CRM Software Industry News

Diverse offering of add-on applications extend ACT! functionality with unique sales, marketing, mapping, shipping and user productivity applications

Scottsdale, Ariz. ?September 5, 2006 ?/strong> Sage Software today announced 36 ACT! Add-on solutions compatible with the new ACT! by Sage 2007 (9.0) contact and customer management product family. Add-on products give ACT! users the freedom to choose from a diverse choice of value-added communications, sales, marketing, mapping, help desk, synchronization, administrative and productivity applications.

?ur add-on partners are a community of expert developers who expand upon the core functionality of ACT!,” explained Joe Bergera, ACT! senior vice president and general manager for Sage Software. “These partners build a wide variety of performance-enhancing business applications that address specific needs for individuals, small businesses and corporate workgroups, effectively helping millions of ACT! users further leverage the power of ACT! to improve their productivity and business processes.?/p>

Sage Software today also simultaneously announced four new products ?ACT! by Sage 2007 (9.0), ACT! by Sage Premium for Workgroups 2007 (9.0), ACT! by Sage Premium for Web 2007 (9.0) and ACT! for Palm OS ?2.0 ?comprising the ACT! 2007 product family. (See today? ?age Software Launches New ACT! by Sage 2007 (9.0) Product Family?press release for further details.)

Each ACT! Add-on solution has been reviewed by Sage Software and works with the new ACT! 2007 product family. ACT! 2007 Add-on product solutions are available at www.actsolutions.comand include:

ACTIVATOR! Automated Sales Assistant by Mastermind Software ?/strong> marketing and sales process automation enhancements for ACT! including pre-defined sales action plans and document templates.

AddressGrabber Business by eGrabber, Inc. ?/strong> single-click data entry that automatically extracts contact details from Web sites, e-mails and documents and enters them into ACT!; also schedules calls, meetings and to-do? for incoming leads.

AddressGrabber Standard by eGrabber, Inc. ?/strong> single-click data entry that automatically extracts contact details from Web sites, e-mails and documents and enters them into ACT!.

The Associator by Durkin Computing ?/strong> add unlimited free-form associations between ACT! contacts, auto-grouped by type and displayed in the Contact Detail view.

AutoAdmin III by ASDS Computer Company ? automatically backs up and maintains ACT! data to save users time and guard against data loss.

BusinessMap by ESRI, Inc. ?/strong> mapping software for U.S. and Canada creates custom maps from ACT! database with color-coding and drive time, among other features.

CompanionLink Express by CompanionLink Software, Inc. ?/strong> synchronizes ACT! contact data with PDAs and Smartphones.

Contact List Plus by Durkin Computing ?/strong> enriches ACT! Contact List view with color-coded organization and editing and transforms contact list into a personalized color-coded data view; advanced contact retrieval using data and color rules.

Crystal Clear Essentials by ADS Programming Services ?/strong> built upon the Crystal Reports?report generator, includes15 reports that can easily be run from the ACT! Report menu, additional prompts allow users to customize reports.

DocAdmin by ASDS Computer Company ?/strong> scans documents into the ACT! documents tab in a single mouse click; stored in PDF format so users can open, print, email, etc.

DoubleLook by CompanionLink Software, Inc. ?/strong> automatic settings to synchronize contacts and activities between ACT! and Microsoft ?Outlook. ?/p>

FaxAdmin by ASDS Computer Company ?/strong> sends faxes from within ACT!; with quick fax and mail-merge fax features.

Handheld Contact by J2X Technologies Inc. ?/strong> wireless service synchronizes ACT! features on BlackBerry ?devices.

High Impact eMail 4.0 Professional by TemplateZone ?/strong> create and send dynamic HTML marketing emails; 1,100+ professionally designed templates, advanced email builders, photo editors and list management tools enhance email marketing campaigns.

Home Page Plus by Durkin Computing ?/strong> creates new tab in ACT! on the Contact Detail view for navigating to and viewing a contact? Web site.

InfoOptics - Universal Data Translator by Information Optics ?/strong> integrates ACT! with order entry, e-commerce, loan processing and accounting systems.

IOC Campaign by Information Optics ?/strong> generates follow-up e-mails, faxes and letters to prospects and customers from ACT! database.

Link Point 360 by Link Point 360 ?/strong> logs inbound and outbound e-mail, including attachments, to ACT! activity history.

