Act-On Software vs. Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Act-On
Score 8.3 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Act-On is an adaptive marketing platform designed to drive personal and purposeful multi-channel marketing. Its foci are inbound and outbound marketing, for enabling a tighter alignment with sales and turning data into actionable insights.
$900
per month (starts at 2,500 active contacts)
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations (or Dynamics AX) was an ERP product in the Dynamics family. It has been split into separate Dynamics 365 products to provide more flexibility to customers, allowing users to pay only for the functionality they need. Microsoft Dynamics AX will reach end of support in 2021, and end of extended support in 2023. Financial tracking and budgeting features are now found in the newly launchedN/A
Pricing
Act-On SoftwareMicrosoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
Editions & Modules
Professional
$900
per month (starts at 2,500 active contacts)
Enterprise
$2,000
per month ( starts at 2,500 active contacts)
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Act-OnMicrosoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional DetailsThe Professional package starts at 2,500 active contacts, 3 marketing users, 50 sales users and 30,000 API calls per day. The Enterprise package starts at 2,500 active contacts, 6 marketing users, 100 sales users and 30,000 API calls per day. Annual contract required.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Act-On SoftwareMicrosoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Act-On SoftwareMicrosoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.8
113 Ratings
0% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG email editor8.1112 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic content8.192 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content7.292 Ratings00 Ratings
Landing pages8.1108 Ratings00 Ratings
A/B testing8.195 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization7.2103 Ratings00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting8.1112 Ratings00 Ratings
List management8.1111 Ratings00 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences7.187 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.1
113 Ratings
5% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
-
Ratings
Lead nurturing automation8.1104 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading8.1104 Ratings00 Ratings
Data quality management8.1102 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks8.195 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.5
77 Ratings
2% below category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
-
Ratings
Calendaring6.88 Ratings00 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing8.176 Ratings00 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.1
71 Ratings
8% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
-
Ratings
Social sharing and campaigns8.169 Ratings00 Ratings
Social profile integration8.163 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.1
114 Ratings
8% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.3
14 Ratings
18% above category average
Dashboards8.1109 Ratings9.012 Ratings
Standard reports8.1112 Ratings7.014 Ratings
Custom reports8.184 Ratings9.014 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.9
107 Ratings
4% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
-
Ratings
API8.167 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals8.171 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizability8.189 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com8.165 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM8.136 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM7.129 Ratings00 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.8
8 Ratings
20% above category average
Pay calculation00 Ratings9.07 Ratings
Benefit plan administration00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Direct deposit files00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
7.0
13 Ratings
3% below category average
API for custom integration00 Ratings5.013 Ratings
Plug-ins00 Ratings8.912 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
6.0
14 Ratings
30% below category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings5.113 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings7.014 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.2
15 Ratings
7% above category average
Accounts payable00 Ratings7.015 Ratings
Accounts receivable00 Ratings7.014 Ratings
Global Financial Support00 Ratings8.06 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers00 Ratings9.07 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations00 Ratings7.010 Ratings
Configurable Accounting00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
Standardized Processes00 Ratings8.99 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.7
13 Ratings
10% above category average
Inventory tracking00 Ratings8.013 Ratings
Automatic reordering00 Ratings9.011 Ratings
Location management00 Ratings9.011 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
7.6
13 Ratings
2% below category average
Pricing00 Ratings8.012 Ratings
Order entry00 Ratings9.011 Ratings
Credit card processing00 Ratings3.09 Ratings
Cost of goods sold00 Ratings8.010 Ratings
Order Orchestration00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Subledger and Financial Process
Comparison of Subledger and Financial Process features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.7
10 Ratings
16% above category average
Billing Management00 Ratings8.99 Ratings
Cash and Asset Management00 Ratings8.010 Ratings
Travel & Expense Management00 Ratings8.97 Ratings
Budgetary Control & Encumbrance Accounting00 Ratings8.97 Ratings
Period Close00 Ratings8.07 Ratings
Project Financial Management
Comparison of Project Financial Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.9
7 Ratings
16% above category average
Budgeting and Forecasting00 Ratings9.06 Ratings
Project Costing00 Ratings8.06 Ratings
Cost Capture00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Capital Project Management00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Customer Contract Compliance00 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Project Revenue Recognition00 Ratings8.95 Ratings
Project Execution Management
Comparison of Project Execution Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.8
5 Ratings
25% above category average
Project Planning and Scheduling00 Ratings8.95 Ratings
Task Insight for Project Managers00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Project Mobile Functionality00 Ratings6.04 Ratings
Definable Resource Pools00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Grants Management
Comparison of Grants Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.7
4 Ratings
14% above category average
Award Lifecycle Management00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Procurement
Comparison of Procurement features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.7
7 Ratings
22% above category average
