Several times a month I receive a call from an organization that has lost their ACT! password.  Sometimes this happens when the ACT! Administrator leaves the company – and takes his password with him.  Fortunately we are able to recover those passwords and send the new administrator on their way with the advice to have two administrative users in the future “just in case.” However, many times... 

OK, I’ll admit that as a 30 year user of, and consultant for, Windows products I might be a bit prejudiced but can anyone explain to me the current obsession with Apple products?  My local Apple store had a line wrapped around the mall before the holidays, and I witnessed similar occurrences at the Apple stores in New York.  Apparently the iPad was the gift of choice this season surpassing the... 

Many of you have been asking me when my next “ACT for Dummies” book is coming out.  I’m pleased to announce that it’s here – although maybe not in the same format as you might expect. Anyone familiar with the publishing industry – or the local bookstore for that matter – knows that the industry has undergone radical changes in the last several years.  For... 

Register Now to Attend. Join Karen Fredricks, owner of Tech Benders and the author of 7 books on ACT and the ACT! lynda.com training videos as she hosts the ACT 2012 Fort Lauderdale Road Show at the Westin Hotel on Thursday, July 28 from 1-5 PM. The Florida ACT! 2012 Road Show is an opportunity to meet with people from Sage Software and to learn to new ways to better implement ACT! in your company.... 

Having written numerous books on ACT! software I frequently receive phone calls from strangers that go something like this: “We purchased ACT! a few years ago and it’s just not working for us.  No one is using it.  We’d like to switch to ABC_CRM.  They gave us a really great demo and I think it’s exactly what we need.” My advice is that rather than investing in more CRM software they need... 

A good CRM implementation should be making you more efficient and saving you a lot of time.  After all, time is money. A common question I’m asked is whether there is an easy way to add the incoming leads you receive from a website form directly into an ACT! database.  My answer is a resounding YES. Many ACT! users don’t realize that the ACT! E-Marketing functionality does a whole lot more than... 

As most of you know, I’m probably one of the biggest ACT! cheerleaders around.  However, sometimes I run across an ACT! feature that makes me slap my head and wonder “what were they thinking??”  A case in point is the Documents tab.  I love the ability to create shortcuts to my documents so that I can easily access them from the contact’s Document tab rather than grappling around searching... 

I’m fairly good about getting ready for the holiday season.  In fact, I have a pretty set schedule:  decorations go up the weekend after Thanksgiving and come down the weekend after New Years.  Most gifts are purchased via the Internet on Black Friday.  I even stock up on little “stocking stuffers” just in case I left someone off my list.  But, like everyone else, I find myself at the mall... 

Absolutely the best part of being an ACT! consultant is that I work with a wide variety of industries. “Out of the box” ACT! is suitable for just about any business you can think of; with a bit of customizing you can create your own unique database at a fraction of the cost of buying an industry specific solution. This week alone I worked with the manufacturer of medical supplies, a commercial... 

I am thrilled to announce that my two latest books have been selected by Packt  Publishing for inclusion in their R.A.W. (Read As We Write) program.  The two books, ACT! by Sage 2011 Cookbook and ACT! by Sage Reports and Dashboards Cookbook, are designed to provide step-by-step instructions so that you can master ACT as quickly and efficiently as possible. The RAW program is an innovative publishing...