ACT! 2012 Pro & Premium Upgrade Guide from ACT! 2008 Latest ACT! updates at a glance: WORKS WITH: ACT! 2012 ACT! 2008 Compatible with Windows 7 (32 & 64 bit editions) Works with Microsoft Office 2010 Supports 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 NEW FEATURES: Search on ACT! attachments NEW IN ACT! 2012 ACT! Scratchpad application NEW IN ACT! 2012 Smart Task automated activity scheduling Web Tab for dynamic links to social media & other sites IMPROVED APPLICATION PERFORMANCE: Faster ACT! performance More intuitive user interface & faster look-up s Faster synchronisation processes ETENDED INTEGRATION: Improved ACT! & Outlook email integration including bulk attachment of received Outlook emails Outlook calendar synchronisation Integration with Gmail, Google Contacts & Google Calendars NEW IN ACT! 2012 Sage E-Marketing for ACT! Inbuilt integration with Sage 50 Accounts OTHER IMPROVEMENTS: ACT! report viewer & favourite reports option Customisable ACT! sales opportunity module: add new fields, tabs & apply custom sales layouts Direct Import from Excel ACT! import result summary NEW IN ACT! 2012 New contact and admin dashboards ACT! Welcome Page Preview document attachments Preact Limited 2012. All rights reserved.
ACT! 2012 Pro & Premium Upgrade Guide Compared to ACT! 2008, the latest 2012 edition features a more intuitive interface that feels familiar yet makes ACT! even easier to navigate. Other improvements include tighter integration with Outlook, enhanced search & look-up tools & compatibility with Microsoft Office 2010 & Windows 7. Improved User Interface The new ACT! interface makes navigation and look-up s even more accessible: A new icon bar provides quick links to everyday ACT! tasks including creating new calls, adding new contacts & logging new history entries New Outlook-style stacked left toolbar links to ACT! calendar, task list, companies, groups, reports & other ACT! views Universal Search New universal searches find ACT! detail wherever it s stored including attached documents. With more expansive searches, ACT! users keywords and phrases in attached files including: MS Word documents, PDF files & Microsoft Excel spread-sheets. Searches can be filtered by criteria including: groups, attachments, histories, data range, opportunities and companies so you ll quickly find all the entries you want to work with. Related tasks provide contextual links to popular ACT! functions from current view Collapse the left toolbar to maximise the ACT! workspace Easier ACT! Look-ups A new look-up box is built into the main interface enabling searches to be run from any ACT! screen The new look-up interface includes contains & starts with search options Previous Look-up option reverts to earlier search terms Run searches on groups & companies and switch between entities without having to run the same lookup again Results are weighted so matching items can be easily browsed with drill down for further analysis. Increased compatibility Compared to ACT! 2008 the latest ACT! 2012 software is compatible with: 64-bit editions of Windows Server 2003/2008 Windows Small Business Server 2011 Microsoft Windows 7 (32 & 64-bit editions) Microsoft Office 2010 Internet Explorer 9 UPGRADE YOUR ACT! SOFTWARE Preact Limited 2012. All rights reserved.
ACT! Smart Tasks ACT! Smart Tasks provide a step up from the activity series by enabling users to trigger new tasks based on field updates. In contrast to the ACT! activity series that is launched manually, Smart Tasks check contacts & automatically schedule activities in line with your criteria. For example, Smart Tasks can be applied to: Schedule a reminder activity 1 month before renewal date Alert sales staff with a high priority activity if an opportunity hasn t been updated within x days Trigger a service review activity 6 months after a new customer is added to ACT! Schedule an activity if a customer territory changes Tighter Microsoft Outlook Integration For users that love to work in Outlook, ACT! 2012 provides the best of both worlds by integrating the two more tightly to sync up contacts, calendars and emails. Integrating Emails: Attach mass Outlook emails to ACT! in a single click. Messages are automatically matched to ACT! contacts using email addresses. Schedule ACT! activities directly from Outlook. Choose an ACT! history recording option for each Outlook email sent. Contact Synchronising: Create new Outlook Contacts from ACT! & create new ACT! Contacts from Outlook Control which ACT! Contacts sync to Outlook Keep contacts up to date regardless of where they were created or updated in ACT! or Outlook More about ACT! Smart Tasks: Smart Tasks are applied out-of-the-box with no additional configuration. Set basic or advanced processes to run automatically - or activate tasks manually Easily edit Task workflows to fit your processes using the visual task designer. Enforce control over the timing, contact lists and opportunities for each Task. Pause & activate Smart Tasks & view pending Tasks Smart Tasks are designed to remove the administration involved in scheduling activities. With Smart Tasks settings reminders users are alerted when action is needed for proactive communications. Calendar Synchronising: Automatic ACT! & Outlook sync keeps schedules updated in both upon adding or modifying activities and meetings Calendars are always up to date, regardless of where entries were created or modified Choose which ACT! activity types are synchronised with Outlook Avoids duplicated calendar entries Choose which system calendar alarms appear in ACT! Welcome Screen The new welcome screen provides new & existing users with links to demonstration videos, new feature guides and popular ACT! functions.