Bids Analyzed and Compared00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Contract Authoring00 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Contract Repository00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Requisitions-to-Purchase Orders Integrated00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Supplier Management00 Ratings8.06 Ratings
Risk Management
Comparison of Risk Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.8
2 Ratings
30% above category average
Risk Repository00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Control Management00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Control Efficiency Assessments00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Issue Detection00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Remediation and Certification00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Logistics
Comparison of Logistics features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.5
6 Ratings
21% above category average
Transportation Planning and Optimization00 Ratings8.06 Ratings
Transportation Execution Management00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Trade and Customs Management00 Ratings8.95 Ratings
Fulfillment Management00 Ratings8.04 Ratings
Warehouse Workforce Management00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
Manufacturing
Comparison of Manufacturing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
7.7
6 Ratings
2% above category average
Production Process Design00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Production Management00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Configuration Management00 Ratings7.04 Ratings
Work Execution00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Manufacturing Costs00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Supply Chain
Comparison of Supply Chain features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
9.2
6 Ratings
24% above category average
Forecasting00 Ratings9.95 Ratings
Inventory Planning00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Performance Monitoring00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Product Lifecycle Management
Comparison of Product Lifecycle Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
9.0
3 Ratings
21% above category average
Proposal Management00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Product Master Data Management00 Ratings9.03 Ratings
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User Ratings
Act-On SoftwareMicrosoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(219 ratings)
8.0
(19 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(112 ratings)
8.0
(4 ratings)
Usability
9.1
(32 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(14 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(13 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(39 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.7
(4 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
9.3
(16 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(22 ratings)
7.3
(2 ratings)
Configurability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.4
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Act-On SoftwareMicrosoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
Likelihood to Recommend
Act-On
Act-On simplifies the creation of landing pages, web forms, email campaigns, and other types of marketing automation. Designing a customer journey using the workflow builder (a nurturing flow) is possible. It is used in various ways and in a variety of contexts. Tactical's knowledgeable support team helped us unlock Act-On's potential for complex integrations and marketing campaigns. In some areas, it would be beneficial to improve functionality.
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Microsoft
It integrates fully with the other Microsoft software we use daily, and this coordination speeds up our work and gives us the agility to run easily. For example, in a purchase inquiry, the customer, after submitting a request, identifies the teams that should work on the project, and if they need further review by other people, they are added to the process, and everything is managed seamlessly rather than the sales process. Get the result as fast as possible.
Read full review
Pros
Act-On
  • Establishes a simple but very decisive way of how to perform specialized marketing work.
  • It includes the monitoring of advertising networks or account management on digital platforms and social networks.
  • The support is solid; it takes all the suggestions and doubts I have regarding the software.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Microsoft Dynamics AX's scalability to meet our regional office needs provide flexibility to the team's requirements.
  • Combined with Citrix Xenapp, the application offers seamless access for users on high latency unreliable network connection to the application.
  • Application maintenance and updates are easy which makes it possible for us to manage remotely considering the servers are located in a remote Asia site.
Read full review
Cons
Act-On
  • The designer tools, especially for emails, were often difficult to use. The formatting of the text would be all over the place and change / refuse to change at random. Moving boxes around was shifty and sometimes nearly impossible. It just wasn't customizeable enough. No "undo" functionality either.
  • The only way to collect information expansively over time (there's a term Act-On uses for it, I can't recall) where it adds questions to the form each time a user fills it out, is if the person were to fill out the same form multiple times. I know this does happen for some websites/resources, but as a company that wanted to collect new information each time someone filled out any form, regardless of the resource or the URL, that was simply not an option, and that doesn't really make a lot of sense. I know it's not really possible to track someone but if they filled out the first part of the form and then it added new questions to answer, and then they submitted and got through the gating, that would actually be helpful.
  • There was no "trash can" of sorts in case you deleted something by mistake. This could be so stress-inducing if it was a major project. My coworker did this once, contacted Act-On, they couldn't even recover it.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • MRP can be slow to adapt to changes in actual production or supply chain transactions.
  • Setting up number sequences seems a trivial matter, but these numbers ID transactions once they are in the ledger and are key--easy to miss this point in the implementation process.
  • Bank rec being easily automated and able to quickly plug into a bank back end to get data is not the best.
  • Payment processing can be 'clunky' based on checks, ACH, Wires...as some of these items are not triggered out of the box in AX, bur are easily added --talking ACH and Wires specifically.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Act-On
It's my single biggest asset in my current role. With limited resources, its enabled Anachron to punch well above our weight marketing wise and although we're still at the beginning of our journey I know the system can scale with us
Read full review
Microsoft
Microsoft Dynamics continues to evolve by bringing more functionality to the customer. Also there are several independent software providers that offer a wide range of solutions for vertical markets.
