Sage ACT! 2007

Great Product - Most Features For the Money!!!!!

Posted Oct 4, 2007 - I could not run my business without ACT!, I have been a user since version 4.0 and now run v2008 and love it. My entire staff loves it. Upgrading was a bit of a challenge at first because I had older computers, but once I upgraded some of the older PC RAM, all was running better than ever. I love the scalability (we have a large database) and even better is the integration with Office, mainly Outlook. So much better than it ever has been. Keep up the good work ACT!

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THE BEST SO FAR!

Posted Aug 15, 2007 - I have used ACT! for years and installed/used every version since ACT! 2000. I can honestly say that ACT! 2007 is by far the best version they have put out. It is amazingly flexible. I love the seamless email integration with Outlook. Much better than previous versions. Our whole company runs on it - 15 users. Our office staff records each telephone call into the contact history and is empowered to schedule/reschedule our consultants on the fly. And with an additional dashboard plug-in I am able to measure how many hours we are scheduling and billing - and seeing incredible bar graph reports and pie charts. I honestly couldn't run my business without it. I also love how I am able to sync all my ACT! data to my TREO700p.

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DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT

Posted Nov 8, 2006 - We have been working with this program for almost a year and we have finally realized it will never work as advertised. The most recent problem is it does not work with any pocket pc smart phones.

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Avoid 2007 at all costs. They've ruined a good product.

Posted Jan 10, 2007 - Avoid this monster at all costs. I've used Act! for a full decade, but this version -- and the nightmare of trying to get tech support -- have caused me to abandon Act! altogether. It wouldn't synch correctly with Outlook (improved Outlook integration was one of the major "new features!") I had four calls to tech support, lasting (by the actual clock) 55 to 80 minutes, and none of the problems was ever solved. And don't even think of trying to make it talk directly to your PDA, because ActLink doesn't recognize Smartphones (a reality that they reveal only at the end of the installation process). The installation process itself is endless, partly due to the move to SQL. But once it's installed, it takes forever to load. Email capabilities, which were slow and buggy in 2006, are no better in 2007. Along the way there were bizarre roadblocks, such as refusing to continue installation until I gave a password for the previous database that wasn't even password protected (Because of this, I had to export from Act 2006 to a comma-delimited file and start from scratch.) Another "say what?" example: When installing ActLink, it makes you first uninstall "other synching programs." So naturally, I had to uninstall ActiveSync. Then, next attempt to install, ActLink announces that it can't continue without ActiveSync! Aaargh! The first time I called for the free startup support (which has been reduced from 60 to 30 days), it took 19 minutes before the person quit trying to sell me add-ons and paid support and actually transferred me to tech support. It was another 30 minutes before they answered the phone. Keep in mind, all this was for a "power user" of previous versions of Act! I've recommended it for years and used it for very sophisticated tasks involving multiple databases. Those days are over, however.

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Problems

Posted Oct 14, 2006 - just got Act 7. So far it screws up everything else, things stop working, system hangs, only when I open Act 7. Not with act 6. It happens as soon as I open Act 7, goes away when I reboot. I expect I'll send it back and eat the restocking fee. Good luck to you.

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Agreed. Don't buy.

Posted Dec 29, 2006 - Just tried to download an update (prompted by ACT 7.0) and it couldn't even download. It hung up in the middle and quit responding. E-mail seems to conflict with Microsoft Outlook. Am gravely disappointed. Would have preferred to stay with ACT 5.0 except for the lack of support available on it.

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DON'T BUY THIS - YOU WILL BE SORRY

Posted Apr 7, 2007 - It stinks. It hangs up the computer and is not compatible with other programs. It even has a key to fax, yet the feature is NOT available. It was a horrible experience and a waste of money. Use the older Symantec versions and don't let this company rob you.

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No No No No!

