Nucleus research for ACT! 4

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MISSTEPS TO AVOID
When analysing ACT! customers, Nucleus found common missteps to avoid in the
management of a contact and customer management application. These missteps
naturally aren’t unique to ACT!, but tend to be repeated in many other similar
installations of software.

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Avoid complications that discourage adoption
This also can vary depending on which version of ACT! is being deployed. For
instance, one user that was very pleased with an older client version of ACT! found
that the upgraded Web-version was too feature-rich compared to what the users
had become accustomed. It presented customer data in two format fields: at an
individual customer level and at the company level, and the latter feature was new
to them.

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Users were forced to flip between both screens and this could be confusing. It
could take as much as 10 minutes to find a given lead and even then, they weren’t
sure if they had the correct information. Not having up-to-date information meant
that it was impossible to tell if the customer wasn’t being contacted at all or too
much. Additionally, excess complexity discourages application adoption – and this
can affect ACT! rollouts as well as major ERP installations alike. As one ACT! user
said, “That’s the biggest battle to fight with a new system – the complexity. You
want it very quick and easy or they won’t use it. Just have enough for people to
get their jobs done.”

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The devil is in the technical and training details
Although as has been noted in this report, users generally found ACT! to be
reasonably simple to install, that doesn’t mean there weren’t technical challenges.
Software installations in general show a huge variety of challenges, depending on
the size of the rollout, if there is existing data to be migrated from a legacy
system, and the relative savvy of your IT staff and end users. Some ACT! users
found implementation to be difficult, depending on the special circumstances of
their own deployment. So, be prepared to troubleshoot. Sage Software does have
some centralised management tools for ACT! Premium. However, lacking this, one
user noted they were unable to centrally configure the ACT! screens and their
installation was labour intensive. Each PC had to be manually touched by IT staff
for patching and configuration. If this isn’t done, more than one version of the
ACT! database will exist on individual PCs and start corrupting the central
database.

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The level of technical complexity that may require additional attention
will depend on a number of factors including:
􀂃 Whether or not you’re migrating data from prior systems
􀂃 If a new server or network improvements will be needed
􀂃 If your users are fairly technology savvy today
􀂃 How much experience your consultant or IT staff have with ACT!
􀂃 Which version or versions of ACT! you are installing, and which delivery
method – Web-based? Client server? A hybrid? – each one has different
requirements

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The technical issues can include integration. A sales system ultimately has to feed
information to accounting, fulfilment, or other systems to complete a full order-to
cash-process. So you must:
􀂃 Talk to your consultant or IT staff about with what systems ACT! might need to
communicate

􀂃 Check to see which other of your applications, such as an ERP system, needs
to link to ACT!. Sage Software does have out-of-the-box integrations with a
handful of common third party applications, such as QuickBooks
􀂃 However, be prepared to implement some manual workarounds to share data if
integrations are unavailable. Without ready-made application integrations,
companies must keep two records of customer data – one in ACT! and one in a
fulfilment or supply chain system, to cite two examples
􀂃 If you have two such systems running parallel, it will require manual checking
to make sure they are both synchronised and up to date, or errors will creep in

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Don’t hire just any ACT! consultant
Many software implementations are excessively prolonged or ruined by the wrong
third party consultant. A poor partner can sink a rollout and get you fired. A
consultant or reseller must take the time to understand your business as well as be
close enough with the vendor to know all the nuances of the software they are
installing. When approaching an ACT! installation, it’s no different. Don’t just use
the Yellow Pages. Get referrals and make sure the consultant is qualified. You
may select the consultant by their special focus, depending on your needs. Some
consultants work with individuals or on small implementations only, while others
handle corporate accounts. Some are focused on certain industries, while others
have expertise in sales processes. Customers also said they were able to find good
consultants that came recommended by Sage.