This week Paul at Silicon Bullet spent most of Sunday afternoon sitting through the Sage ACT! 2012 new release seminar online, and then taking the exam.  What a fun way to spend the weekend!  As a Sage accredited reseller we keep our knowledge up to date by sitting these exams whenever a new version of Sage 50, ACT! and Sage Payroll is released.

Congratulations!

The good news is he passed with flying colours – with a score of 94.5% (not quite up to the 97% standard of Mma Grace Makutsi in the No1 Ladies Detective Agency books – but close enough).  He was most miffed though, as he got 100% in 5 of the 6 sections – just one area let the side down.

So, what wonderful new features are available in Sage ACT! 2012?

• Installation & Setup Improvements – there are new dialogue screens which aid installation and give you an estimate on how long the installation should take.  Import logs have been improved and opening and sharing databases made easier.
• Google & Gmail Integration – you can now sync with your Google calendar and contacts, and record email history from Gmail. This functionality is not as comprehensive as we had hoped – so if this is the reason you want to upgrade, please have a chat with us first. One limitation is you can only sync one instance of Google to one ACT! database so this might not be suitable for a multi-user environment.
• Universal Search – similar to the new search in Sage 50 2012, this is a very powerful global search tool which will look for words or phrases in records, entries and even attachments.
• Sage ACT! Scratchpad – a separate piece of software which can be installed at the same time as ACT!  which is a virtual piece of paper where you can make notes, reminders or to-do’s then arrange them, delete them or send them into ACT!
• Services Directory – ACT! has many connected services, such as the E-marketing which we also install and train on (it’s like Constant Contact or Mailchimp but it integrates fully with ACT!), Business Information Services and Connect, which allows you to store some information  from ACT! in the Cloud  to access on the move.  Some of these services do incur an additional charge.
• Usability Improvements – Smart tasks, Outlook calendar synchronisation, internet mail options, and the link between ACT! and Sage 50 have all been improved.

If you use ACT! and you are interested in upgrading then please give us a call for more details of the new features, or if you are new to ACT! then we can offer you a demonstration of the product so you can see for yourself how your business could benefit from the introduction of a CRM system.  To see how your business could benefit from using a CRM, see our previous blog post.