ACT or OverACT (Interact ACT! 2000 5.2 Upgrade)

Member Name: mattygroves10

Product:	Interact ACT! 2000 5.2 Upgrade
Date:	04/07/05 (164 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Many features (maybe even too many for the small user), fairly easy to navigate

Disadvantages: More features than a small company needs . Limited search capability

Introduction
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have used a couple of Contact Management Systems - a few years ago I was the Multiactive Maximizer guru at my place of employment. We were a multi-user environment, and I looked after 'Max' I've long since left THAT job (thankfully - but that's a long story), and now work 'here'. Here, I use Symantec ACT! 2000. All by myself (we're a small company).

Like Maximizer, ACT is a contact management system. It is a database designed (primarily, but not exclusively) for sales people and account handlers. It allows you not only to enter the contact details for prospects, clients and suppliers, but also to record notes, assign tasks, track sales opportunities (a feature I don't use), attach documents, create mail merge (form) letters, assign user fields (to indicate, for example, a company's market sector) and generally co-ordinate activities between sales people and their contacts. It also has a calendar and to-do list, to manage your days, weeks and months.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What this Review Doesn't Cover
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Given that I work in a very small company, I am the only salesperson, so co-ordinating sales activities amongst a sales team is, in my case, a bit irrelevant. We are currently also not using the graphing tools, nor the advanced integration facilities with Outlook. We are, at the moment, underutilising the Groups facility (which lets you group contacts into, well, groups of similar contacts), and I have never used SideACT, and so know nothing about it. I also haven't used the reporting features.

In short, this review covers what I do know, and leaves out what I don't!! It also only covers what I use regularly - remember, the manual, which in theory, covers everything (note the 'in theory') is 462 pages long. I don't want to write 462 pages here, and nor do you want to read that much!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
System Requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These come from the user guide:
- Pentium 133 MHz or higher processor
- VGA or higher resolution monitor
- At least 32 MB of RAM (memory)
- At least 50 MB hard disk space (plus extra to allow for your database of contacts, notes and stuff)
- CD-ROM drive (for installation)
- Windows 95 or above (or NT 4.0)
- "A mouse or other pointing device supported by Windows" (duh)

They also recommend a modem and printer (again, duh), and the software will support various email systems/servers (i.e. Lotus, Outlook etc), Microsoft Office, WinFAX and Microsoft Fax and networks.

The database can standalone or be shared within a network.

More boring technical information can be found at http://www.act.com/, along with the usual marketing bumf begging you to buy their products.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Elements I Use
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Calendar and Task List
------------------
A calendar is, in my opinion, one of the most useful items a work-place computer user can have - especially if said person is in Sales. The Calendar in ACT is integrated with the contact list, so that you can assign tasks to specific contacts (although it is more fiddly to have unassigned tasks - like Bank Holiday - than it is in Max). This means that when I come in in the morning, I call up my Task List and have a list of all the people I need to call, write to or generally pester for the day.

Once I have done that task, I can then mark it as complete quite easily (click in the checkmark box) and enter details and notes as to how the call, task, meeting or whatever went. These are recorded in the Notes (which see).

I can view my calendar in a daily, weekly or monthly view, and print off what I see. I can set recurring tasks (tasks that occur more than once - daily, weekly or whatever). I can set tasks both from the Contact window or from the Calendar window, and I can either specify a time to do the task, or not, as I see fit.

You can prioritise tasks into HIGH, MEDIUM and LOW, and you can set an alarm (something I only recommend if the task is time critical - otherwise you'll have alarm boxes popping up constantly).

You can set the nature of the task - a CALL, MEETING or TO-DO, and you can decide how long the task will take.

What I think
==================
The Calendar and Task List windows are easy to view and to use. Double clicking works in many places, as does right clicking. In the Contact window, there are little icons (i.e. a telephone for a call) that you can push as well. The downside for me is that it's fiddly to set a non-contact connected event (like holidays), which, as far as I can tell, involves more key or mouse strokes, as when you set a task, it automatically assumes that the task is connected to the contact you are on.

The Contact Window
------------------
This is where all the company and personal details are. The screen is split into two halves - the top half contains the name, address and general contact details (this can be customised as well). This half is constant in the Contact View - you always see it.

The bottom half are tabbed windows - you have little tabs at the bottom to view various snippets of information. These are (on my set-up, anyway) Notes/History, Activities, Sales/Opportunities, Groups, User Fields, Phone/Home, Alt Contacts and Status (most of Status is automatically generated).

Entering a new contact is straightforward - there is a little icon at the top to enter a brand new contact, and by right clicking or using the menu, you can duplicate a contact as new if you are entering much the same information.

What I think
==================
Here's where I prefer Maximizer. I don't like tabbed windows - I would rather see the most important information all at the same time (Max allowed for both tabbed windows and tiled windows - I don't think ACT does).

Customisation is fiddly, as is Group Edit (when you want to edit a whole bunch of contacts en masse - to change a User Defined Field, for example). Max was 'two tiered' - that is, you entered a company, then you entered as many contacts beneath that company as you wished. ACT is single tiered - although their is a tab for alternate contacts, ACT, when you are merging, for example, always assumes the main contact is the person to whom you wish to write. It will also attach notes and activities to just the 'main' person. If you want multiple contacts, you end up entering a company twice, which is a pain if you need to call them - knowing who to call.

The Contact List
------------------
This does exactly what it says on the tin - it's a list of either all your contacts, or a subset (created using Lookup). Again, you can customise what fields show up in this list by simply right clicking in the menu bar, and you can, of course, print the list.

You can search from either the Contact View or the Contact List View. I generally do so from Contact List (unless I'm looking for one specific contact). Here is another thing that annoys be about ACT - you can't search by 'doesn't equal' - you can add to a list (you've done a search, of, say, all contacts in London, and want to add contacts in Basingstoke), and you can narrow a list down (you've searched for London, but now you only want SW postcodes), but you can't ask for all contacts that are NOT in London, except by sorting and excluding. Bummer.

You CAN search for empty fields, or only for full fields, which is useful if you are sending a bulk email, for example - you can exclude all contacts without an email address. (As an aside, ACT does integrate with Outlook and other email clients, so you can email directly from ACT).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In Conclusion
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I realise ACT is a powerful contact management system that we are under-using. As a small company, we simply don't need all the features included. As I work with it more, I will no doubt find and use more of the features.

Like the game Go, ACT is fairly easy to learn, but takes longer to master. I wish it had tiled windows, and was easier to customise. I wish it were easier to create activities which aren't connected to contacts. I like the ability to create LONG notes, and the easy of creating activities that ARE connected. I LOVE the task list - a list of everything I have to do today.

Not surprisingly, there are good and bad aspects of this package, as there are with pretty much anything. Personally, given the choice, I'd go with Max. But that's me. Max is (I believe) more expensive (although I didn't buy either package - it was here when I got here), and needs LOADS of space if you're running the SQL database (as opposed to their proprietary BTRIEVE). More people are familiar with ACT - it is more common.

Which you choose is dependent on your resources and your budget. All in all, ACT works. It does what it says on the tin. Mostly.

Cheers,
Kate

Summary: A useful, relatively inexpensive contact management system.

Variety of features:
Reliability:
User friendly:
Installation:
Update possibilites: