Who Says You Can’t Take Your Act! With You?
Feeling confused about moving your business to the clouds?
Everyone wants their Act! data “in the clouds” but not everyone knows what that means – or costs. Maybe you’re thinking of buying a new phone or tablet – or you already have one – but have no idea how to get your Act! data to magically appear there. Perhaps you work in one office and a co-worker works...
Silly Answers to your ACT! Questions, Part 2
Last week I shared a story about an ACT! user who thought he had a major problem which turned out to have a rather easy, if not silly, answer.
My second story involves an ACT! user who could not open his ACT! database; he kept receiving an error asking him to verify his user name and password. He insisted that he “did not have a password” and that ACT! “must have just stuck one in there.” ...
Silly Answers to your ACT! Questions
As an ACT! consultant I am often called on to answer ACT! questions. And yes, there is a charge for my services. Generally, ACT! users reach out to me after they’ve gone through a variety of attempts to solve their issue. Sometimes the solutions to the ACT! technical support issue are quite involved and incorporate solutions that might be beyond the realm of what a typical user can accomplish...
Back Your ACT Database in the Clouds
Any Administrator or Manager user can create an automatic schedule for creating backups using the ACT! Scheduler. Combine this power with your free Drop Box account to save your database “in the clouds.”
Download and install Drop Box.
In ACT, click the Tools menu, and then click ACT! Scheduler. The ACT! Scheduler – Create, Edit or Delete a Task panel appears.
Click Create a task...
Adding Holidays to ACT Calendars
Every year many of my clients ask me if there is a way to get holidays loaded into their ACT! database. Unfortunately, holidays do not come pre-loaded in the ACT! calendar. Obviously, some holidays such as the Fourth of July and Christmas are easy to add manually. However, other holidays such as Easter and Chanukah are almost impossible to add without at least a peak at another calendar. I’ve...
Creating an ACT Zip Code Query
Several years ago a marketing company offered to do a mailing for me to all businesses within a 50 mile radius of my office. This sounded like a great idea until I realized that areas to the east and south of me contained nothing but the deep blue sea, and a large portion of the area to my west consisted of Florida swamplands. Obviously the marketing company wasn’t familiar with the geography...
I’ve Lost My ACT! Password!
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...
Creating an ACT Link to a Client Folder
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...
Closing Up Those Database Cracks
I see it all the time. The typical CRM user fires up his software and is greeted by numerous alarms. At that point he deftly hits the “Select All” and “Snooze” button. Drip. Drip. I can almost hear important information dripping through the cracks of the database!
Oh, alarms – how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways. First of all, too many of you routinely snooze your alarms. ...
Synching ACT to Your Smart Phone
I ran a webinar this week on synching smart phones to your ACT database. Presenting with me was my old friend Rushang Shah of Companion Link software. Rushang looks like the guy selling replica watches out of the trunk of his car; the last time I saw him he must have had a dozen different cell phones in his brief case. Although I’ve used Palm, Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices in the past,...
