E  Tech  Systems

 

Chicago  ACT! USER GROUP

Meeting Notes

Meeting Date: September 1999

 

NEWS YOU CAN USE:

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ACT! ACT! 2000 is here! ACT! 2000 is here! ACT! 2000 is here! Read all about it below. Our next user group meeting is November 9, 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: ACT! 2000 Part 1

After much anticipation in the world of contact management, ACT! 2000 has arrived. Steve Stroz, ACT! Certified Consultant told all at our September kickoff meeting. ACT! 2000 is the fifth major release since ACT! first hit the market way back when. If you are a current ACT! user, you can upgrade for $99. Worried about being the first one on your block with newest, latest version? Hate that feeling of being a beta tester? Relax, ACT! 2000 will work without a hitch. In the old days, Contact Software (and then Symantec) used to announce the proposed feature set at the same time as announcing the release date. They would then work like crazy to meet the deadline knowing that they could work out the kinks later. (This is why software "patches" were invented.) Now, they are very careful not to announce the features of a new version until its release. The result is that new applications are much more stable since they don’t deliver anything that hasn't been fully Beta tested.

So, should you upgrade? Well if you're a sales type, grab your wallet and head over to your nearest software supplier. ACT! 2000 has been tailored just for you. Or, if you are working with up to 10 users who need to synch, run out and pick it up, too. Synchronization has been improved.

First, the Bad News

Actually, there's not much except for the fact that ACT! 2000 can’t read old database formats without converting them. This means that every workstation that accesses your central (network) database must run the same version of ACT!. Also, WordPerfect is no longer supported. If you are committed to WordPerfect, just stay with ACT! 4 – it’s Y2K compliant.

Now, the Good News

ACT! 2000 boasts a bunch of enhancements. Here is a sampling:

  • Integrated 11-stage sales cycle. ACT! 2000 permits you to track each contact's progress through an 11-stage sales "funnel" - from "new opportunity" to closing the sale. Plus, ACT! can generate a graphical report showing you the number of contacts at each stage of the cycle. This report (called the sales funnel - see figure 1) can be run for your whole database - or any portion.

Figure 1 - the Sales Funnel
  • Forecast sales easily. You can now track multiple sales opportunities for any contact. New reports provide you with "snapshots" of your sales efforts allowing you to manage your sales process more efficiently.
  • Schedule a series of pre-defined tasks over and over with ACT! 2000's Activity Series. You'll reduce keystrokes and errors and improve your productivity.
  • Improved integration with Microsoft Outlook. Share calendars, contact data, and more.
  • Improved lookups. ACT! 2000 gives you more filters which enable you to better search for specific information. In addition, you can now perform a lookup by sales stage to find out which contacts are at each stage of the sales process. And, you can now search contact records for e-mail addresses.
  • Organize contacts by account. ACT! 2000 now supports groups within groups. Groups can now have their own notes & history, sales/opportunities, etc.
  • New sales opportunity tab. The fields on this tab (see figure 2) allow you to track which product you are selling to whom and at what price. There's a field for the probability of closing the sale as well as for the current stage of the selling cycle. And, if you enter the unit price and quantity of a product you're selling, ACT! 2000 automatically multiplies the two together calculating the total amount.

Figure 2 - ACT! 2000 Main Screen - Sales Opportunity Tab

The sales opportunity tab allows you to track the specifics of each sale. If you look closely at the contact view screen, you'll notice a new "status" bar at the left. Here you'll find shortcuts to the most popular commands.

But Wait, There's More!

ACT! 2000 let's you schedule reminders to perform database maintenance, run group membership rules, and back up your data. By the way, ACT!'s backup feature has been improved. Besides backing up your database, the backup function now backs up documents and templates. Plus there is a "Details" field on the Activities tab for recording an unlimited amount of text for each activity. Also, you can’t delete a lookup if all contacts are selected. This is a new safety feature.

Open Forum Q&A

Q: Will ACT! 2000 convert an ACT! 2 database.

A: Yes.

 

Q: Can you display notes/history and activities on the same tab.

A: No.

 

Q: With notes open, how can I speed up the rate at which I can move from contact record to the next?

A: To speed up, filter your data to show only the most recent notes. Records with lots of notes will slow things down. Click on the Filter button (located in the upper left hand corner of the Notes/History tab) so that you can see the "Dates to show" field. Use the "Date Range" option to specify that only the most recent notes be displayed. Also, try displaying all types of information. Using filtering to reduce the amount of information displayed often results is slower performance.

 

Q: Is there one file that contains the ACT! 4.0 menu customizations? I am trying to replicate my custom menus on several workstations.

A: Yes. The actrese.ems and modmenu.act files contain these customizations. Locate them and copy them to the same folders on your other machines running ACT! 4.0. Your customizations will be transferred.

OUR NEXT MEETING

The next meeting of the ACT! User Group will be held on Tuesday November 9, 1999. Our meeting feature will be Upgrading to ACT! 2000. 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.

E Tech Systems is a Sales Force Automation consulting firm which has installed, configured, and customized ACT! for dozens of companies and trained thousands of ACT! users. Alan Lee can be reached at E Tech at 847-352-4770 or via e-mail to alee@etechsys.com.

© Copyright 1999 by Alan M. Lee. Other not-for-profit computer users groups may reprint this material providing credit is given to the author and CCS. Rights for publication reserved by Alan M. Lee. ACT! is a registered trademark of Symantec Corporation.

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