ListGrabber by eGrabber, Inc. ?/strong> captures lists of contacts from Web sites and documents and transfers them into ACT!.

The Lookup Manager by Durkin Computing ?/strong> Lookup management tool saves time from going back and forth between Contacts, Groups and Companies, also resets Last Contact, Last View and Last Selected tab on startup.

Macro Magic by iolo technologies, LLC ?/strong> reduces repetitive ACT! actions and simplifies complex tasks into a single step.

MergeAdmin?by ASDS Computer Company ?/strong> updates ACT! on a field-by-field level with data from an external ASCII file.

MigrateAdmin by ASDS Computer Company ?/strong> converts GoldMine ?data directly into ACT!.

Pinpoint Marketing Tool by pinpointtools ?/strong> creates marketing plans consisting of letters, e-mails, calls, meetings, and to-dos, in any combination, for specified delivery.

QuoteWerks by Aspire Technologies, Inc. ?/strong> create professional looking, detailed quotes using customer information from ACT!.

RDB Wiz by RemoteTechGuy, LLC ?/strong> automates simultaneous creation of remote databases and walks users through set-up and synchronization tasks; users can copy and edit sync sets and automatically upload databases to an ftp site for distribution.

RemarkableMail by C2 Business Advisors ?/strong> step-by-step instructions for printing and mailing postcard campaigns directly from ACT!

ResumeGrabber by eGrabber, Inc. ?/strong> automatically creates a Contact in ACT! with resume as an attachment.

Stonefield Query for ACT! by Stonefield Software Inc. ?/strong> end-user query tool streamlines report generation from the ACT! database.

SwiftPage Basic by SwiftPage Email ?/strong> online e-mail system for marketing and sales that integrates with ACT!; reports who opened an e-mail and what they clicked on.

SwiftPage Pro by SwiftPage Email ?/strong> online e-mail system for marketing and sales that integrates with ACT!; reports who opened an e-mail and what they clicked on; also enables mail merge data from custom ACT! fields and call list qualification by scoring.

Task List Plus by Durkin Computing ?/strong> advanced ACT! Task List view features help reassign multiple activities and perform calculations with a single mouse click.

Tele-Support HelpDesk by Resource Dynamics, Inc. ?/strong> customer service, help desk, call tracking and customer support tools for use within ACT!.

TopLine Dash Administrator by TopLine Results Corporation ?/strong> centralizes, filters and organizes ACT! activity, opportunity, notes and history information in a real-time interactive dashboard for sales performance analysis; emails reports and tracks key performance indicators (KPIs).

TopLine Dash Manager by TopLine Results Corporation ?/strong> centralizes key business intelligence in a single view to help sales teams prioritize efforts, assess performance and predict results.

Zetadocs PDF by Equisys, Inc. ? Creates .pdf files from any application and automatically sends and stores them in the history tab of an ACT! contact record.

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First simultaneous announcement of ACT! contact and customer management products for Windows? Web, Workgroups and Palm OS?offers flexible deployment choices and new capabilities for corporate sales teams, small businesses and individuals

Scottsdale, Ariz. ?September 5, 2006 ?/strong> Sage Software today unveiled the new ACT! by Sage 2007 product family comprised of ACT! by Sage 2007 (9.0), ACT! by Sage Premium for Workgroups 2007 (9.0), ACT! by Sage Premium for Web 2007 (9.0) and ACT! for Palm OS?2.0. Sage Software, for the first time, is announcing a simultaneous upgrade of the entire ACT! product family, enabling users of the number-one selling contact and customer manager to utilize the latest ACT! features from their desktop, laptop, Web browser or Palm OS device. With the most flexible deployment options, ACT! supports on-line and off-line access to centralized customer data for corporate sales teams, small businesses and individuals.

New and improved ACT! 2007 features include direct integration with Microsoft?Outlook?, enhanced user productivity, simplified administration and field-level data security.

?ong recognized for enabling millions of end-users to achieve their dreams and aspirations, Sage is excited to see businesses of all shapes and sizes rapidly adopting ACT! Premium capabilities which are specifically designed to help sales teams and other customer management teams maximize their organizational performance,?explained Joe Bergera, ACT! senior vice president and general manager for Sage Software. ?n order to continue providing the industry? most compelling value proposition for our expanding addressable market, we built ACT! 2007 with the most diverse set of deployment options, application integrations and feature enhancements in its 19 year history.?/p>

ACT! Premium tier products are designed to offer teams and workgroups additional functionality in the areas of centralized administration, advanced opportunity tracking and advanced data security.

?here is no process more intimate to an organization than its sales process,?said Mary Wardley, Vice President of Enterprise Applications and CRM Software research for IDC. ?n an economy of ever increasing competition and decreasing margins, internal efficiencies and productivity within the sales function are under scrutiny. Implementing a tool such as ACT! at the corporate level introduces the concepts of shared customer data management and process automation at a time when they are well needed.?/p>

ACT! can be customized for specific business environments and also offers turnkey integration with common business applications such as Microsoft Office, Lotus Notes? Peachtree by Sage, Sage MAS 90 ERP, Sage MAS 200 ERP, QuickBooks? and Palm OS, Pocket PC and BlackBerry?handheld devices, among others. Select new and improved features for the standard and Premium-tier ACT! 2007 products include:

Direct Integration with Outlook

Use Outlook E-mail While in ACT!: ACT! opens the Outlook new e-mail message form when users want to send e-mail, send a letter in e-mail, conduct an e-mail mail merge, or send an e-mail by clicking on hyperlinks. Users can also send e-mail to an ACT! Group or Company.1

Populate E-mail Address and Create an ACT! History from Outlook: When sending e-mail using Outlook, ACT! will automatically populate the e-mail address in the To, CC, and BCC fields and attach a history to the matching ACT! contact.2

Automatic Outlook Calendar Sync: Automate when Outlook calendar synchronization occurs, even when the database is not open.3

Create ACT! Contact from Outlook E-mail Message: Contact Name and E-mail Address fields are automatically filled in. Populate 10 additional pre-defined fields such as Company, Address, and Phone Number. ACT! checks for duplicates. 2 (ACT! Windows products only)

User Productivity

Split-Panel Note Preview: View entire contents of a Contact, Group, or Company Note while scrolling for another note using the option of a split-panel within the Notes tab.

Specify Linked Contact/Company Fields: Specify which fields are linked between Contact and Company Records. When a field changes on the Company Record, ACT! prompts users to change that field for all contacts linked to the company.4

Last E-mail Field: Identify last e-mail send date from Contact Detail view. Last E-mail field updates any time an e-mail history is created whether using the ACT! E-mail Client integrated with Lotus Notes or Outlook Express, or through direct integration with Outlook.5

Advanced Keyword Search: Go to the exact location of a keyword. Locate and highlight terms in Contact, Group, and Company Detail views, and, open notes, history, activities, or opportunities in which they are contained. (ACT! Windows products only)

Administration and Data Security

Password settings: Set rules such as Password Expiration Options, Password Complexity and Password Re-use to help protect valuable contact information.

Field-level security: Restrict access by user or team and grant read-only access or no access to certain fields. Add users to a team and permissions are updated.6

(ACT! Premium products only)

Secure Notes, History and Opportunities en Masse: From the Contact Record change security access of notes, history, and opportunities en masse. Select multiple notes, history, and opportunities and make them all public or private.

ACT!, first introduced in 1987, is the preferred choice of over 2.6 million registered users and more than 35,000 corporate customers to organize, access and manage their critical customer information. ACT! delivers powerful contact and customer management capabilities with flexible deployment and customization options to help individuals, selling professionals and corporate workgroups improve productivity and increase sales.

ACT! Premium for Workgroups ? Ideal for small to mid-sized businesses and corporate sales teams. Available by contacting ACT! Corporate Licensing at 888-855-5222 and from more than 600 ACT! Certified Consultants located at www.act.com/certifiedconsultants ($399.99 MSRP, upgrade $259.95 MSRP)

ACT! Premium for Web ? Enables remote, traveling and on-premise user access to centralized ACT! data via a Web browser. Available by contacting ACT! Corporate Licensing at 888-855-5222 and from more than 600 ACT! Certified Consultants located at www.act.com/certifiedconsultants ($399.99 MSRP, upgrade $259.95 MSRP)

ACT! ? Ideal for individuals and small teams of up to ten networked users. Available at popular software retailers, e-tailers and direct resellers or by contacting Sage Software at 888-855-5222 or www.act.com/estore ($229.99 MSRP, upgrade $149.95 MSRP)

ACT! for Palm OS ? Native application that enables ACT! capabilities on Palm OS handheld devices. Available at popular software retailers, e-tailers and direct resellers or by contacting Sage Software at 888-855-5222 or www.act.com/estore ($99.99 MSRP)

ACT! by Sage is part of Sage CRM Solutions, the only family of CRM products designed specifically for the needs of small and mid-sized businesses that also includes Sage CRM, SageCRM.com and Sage CRM SalesLogix. For more details, visit www.sagecrmsolutions.com or call 888-855-5222.

During setup, users must select if they want to access Outlook e-mail through the ACT! E-mail client or direct integration with Outlook.
Requires Microsoft Outlook 2000, 2002, or 2003. ACT! must be added as an address book to use this feature.
Requires Microsoft Outlook 2000, 2002, or 2003.
Not all fields can be linked and linked field types must be compatible.
Requires Microsoft Outlook 2000, 2002, or 2003. Requires Lotus Notes 6.5. Requires Outlook Express 5.5 or 6.0.
Only certain fields can be designated as read-only or no access.

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Scottsdale, Ariz. ?October 3, 2006 ?Sage Software and Lexmark International today announced a joint marketing program to provide value-added productivity solutions for small and medium business (SMB) customers.

From October 1st through December 2nd 2006, Sage Software will offer eligible new purchasers of the ACT! by Sage contact and customer management solution a free* Lexmark X7350 Office All-in-One printer ($129.99 MSRP) or X8350 Office All-in-One Plus Photo printer ($149.99 MSRP) via a mail-in rebate.

?e are excited to work with Sage on these compelling productivity solutions for SMB customers through the U.S. retail channel,?said Najib Bahous, Lexmark vice president and president of its Consumer Printer Division. ?exmark? all-in-one printers are ideal for helping ACT! users achieve professional, high-quality print output to further leverage their customer data and increase overall productivity.?/p>

Authorized retailers participating in the above ACT! and Lexmark printer promotion include: Buy.com, CDW, CompUSA, Insight, Microcenter, Office Depot, PC Connection, Staples and Zones. The promotion will also be available via the ACT! Web site, www.act.com.

?y collaborating with Lexmark, we are offering our like-minded base of individual and small business customers an affordable, value-added productivity tool combination backed by two leading technology vendors,?noted Joe Bergera, senior vice president and general manager for Sage Software. ?exmark? all-in-one printers enable multiple printing, copying, scanning, and faxing functions that can provide ACT! users with many administrative efficiencies when managing their valuable customer information.?/p>

ACT! by Sage
ACT!, first introduced in 1987, is the number one selling contact and customer management solution and preferred choice of over 2.5 million registered users and more than 35,000 corporate customers to organize, access and manage their critical customer information. ACT! delivers powerful contact and customer management capabilities with flexible deployment and customization options to help individuals, selling professionals and corporate workgroups improve productivity and increase sales.

ACT! by Sage is part of Sage CRM Solutions, the only family of CRM products designed specifically for the needs of small and mid-sized businesses that also includes Sage CRM, SageCRM.com and Sage CRM SalesLogix. For more details, visit www.sagecrmsolutions.com or call 888-855-5222.

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ROI Rocket using #1 selling ACT! contact and customer management solution integrated with online e-mail system to create industry-specific marketing campaigns

Scottsdale, Ariz. ?November 2, 2006 ?Sage Software today announced that ROI Rocket, a performance-based Internet affiliate marketing network, has integrated the ACT! by Sage contact and customer management solution with Swiftpage, an ACT! add-on solution that provides enhanced e-mail campaign features. ROI Rocket is using prospect contact data organized in ACT! for e-mail campaigns that are monitored with Swiftpage features, which return statistics including click-through rates and lead rankings into the ACT! database for ongoing marketing campaign analysis. ROI Rocket has significantly increased its prospect-to-customer conversion rate and revenue using this integrated solution.

ROI Rocket (www.roirocket.com) operates a pay-per-action network that connects Internet advertisers with Web content publishers who are willing to promote advertisers?offers for a pre-determined commission. ROI Rocket? innovative tracking technologies and proprietary affiliate management techniques identify valuable sales channels and track promotional arrangements between more than 7,500 advertisers and publishers in its network, ensuring that publishers are paid on a performance basis per action or sale their sites generate for each participating advertiser.

?CT! helps us segment our affiliate advertisers and publishers by industry which has improved our ability to attract and do more business with these organizations, who are our customers,?explained Matt Frary, ROI Rocket CEO and co-founder. ?sing Swiftpage e-mail campaign features with ACT! allows us to send a higher and more targeted frequency of Web banner advertising offers to our affiliates. We can track who opens and reads the e-mails to determine which of our offers will most likely be attractive to them in the future. Deploying this system has significantly increased our revenue.?/p>

ROI Rocket uses the e-mail campaign segmentation data provided by Swiftpage in ACT! to prioritize sales opportunities based on client interests. Sales representatives use ACT! to track history of conversations with prospects and customers as well as to convert leads to closed sales using opportunity management features.

Swiftpage is the first online e-mail system for marketing and sales that is fully integrated into ACT!. Users can send up to 100,000 e-mails at once and are provided with detailed and graphical reporting at the contact level including metrics such as who opened an e-mail, how many times they opened an e-mail, which specific links were clicked on, etc. This data can be viewed online as well as in ACT! where users can associate rankings with leads.

?hen ROI Rocket selected ACT! as their system of record, we were immediately able to streamline and improve their e-mail marketing processes by integrating Swiftpage functionality,?said Dan Ogdon, marketing director for Swiftpage. ?OI Rocket? online advertising market is consistently seeing new competitors as barriers to entry in the online advertising market are lowering. Swiftpage and ACT! are providing the company with a technological advantage that allows it to efficiently keep in touch with its customers on a regular and highly targeted basis.?/p>

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VerticalFalls technology to be integrated with ACT! to create combined contact management and compliance solution for financial services institutions

Scottsdale, Ariz. ?December 4, 2006 ?Sage Software today announced it has acquired intellectual property from VerticalFalls Software, Inc., a financial services industry solution provider based in Reston, Virginia, that will enable Sage Software to deliver a compliance and document tracking solution based on its ACT! by Sage contact and customer manager to meet the specialized needs of financial services organizations. VerticalFalls will continue operations as a professional services firm that will resell the integrated solution, as well as provide implementation services, data migrations, training, support and business consulting.

?inancial services organizations are experiencing regulatory pressure to implement standard reporting processes that necessitate retaining the history of customer interactions and records of customer risk tolerance, among other key criteria,?explained Joe Bergera, ACT! senior vice president and general manager for Sage Software. ?y integrating ACT! with the acquired VerticalFalls technology, we will deliver business critical contact management and compliance features that brokerage firms, financial advisors and others in the financial services industry need in today? marketplace.?/p>

The ACT! industry solutions strategy combines the market-leading productivity features of ACT! with value-added, industry-specific functionality. ACT! industry solutions are available on the ACT! Premium platform, which is designed for scalability, ease of deployment and administration, and a seamless online/offline user experience. Sage Software introduced its first ACT! industry solution, ACT! by Sage Premium for Real Estate, in May 2006.

?he increased importance of record retention, data privacy and compliance tracking within the financial services industry makes the linking of these processes with contact management capabilities especially interesting,?said Laurie McCabe, research vice president for AMI-Partners, Inc. ?roductivity tools such as ACT! that have the scalability, data security and flexible deployment attributes required by many financial services companies can have significant appeal to a large segment of this market.?/p>

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Award-Winning Sage MAS 90 ERP & ACT! by Sage Combination Helps Improve Overall Company Efficiency by 300%

Irvine, Calif. - December 4, 2006 - Sage Software announced today that Litecubes, a leading manufacturer of novelty illuminated ice cubes and party favors, is using an integrated back- and front-office solution from Sage Software to dramatically boost company performance. The integrated business management solution includes two industry-leaders; the award-winning Sage MAS 90 ERP (enterprise resource planning) for automating and streamlining back-office functions, and the award-winning ACT! by Sage, the number one selling contact and customer management solution worldwide. The combined Sage Software solution replaced QuickBooks?and enabled Litecubes to streamline processes, increase efficiencies and grow into a highly profitable multimillion dollar company.

?t a single glance, the system allows us to see what is on a sales order, purchase order, in the warehouse, or on back order. This is information we never had before and lets us run the company smarter,?said Terry Hickey, vice president of sales and marketing at Litecubes. ?hat? more, with QuickBooks we had three separate points of data entry when a Purchase Order came in. Sage MAS 90 has cut sales order processing time by 75 percent, plus overall efficiencies have improved by 300 percent, in large part because we haven? had to hire new people to accommodate our rapid growth.?

