management
Outlook Integration
Knowledge Management Capabilities
Reporting Capabilities
CRM Analytics
Word Processing & Office Support
Marketing Support Capabilities
Field Sales Support Capabilities
Call Center Support Capabilities
Sales Impact
Sales Management Capabilities
Partner Management Capabilities
Customer Support Capabilities
eBusiness Support Capabilities
Back Office Integration
Executive (C-Level) Decision Support
ASP Support
Industry Specific Solutions
Third-Party Product Support

Order In-Depth Review R1268 Price: $97.00

This review covers ACT! by Sage Premium 2008 (Version 10.0) and is 1xx pages long. This review was last updated in April 2008. Please note: If this link is inactive it means that we are about to release a major update of this review! Please check back again or send an email to be added to the waiting list!

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Short List

If you are considering this program, you should also look at these other CRM solutions:

Company	Product
Avidian Technologies	Prophet
Frontrange Solutions	GoldMine
Legrand Software	Legrand CRM
Maximizer Software	Maximizer

Recommended Add-on Accessories

Company	Product
Mastermind Software	ACTIVATOR!

Rich's Recommended Web Sites

ACT! Online Community

The ACT! Online Community’s mission is to enable all users of ACT! to engage and interact with one another through a variety of different communication forums and tools.

ACT! Online Community Features

In addition to subject matter expert blogs, the ACT! Online Community includes:

ACT! Forum – Discussion board for individual and small business ACT! users to post ideas and questions, and share information about their ACT! experiences.
ACT! Premium Forum – Discussion board for people using ACT! Premium in a workgroup or corporate environment.
ACT! Developer’s Network – Discussion board for product developers regarding the ACT! architecture, technology questions, and the development of ACT! add-on solutions.
Best Practices Forum – Discussion board for ACT! Online Community members to share sales and marketing best practices, how-to’s, and a variety of support tips.
How do you ACT!? – Discussion board for ACT! Online Community members to share their success stories.
ACT! Extras – An additional section providing links for ACT! eNews, submitting feature requests to the product development team, and providing feedback and suggestions about the ACT! Online Community.

http://community.act.com/

Z-Firm

Developers of some of my favorite ACT! accessories: FaxRush, ShipRush and EmailRush

http://www.zfirm.com/

ASDS Computer Company

Steve McCandlish has been developing great add-on tools for ACT! as long as anyone!

http://www.asdscomputer.com/

Information Optics Corporation

IOC Campaign is your silent marketing assistant, constantly sending the right information to the right people at the right time.

http://infooptics.com/