The ACT! User Group is currently on summer hiatus. Our next meeting is September 14, 1999. If you would like to be notified of future ACT! User Group meetings, send an e-mail message to info@etechsys.com.

MEETING FEATURE: EncycloSmart from MarketingSmart

How many times have you looked for a piece of sales literature in your office storeroom or searched for a presentation on your PC and had a hard time finding it? And once you found it, how sure were you that the document you found was the "latest and greatest" version?

Mike White of Atlanta-based MarketingSmart described and demonstrated EncycloSmart, a new, online "marketing encyclopedia". EncycloSmart is an outsourced service which is particularly valuable to organizations where many individuals must have access to current versions of price lists, sales brochures – even PowerPoint presentations. Typical users include sales forces, distributors, and franchisees/franchisers.

Mike explained that a marketing encyclopedia is a new Internet approach to a very old and simple concept: the marketing document storeroom – the storage place for the marketing literature, marketing documents, price lists, and other marketing documents a marketing department or sales group produces. A marketing encyclopedia also replaces the decades-old document distribution and document delivery systems that rely on mail and overnight transportation services. With a marketing encyclopedia, your document delivery and document distribution is handled securely over the Internet.

In the past, most marketing encyclopedias were a custom combination of tools such as Lotus Notes connected to an Internet web site. EncycloSmart is a hosted, secure, web-based marketing encyclopedia. A marketing encyclopedia provides for the central storage of all marketing documents in a secure database accessible on-line over the Internet. The marketing encyclopedia also disseminates marketing documents and marketing collateral to users of the system.

Mike also explained that a marketing encyclopedia is an efficient way to resolve version control problems and to deliver or distribute marketing brochures and marketing collateral to sales people, distributors, remote employees, and even clients.

Posting files in the EncycloSmart marketing encyclopedia is more secure and more convenient than posting the same information on the company web site. First, access to documents and other files can be controlled on a user-by-user basis. Moreover, individuals (competitors) browsing your web site cannot access your marketing library. EncycloSmart is designed for the non-technical user. Library files can be downloaded with a click of the mouse.

Adding new users, building a library, posting and changing content, and organizing and grouping information is easily accomplished without involving the company webmaster. Another feature enables you to easily alert selected users via e-mail that a new piece of literature has been added. Setting up new users is a snap; just select the administration level and choose which documents the new user may access.

EncycloSmart costs $19.95 per month per user. There are no setup or additional fees per user or per license. For more information visit: www.etechsys.encyclosmart.com/.

Q: Are there any simple expense report applications that will work with ACT!?

A: Check out "Quick Expense". It’s not particularly simple, but it will interface with ACT!. Visit the (ACT!) add-on page at www.symantec.com for more information.

Q: Can you synchronize ACT! schedules with MS Outlook?

A: Scheduling information can be exchanged between ACT! 4.0 and Outlook 98 enabling you to use ACT! 4.0 to schedule an activity for a contact in an Outlook database and vice versa. This function must be managed via e-mail. Just check the "Send e-mail message to activity participants" check box on the Advanced Options tab in the Schedule Activity dialog box. Choose the "vCalendar Standard" as the attachment format. (The vCalendar Standard is compatible with Outlook 95.) Upon the receipt of this e-mail message, the Outlook user’s calendar will be automatically updated. Note: this function does not work with Outlook Express - just Outlook.

Q: How can I sort my ACT! 4.02 database by create date?

A: You can easily look up contact records created within a specific range of dates using the command: LOOKUP, BY EXAMPLE. However, ACT! cannot sort contact records by create date. One way to work around this is to export the lookup to a spreadsheet format like Excel. Use the command is FILE, DATA EXCHANGE, EXPORT to export the data to a text file. Then open the file in Excel. Use Excel’s sorting functions to sort records by create date. Be sure to include the create date field as one of the fields to be exported.

OUR NEXT MEETING

I hope you are having a great summer! The next meeting of the ACT! User Group will be held on Tuesday September 14, 1999. To receive meeting reminders call E Tech Systems at 847-352-4770 or e-mail us at info@etechsys.com.

The ACT! SIG of the CCS holds meetings on the second Tuesday of the month, eight months of the year. SIG meetings are free and open to all present and potential CCS members.