Posted Nov 19, 2006 - The best Act! program is Act!5. All of the newer ones, and specialized ones are the same thing with preloaded front pages that you can make yourself in Act! 5. Act 6 works ok, but it has bugs in printing, searching, and interfearing with other streaming programs. Act! 7 is just plain stupid, big, and there is nothing new that is useful.

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Record loss!

Posted Apr 30, 2007 - I had all the usual problems with Outlook, but most worrying was that a mail merge that ended in my system crashing, seemed to result in hundreds of records being deleted unintentionally! BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN USING THIS SOFTWARE!!

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You can't learn software by osmosis

Posted Oct 10, 2007 - You might call me a "Dummy" (after all, I've written 9 "For Dummies" books) but, in my opinion, ACT knocks the socks off of its competition. It has more security features and functionality than BCM, and is much easier to use than salesforce.com (not to mention less pricey). So why all the negative reviews? First of all, mastering any software application requires much more than using the software; buying a scalpel doesn't make you a brain surgeon. I don't "assume" to know everything about a piece of software just because I've "used" it for years. Most of the problems mentioned throughout these reviews are based on "user error;" in fact, most users never both to perform routine maintenance on their ACT database and then wonder why it's become corrupted. As for tech support - that's the way of the world. We want rock-bottom hardware and software pricing, but then we expect to have top-of-the-line support? I can't imagine a better way yourself and your business organized than ACT. Karen Fredricks Author, ACT for Dummies series

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A complete disaster

Posted Feb 16, 2007 - I have been following the degredation of ACT for years. 2007 is not an improvement over 2006. In fact, they somehow managed to make it even buggier, something I didn't think possible. It's very difficult just to get this software to install/uninstall, that's how incompetent the folks at Sage are. Do yourself a favor and stay away from ACT. As much as it pains me to learn a new CRM, it's time to look around for alternatives. Maximizer 9 gets much better reviews.

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DON'T DO IT! You will hate yourself later

Posted Jan 30, 2007 - WOW ... what a disappointment. They have a great sales team and sell the product dirt cheap, but you get what you pay for. This upgrade has been nothing but terrible. I am going with another CRM (not saying which one so that this remains unbiased). Below are a couple of notes to consider: * Poor / non-existant connectivity with Outlook * Does not synchronize properly (at least since I have had it) * Customer service - try calling their support line, you will be in a loop from hell -- note that you will receive a sales associate immediately * Their SQL Server config is a drain on your computer - I am way over their minimum required specs and my computer consistently "freezes" DON'T DO IT!!! Don't just take my word, look at all of the reviews on Amazon, ere.net, here and others. I have used ACT V6, 2005 and this is the latest upgrade

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Terrible

Posted Feb 7, 2007 - Just installed this product and my laptop keeps freezing. I was told that they made 2007 better than previous versions. This is not true. I did a sync with Outlook for calendar and contacts and it took hours. I only have 217 contacts to sync. Very, very disappointed. I haven't even tried to sync it with my Blackberry and I don't think I will. Would not recommend.

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Bugs!!

Posted Dec 4, 2007 - I had hoped this bloated code would work properly with Outlook without freezing. Of course it still doesn't. Apparently SAGE doesn't utilize Q/A staff. To release a program like this with the number a freezes and problems is unforgivable. When will we see an update? An inline release? Who knows? I wonder if this is the last gasp for this formally great product.

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Stay Away

Posted Oct 9, 2007 - Want to spell check your e-mail before sending. Sure, turn on spell checker and watch this program do no more than count the words for you and tell you that you have 0 spelling errors. Regardless of what gibberish you type. Want to create a group of 1000 contacts, sure. By try to schedule a meeting with them all you will quickly find that you need to manually cut and paste 120 or so contacts at a time. Open up e-mail, what? Nothing! Blank screen. Close e-mail, open up again, no? One more time, OK now we are getting somewhere. Look, there in the history, you sent an e-mail to this contact. Great, let me see what it was all about. Crash. Restart ACT. Try again. Crash. I guess I will never see what was in that e-mail that I sent to my customer. Do yourself a favor, stay away like others said!

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