CRM Software Industry News

Partners leverage new ACT! architecture and .NET tools to create applications that help diverse base of registered ACT! users extend product’s functionality

Scottsdale, AZ; April 19, 2005?est Software, maker of the market leading ACT!?2005 contact and customer management product family, today detailed the early success of its ACT! Add-on Partner Program. The ACT! software development kit (SDK), used to build the new ACT! 2005 product architecture, provides independent software vendors with a robust set of .NET programming tools that simplify the development of add-on productivity solutions, and allow users to further extend their ACT! functionality. Developers using the ACT! SDK cite application development cycles as short as one week to update add-on products and less than 12 weeks to create new add-on products.

“Best Software modernized the ACT! architecture with the release of ACT! 2005, introducing a robust SDK that enables partners to build add-on products faster, with more features, and with the same ease of use for which ACT! is famous,” said Joe Bergera, senior vice president and general manager for Best Software Contact Management Solutions. “We are excited about the strong adoption of the new ACT! architecture by add-on partners, who recognize the significant business opportunity to design innovative solutions for the large ACT! user base.”

Since the release of ACT! 2005, independent software vendors have announced new ACT! add-ons at a rate of almost one per week. Today, there are 32 official ACT! Add-on Solutions. Add-on solutions complement and expand the ACT! 2005 user experience. These include innovative productivity tools addressing marketing, data management, shipping and reporting, among other business productivity extensions. Developers within the ACT! Add-on Partner Program receive product development guidance from Best Software and have the opportunity to participate in product marketing programs. Best Software reviews all ACT! add-on solutions to ensure they integrate with ACT! and enhance the ACT! user experience.

Several program members, including new partner Durkin Computing and long-time developer Stonefield Software Inc., have used the ACT! SDK’s expansive tool set to quickly design and introduce ACT! 2005 add-ons.

Contact List Plus for ACT! conceived, designed and delivered in 12 weeks
Contact List Plus from Durkin Computing, LLC is an ACT! add-on solution that enriches the ACT! contact list view with editing, color coding, column formatting and calculation features to expand a user’s contact grouping and organization options. “Developing with the ACT! SDK is a much shorter and more cost-effective process than our traditional model for creating applications,” explained Jim Durkin, president of Durkin Computing. “With all of its .NET tools, the sky is really the limit for ACT! because we can integrate with virtually any event that occurs in ACT! and decide from there how we want to make the features associated with it even more productive for users.”

Durkin Computing developed Contact List Plus from concept-to-market in approximately 12 weeks and anticipates that future solutions the company creates for ACT! will take half the time, due to its programming team’s growing familiarity with the ACT! SDK and the reusable code already generated. “When we created our first ACT! add-on, we spent less time as actual software developers and more time considering the marketing possibilities made available through the ACT! Add-on Partner Program. ACT! has an extraordinarily large base of users who we can assist and we look forward to continuing to build applications for this extensive, yet easy to use platform.”

Stonefield Query?features seamlessly enhanced in one week using ACT! SDK
Stonefield Software Inc., develops Stonefield Query for ACT!, a tool that enables users to further enhance the robust reporting tools within ACT! and create additional ad-hoc reports without complex programming. Stonefield used the ACT! SDK to update its popular add-on solution for ACT! 2005 in one week.

“The ACT! SDK provides a complete tool set that lets us tap into nearly any native ACT! function and easily integrate our query and reporting features,” said Rob Eisler, developer for Stonefield Software. “Through the ACT! 2005 SDK, we can directly access the SQL server and more tightly couple Stonefield products with ACT! to easily provide ad-hoc query and reporting features for the legions of productivity seeking ACT! users.”

ACT! Add-on Partner program
From front-office marketing solutions to back-office integration with other productivity solutions, ACT! add-on products help users integrate needed business functionality with ACT! so they can be more productive and run their businesses more cost efficiently.

ACT! add-on partners design solutions that help further extend the functionality of ACT! for individual users and members of ACT! workgroups. A complete list of ACT! add-on solutions and pricing is available at www.actsolutions.com. Developers interested in the ACT! Add-on Partner Program are encouraged to visit www.act.com/partners/addons.

ACT! 2005 From Best Software
Best Software offers two versions of its market-leading ACT! 2005 contact and customer manager: ACT! 2005 for individuals and small teams of up to ten users, and ACT! 2005 Premium for Workgroups, supporting powerful database collaboration for workgroups of up to 50 users.1 Both products deliver the same ACT! user experience with a fast return on investment and up to 50% lower total cost of ownership than hosted alternatives.

ACT! 2005 retails for $229.99 (upgrade $149.95 MSRP) and ACT! 2005 Premium for Workgroups retails for $399.99 (upgrade $259.95 MSRP). Both products are available at www.act.com/estore or by calling 866-333-0988.

ACT! 2005 can also be purchased from popular software retailers, e-tailers and direct resellers including Office Deport, CompUSA, Staples, Best Buy, OfficeMax, Fry’s and Micro Center.

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Filed under: ACT!