Read full review
Usability
Act-On
It's good, but not quite brilliant. Some parts of the interface are still a bit outdated. The product has been evolving very fast, though, and I believe in a few months it will be up there with the best of them, interface wise as well.
Read full review
Microsoft
Overall the product does what we need it to do in order for us to function as a company. While there are some concerns over ongoing costs, the belief is, once we have it fully acclimated to our business the cost should settle into alignment with our original expectations. The new features that are consistently being added do add value to the product as they are usually customer request directed.
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Reliability and Availability
Act-On
I have always found them quick to respond to my query by web inquiry. In those instances when I call, I have always reached help quickly. They are conscientious and skilled in discussing my concern and finding a solution to my problem. Other tech organizations should use Act-On as a model for top-notch customer service.
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Microsoft
Some integration and high volume ramping challenges, particularly with BizTalk and SQL Server, but getting sorted out. Outages over time appeared to be more dependent on integration complexity than AX MES.
Read full review
Performance
Act-On
Great for the most part. Sometimes there are little lags, but that's likely because I'm requesting to see a lot of data at one time.
Read full review
Microsoft
Some integration and high volume ramping challenges, particularly with BizTalk and SQL Server, but getting sorted out. Outages over time appeared to be more dependent on integration complexity than AX MES.
Read full review
Support Rating
Act-On
Since we start using Act-on for ourselves and our clients, we have been supported very well. Often we need to integrate with legacy systems and we find the support team on our side during the whole endeavor. Always asking if they can help us further, always willing to do a better job. The support of Act-On is one of the main differentiators
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Microsoft
We use a 3rd-party Microsoft Partner for the system. They are responsive and very knowledgeable. While costs have been mentioned several times in this review they are very aware of costs and have developers who are more economical they use to help offset the level of work required to meet our changes and fix our issues.
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In-Person Training
Act-On
Dan D. was great. He took the time to understand how I needed the program to run, and was very flexible to our special CRM setup.
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Microsoft
It took a lot of work, but Microsoft ultimately did a good job with in-person training, including being onsite in multiple global locations for extended periods.
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Online Training
Act-On
Act-On had a lot of resources, and their staff was great at answering any questions I had to make sure we got started on the right foot. Looking back, I would have preferred some additional training sessions since we didn't have any previous experience with Marketing Automation and best practices.
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Microsoft
Our solution deviated from a number of key out-of-the-box standards that were included in Online training. We just used that for introduction to the general functionality.
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Implementation Rating
Act-On
What impressed me most is that Act-On showed full committment in making our implementation successful, even when it required additional support from their team. This gave me a lot of warm and fuzzy feelings. Most other software software vendors are not anywhere close to being this responsive and effective
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Microsoft
Some rough spots, but ultimately worked out. The contract didn't appear to be structured to support the level of overlapping facility deployments required to meet timeline commitments. Merging cultures on the program was also challenging. Overall, not an easy implementation by any stretch. Everyone did the best they could.
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Alternatives Considered
Act-On
Act-On is easier to use than Marketo, but not as visually appealing and user-friendly as HubSpot. It's much better than Pardot, as Pardot feel clunky every step of the way. SharpSpring is comparable because of its price point but surpasses Act-On in its tools and intuitive interface. We selected Act-On because of the pricing model and thought all things would be close to parity with other options. It depends on the team you have. If you have developers and a marketing team that knows some html/css, you can get by with Act-On.
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Microsoft
I was not part of the decision making process to select Microsoft Dynamics AX, however, I do know that an exhaustive search was done and many options were considered alongside Microsoft Dynamics AX and I feel that the right decision was made in choosing this solution.
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Scalability
Act-On
Before I feel like I need more features, the Act-On customer service reps are contacting me telling about new features as part of my account.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Act-On
  • With the Automated Series, we were able to put in place campaigns that generated revenue that took no time to continue running once set up. This was a positive feature allowing employees to work on another project while the campaign ran on their own.
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Microsoft
  • With the robust built-in reporting we were able to drop an external reporting platform that costed about $40,000.
  • API integrations have saved manual entry and reduced having to hire 2-3 people to manage data.
  • Several administrators and developers are required for this which costs about 200-300 thousand in employee costs.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Act-On Screenshots

Screenshot of List Segmentation - Segmentation using behavioral, demographic and/or firmographic dataScreenshot of the Quickstart PageScreenshot of Landing Page Composer - landing pages are designed with a drag and drop function