ACT! by Sage Product Family White Papers
ACT! Reporting and Data Access Methods
Summary: This whitepaper discusses the technical aspects of the ACT! reporting and data access methods. For example, the ACT! architecture provides four additional data access methods that can be used for querying, reporting and data extraction: ACT! OLE DB Reporting Provider, ACT! Reader Utility and account (ACT! Premium only), ACT! Password Utility (ACT! Premium only), ACT! SDK (Software Developers Kit).
Factors That Affect ACT! Performance for Individual Users
Summary: When considering the overall performance of your ACT! by Sage solution, ACT! individual users need to balance their hardware investment, expectations for application performance, customer and prospect expectations, business needs, and reasonable Return on Investment (ROI).
This whitepaper examines the factors that affect ACT! application performance for the individual user. It includes results of testing performed by an independent benchmark testing company using ACT! by Sage 2006 (8.0), as well as testing performed by Sage on subsequent ACT! versions.
Scalability Results for ACT! Premium Solutions
Summary: Organizations using ACT! by Sage solutions require high levels of performance, reliability, and scalability to match user, management, and IT expectations. They also need to balance infrastructure costs to deliver an acceptable Return on Investment (ROI). This whitepaper provides performance and scalability test results and hardware recommendations to deliver a cost effective and positive end-user experience.
While each individual company’s needs differ, this whitepaper provides guidance to help an organization select a hardware configuration to optimize performance across a variety of deployment scenarios and user counts.
ACT! Architecture, Customization, and Integration
Summary: This whitepaper discusses the ACT! product family architecture, deployment methods, customization, and integration capabilities with other products and is intended for IT managers or system administrators who want to better understand the underlying platform and capabilities.
Some of the features discussed are only applicable to a specific product or tier, and these have been highlighted as appropriate. Further, some of the user features are only available to certain user roles such as Administrators or Managers. Sage Software recommends that you consult your product documentation for a complete list of features, applicability, and integrations.
Keys to a Successful ACT! by Sage Deployment
Summary: ACT! Premium solutions enable an organization to configure a contact and customer management solution based on the organization’s needs, whether users require online access, offline access, handheld mobile access, or a combination of access types. The ACT! Premium architecture allows maximum flexibility using a single and fully compatible database between ACT! by Sage Premium and ACT! Premium for Web.
The key to a successful ACT! deployment is to provide the optimum access method(s) corresponding to the user needs in the organization. This whitepaper explores various deployment scenarios possible with ACT! solutions.
ACT! Security Model
Summary: ACT! centralizes and manages business-critical contact information for organizations of every size. The ACT! security model was developed to support stand-alone and workgroup implementations and provide consistency and flexibility to managers and IT personnel charged with protecting contact information.
ACT! security works in two ways, enabling data access by user role and data level. Users are assigned an ACT! user role based on the appropriate access level for their position in the organization, from "browse only" to "full administrative access." Data security can be enforced at the database level, the feature level, the record level, and the field level.
ACT! Synchronization Architecture
Summary: This whitepaper provides an overview of the ACT! sync model, including a description of the key features, abilities, and concepts. It is directed at current users and potential customers seeking to perform a functional and technical evaluation of the product. Diagrams and examples are provided where appropriate, as well as greater detail on Internet synchronization, focusing on setup and configuration.
Using ACT! Premium in Microsoft® Terminal Server or Citrix® Presentation Server Environments
The whitepaper explores the benefits of deploying ACT! Premium through Terminal Services, outlines deployment requirements and recommendations, and provides installation and performance tips. It is intended for IT Administrators who are considering deployment of ACT! using Microsoft Terminal Services, with or without Citrix.
ACT! by Sage 2010: Delivering on Usability and Productivity - Easier than ever to learn, use, and do more!
To determine the effectiveness of ACT! 2010, we conducted benchmark usability tests. A comparative usability test showed that the learning curve of ACT! 2010 improved by 250%. Using an industry benchmark for ease of use based on the System Usability Scale (SUS), we found that ACT! 2010 scored higher than previous versions of ACT! and scored well above the industry average with a score higher than 79% of all other products rated. In addition, we found that ACT! 2010 is preferred over previous versions.
ACT! by Sage and Social CRM - Part 1 - Connecting with Your Customers: A Guide to Social Media
Do you keep hearing about the social media phenomenon? Would you like to learn how social media can benefit your business? Are you concerned about managing your reputation online? Do you want to know how incorporating social media into your contact and customer management software can help develop long-lasting and more profitable relationships?
Businesses all around the world are using some of the most popular sites and networks on the web, from Twitter to YouTube, to make their business more accessible, more personable, and maintain long term connections. In turn lots of this information can be linked to your ACT! software to help improve customer relations.
