The newest release for Act!, Act! version 16, is less than a month away and I’m as excited about this version as a cat in a tuna-fish factory.
Here’s why this version makes me purr: Act! was acquired last spring by Swiftpage, a company dedicated to serving up new technologies the old-fashioned way – by providing the solutions customers want and need.
• ACT! 16 will include more user-requested features than any prior upgrade.
• The annual release cycle will be retired in favor of periodic Feature Packs.
• Feature Packs will be delivered to Business Care subscribers regularly.
• Future Business Care renewals will be significantly discounted to customers.
Small business solutions are part of Swiftpage’s DNA – Swiftpage lives and breathes marketing and sales (Sage’s métier was accounting; enough said). Swiftpage is investing in the future of Act!, developing new platforms, and changing how they deliver software to their customer base to keep it fresh and relevant.
Here’s what’s coming in Act! version 16.
- Calculated fields (currency, decimal, numeric, and date) to calculate:
- Commissions
- Age
- Days to renew
- and more . . .
- Includes Contact, Company, Groups, and Sales Opportunity record types
- No add-on software required
- Smart Tasks triggered by calculated results
- History list view for an instant report
- Filtered by keyword, type, users, and time frame
- Export to MS Excel to create pivot tables and charts
- Mobility upgrades
- Added Companies and Groups
- Mobile Email
- Improved form factor for Tablets
- Automated email for Act! Scheduler tasks
- Notifications for Backup success or failure
- Send to multiple recipients
- The ability to reschedule multiple Activities
- Select a group of tasks to reschedule to a new day
- Reassign Activities to new user
- Act! for Web enhancements
- Design functions for Admins in the Web Version
- Chrome browser support
- Avalable to Act!-Hosted users
- Company Management
- Rules-based Company creation
- Automatically creates Company records and links Contacts
- Links contacts to existing companies
- Office 2013 integration
- Create a lookup of results from Universal Search
Take a look at a video created by my Canadian colleague and friend, Len Kamerman. He’s put together a great, quick overview of new features, so check it out.
Act! is back! Come back next month for up-dated FREE Act! planning and design guides. If you want us to send them to you when our revisions are complete, sign up here and we’ll put you at the top of the list!