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(More customer reviews)I would like to tell you about my experiences with ACT! but also provide some additional information about this program since there seems to be a lot of MIS-Information flying around. I do not work for this company and am not affiliated with Sage in any way. I am just a user. I have written database applications in the past.
I have been an ACT! 3.0 and then ACT! 6.0 version(s) user for a number of years. When I tried to upgrade to ACT!2006 there were some problems. I decided not to upgrade and wait until the problems were resolved. I recently purchased ACT! 2010 and am fairly happy with it.
These types of programs like ACT! are database applications. They are written using a database engine that lies beneath the surface of the part the user sees. This engine could be MS Access, MS FoxPro, R:BASE or some other program. Up until about 2004, ACT! was based on a MS FoxPro engine. In this situation, the database and the underlining engine are essentially one program. In about 2005, the company switched to using MS SQL server. In this situation, the application the user sees and the database engine are separate programs. The user's application (the part you see) is written using what's known as a "front end" program like MS Visual Basic, MS Access or maybe MS Visual C. (MS = Microsoft). The reason for the separation of the two sides of the program, is to allow the engine and the user's data to reside on a server somewhere other than the users computer. This way, several users can conveniently access the data at the same time. MS SQL server is a tricky program to talk to and it takes some time to get this right. This probably explains some of the problems with earlier versions.
Having two separate programs, however, slows things down a bit. There will be a slight delay compared to a single database application. This is similar to when you look up books on Amazon.com. Sometimes it does not respond right away. Usually though, the network traffic will be much less at your location than on the internet.
That all being said, ACT! 2010 runs pretty good, but you need to be aware of some things in order to get good results. I am using it on my own computer, not on a server, and have Windows XP, SP4.
1) The CPU in your computer should be fairly recent. Like at least 2.0 GHz for a desktop.
1) Because you are loading up two programs at the same time, you need more memory. I originally had 1 GB in my laptop and the ACT! program did seem a little slow. I upgraded to 4 GB (3GB usable) and there was a noticeable improvement in the response time. Like 25% better. Memory is cheap right now.
2) I ran Sages Hotfix#4 and that seemed to help a little too. Available on ACT! website.
3) Running the Windows defrag utility may help if you haven't done this lately. Having a fast Hard Drive is good - 7200RPM.
4) Because I have wide screen, I was using oversize fonts (120 dpi instead of 96 dpi). The program did not like this and ran "funny". I had to reset my video card back to the standard 96 dpi. When I did, the results were much better.
5) Like many other software, ACT!2010 has the ability to run 3rd party plug-ins or add-ins. My version came with a trial version of a marketing program (one of the tabs). I found that this slowed things down some, especially at boot up. I deleted it using some instructions I found on the user community forum. It was simple to do and it helped.
Since I can write database applications myself, I considered preparing one for my own use. This is a large undertaking for anything similar to ACT's feature set so I decided to just buy one. I looked at probably 30 programs. Commercial ones, free, shareware, trial copies and so on. I found that compared to the others, ACT! is especially well designed and laid out and is really the best program of its kind. When combined with Outlook, you really have a powerful setup for managing your daily activities.
Setting up ACT! to run really smooth make take a little more than some other stand alone programs, because of the two part database I mentioned earlier. For this reason, you might want to contact technical support to help you if you have tried my suggestions and the program is still not running right. If you are not technical, there are many consultants available who know this program well.
As far as technical support goes, when I had the problem with my font size, I was baffled about it because it didn't show up with any of the other programs I use. I called the Tech support line and spoke to someone there who assessed my problem and instructed me on how to solve it. I did not say anything about my engineering background so as to see what level of people they had answering the phones. I was pleasantly surprised at the high quality of the tech support people. They know their stuff very well.
All in all, I would recommend this program highly to users who have the appropriate hardware to run it fast and who will spend a little time (or money in the case of a consultant or extra tech support) to set it up properly. The program will repay you with lots of sales leads and help you manage your day better.
One final comment. When upgrading from earlier versions, this is not a plug and play process. You need to carefully think about doing this, review the on-line notes, manuals and so on. There is a users forum with helpful info. ***BACK UP*** your database before proceeding with any upgrades, including backing up the Outlook data if you are going to work the programs together.
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