Item: Act! CRM
Rating: 7
Author: Laurence Sarner

Overall Satisfaction with Swiftpage ACT!

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I have been a user of Swiftpage ACT! in conjunction with the Sage family of accounting products. It has been used as our CRM system due to its integration with Sage Quantum. It was used across the whole organization to track prospects and associated activities/milestones, etc. The business need it addressed was fulfilling the Sage add-on functionality required for managing the sales prospecting process and integration with the Sales/Invoicing/Customer module.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Lots of fields for adapting the software to your own requirements.
Excellent tracking of activities/details in sales pipeline process.
Excellent robust reporting to provide a very clear picture of prospecting activities.
Tightly integrated with Sage Quantum accounting software to avoid double entry of prospect details into Customer/Sales module.

Cons

ACT! is a product that has been around a long time, and the interface is somewhat dated.
It isn't as easy to use as some of the newer products.
Social media marketing could be stronger.

Return on Investment

Integration with Sage accounting software eliminated double entry of prospect data into Customer/Sales accounting functionality. Thus, this provided a positive ROI.
Excellent flexibility in designing customer fields and adapting to unique requirements of a specific business/industry make for a positive ROI and further business goals/objectives.
Weakness in providing as much social media functionality as other competing CRM systems not as desirable if one's business is a heavy user of social media and uses that as an integral part of their marketing/sales strategy.

Alternatives Considered

Method, Salesforce and Zoho CRM

Swiftpage ACT! was selected and used as it was tightly integrated with Sage accounting products and the fact that the product had a long history and a strong position in the marketplace for two decades. As more products have emerged in conjunction with the advent of cloud computing, ACT! has had a lot more competition. Many other products have come to market that are easier to use and "bolt on" seamlessly to other cloud platforms and ecosystems such as QuickBooks Online. Although ACT! has been a trusted product and is well known, it is not necessarily the most appropriate or best selection of a CRM system depending on the client's existing platform and industry.

Other Software Used

QuickBooks Online, Intuit Payroll

Likelihood to Recommend

Swiftpage ACT! would be well suited if you are using a desktop computing environment. ACT! is an old product and they were on the desktop for many years (and still are). Also, ACT! would also be well suited if you are not as concerned about implementing a CRM product that might require a little more training (e.g. if you had employees/salespeople that needed to be trained). Also, ACT! seems to be more generic than some of the industry focused products you see nowadays. For example, MethodCRM works well with non-profits that are on the cloud.

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Swiftpage ACT!...A Tried & True Staple Of The CRM World

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