Document Preview Preview attached MS Office and PDF files from the documents tab to see sale quotes, letters and other contact documents in a new ACT! preview pane. Customisable Sales Opportunities Compared with ACT! 2008 the latest edition includes a new opportunity module offers greater flexibility for managing sales: Opportunity views now look & behave in a consistent way to contacts, groups & companies Create custom opportunity layouts with new fields to capture more data about each selling opportunity Link histories & activities with an opportunity record Link multiple contacts to sales opportunities Apply personalise opportunity layouts with tabs, graphics and colours ACT! Scratchpad ACT! 2012 includes a new Scratchpad application enabling users to quickly jot down information and manage processes that wouldn't immediately be stored in the main ACT! database. As a virtual ACT! notepad, the Scatchpad is used to capture impromptu notes, contact detail and personal reminders - even if the main ACT! application isn't running. Google Integration Google Apps users can now integrate ACT! with Gmail, Google Contacts and Google Calendar: Gmail: Send & receive emails from Gmail or ACT! & save a history in the contact history for a complete view of all communications. Google Contacts: Create new contacts in either Google or ACT! and synchronise your entire database, or just a subset, with Google to access contact detail in either interface. Set priorities and check-off items once completed and send Scratchpad items to ACT! as activities, notes or history entries by assigning them to contacts. Longstanding ACT! users may remember the Scratchpad as an evolved edition of SideACT that last appeared in Version 6. Google Calendar: Sync ACT! and Google calendars automatically, or on-demand, and choose which ACT! activity types will sync to Google. Complete activities from either application and have updates applied when you next sync. Improved ACT! Dashboards New ACT! dashboards include: ACT! user status data, Remote ACT! database information, Recently edited &/ or created ACT! contacts, Opportunities open by product, Weighted opportunities by stage & more.
New ACT! Web Tab View social media interactions and check detail from other sites specific to the current ACT! contact: LinkedIn & Facebook - instantly gather more information about each contact including their interests and interact with them online ACT! E-Marketing (requires separate purchase) Swiftpage email marketing is now pre-installed with ACT!: Email merges using HTML templates Send bulk email batches Email reporting and prospect lists based on email opens & click thru audience actions Drip marketing email campaign automation See individual user actions in response to recent campaigns including email opens & clicks Google Directions - automated directions to the contact s address from your location Google & Yahoo - run automatic searches based on any ACT! field entry like a contact name, company name or postcode Other direct links can easily be added including: Twitter - search for any contact specific information Royal Mail - check addresses & postcodes online Improved Database performance Reduce the size of ACT! back-up files by excluding attachments. Faster synchronisation processes make it easier for remote users to keep up to date Automated Database management Use the ACT! Scheduler to trigger automated database back-ups, maintenance & calendar copying to protect data, minimise downtime and reduce manual tasks. Processes can be set on an hourly basis. (Only previously available in the Premium edition) Sage 50 Integration Includes in built integration with Sage 50 Accounts: Sync field updates between ACT! & Sage Accounts Access Sage financial customer data in ACT! Convert ACT! sales opportunities into invoices & orders for processing in Sage Other ACT! updates include: New ACT! Report Viewer including favourites option Simplified installation of remote databases with reduced number of clicks Improved data import including: directly import from Excel, add ACT! fields during the import wizard & see an import summary including error alerts. Extra ACT! installation information shows the time until completion and required components for install. This also provides early warning of a need to reboot as part of the install process. A new database summary provides clear visibility of all available ACT! databases to help users where multiple ACT! database exist. The summary also enables administrators share user access from a single screen. Send icalendar invites and notifications from ACT! Define one currency for each new ACT! database Improved calendar printing now includes contact names Send contact records in vcard format to access ACT! data in BlackBerry & iphone UPGRADE YOUR ACT! SOFTWARE