Litecubes manufactures plastic, lighted square blocks that resemble the fanciest of ice cubes, plus numerous other illuminated novelties ideal for brightening up parties. The company uses Sage MAS 90 for automating and integrating the back-office operations, including accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, sales orders, purchase orders, bank reconciliations, credit card processing and inventory management. With ACT!, Litecubes users instantly access key contact and customer information, manage and prioritize activities, and track all contact-related communications to help grow productive business relationships. Sage MAS 90 coupled with ACT! has enabled Litecubes to seamlessly integrate important company data to better manage the company? sales pipeline and improve customer service to a growing list of more than 3,000 customers.

?ecause of the tight integration between ACT! and Sage MAS 90, it? much easier to access our data on leads, and turn them into active customers,?said Hickey. ?he system has enabled us to grow sales exponentially, without adding personnel, and we believe it will support our continued growth for a long, long time.?

When Litecubes outgrew QuickBooks, they turned to premiere Sage Software business partner Barsa Technology Solutions for a comprehensive, long-term business management solution. Barsa performed a complete business needs assessment, helped identify a solution that fit, performed installation, data conversion and training, plus continues to provide other quality services.

?ne reason we selected Sage MAS 90 for our upgrade was because of the easy conversion path from QuickBooks via the Data Migrator tool,?said Hickey. ?e were ecstatic that data on our 2,000-plus customers [at the time] converted seamlessly, as did all of our open invoices. We? feared a horrendous upgrade process, but instead found it was relatively painless. We view this as a true success.?

To view more on Litecubes, a featured customer in Sage Software? video library on successful customer installations, please visit http://www.sagesoftware.com/success/SageSuccessStories/m90_lightcube_vss.html.

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ACT! contact and customer management system also eases transfer of critical client details during employee transitions.

Scottsdale, Ariz. ?January 9, 2007 ?/strong> Sage Software announced today that Design North, Inc., a brand strategy and design firm, is using ACT! by Sage Premium for Workgroups to manage its ongoing direct marketing campaigns and provide employees with historical information regarding key contacts and customer relationships. Since implementing ACT!, Design North has automated marketing activities such as targeted mailings and follow-up activity scheduling that historically took several hours to complete, converting them into simple tasks that now take only a few minutes each.

?CT! provides our company with the data organization and activity coordination that is necessary to drive business growth,?said Lee Sucharda, president, Design North. ?or example, using the Lookup feature within ACT!, we are able to target specific groups of customers such as food or beverage manufacturers with the most appropriate information. After a marketing activity is entered in ACT!, follow-up activities are automatically scheduled for each of our team members ensuring that we are communicating with clients and prospects on a regular basis.?

Simplified Daily Tasks And Eased Employee Transitions

Prior to implementing ACT!, Design North? client and prospect information was stored in an outdated database and miscellaneous employee files. The company needed to streamline its business processes and reduce the amount of time needed to complete them. It was also critical that client details remained within the organization during times of employee transition.

Design North worked with Muskus Management Corporation, an ACT! Certified Consultant, to implement a customized version of ACT! Premium for Workgroups and train employees. Muskus Management used intuitive design and customization capabilities in ACT! to automate workflow, aid employee adoption and create simple procedures for securing and transferring valuable client data.

?CT! is the perfect solution for Design North because of its easy customization capabilities, and its integration with Microsoft?Outlook?helps make managing multiple direct mail campaigns simple and cost-effective for small businesses,?said Cheryl Muskus, president of Muskus Management Corporation.

ACT! by Sage
ACT!, first introduced in 1987, is the preferred choice of over 2.5 million registered users and more than 35,000 corporate customers to organize, access and manage their critical customer information. ACT! delivers powerful contact and customer management capabilities with flexible deployment and customization options to help individuals, selling professionals and corporate workgroups improve productivity and increase sales.

ACT! by Sage is part of Sage CRM Solutions, the only family of CRM products designed specifically for the needs of small and mid-sized businesses that also includes Sage CRM, SageCRM.com and Sage CRM SalesLogix. For more details, visit www.sagecrmsolutions.com or call 888-855-5222.

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February Webinar to review ACT! Add-On Program benefits for prospective partners

Scottsdale, Ariz. ?January 15, 2007 ?Sage Software announced today that it will present an ACT! Add-on Partner Program Webinar Tuesday, February 13th from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. EST for interested third-party software developers. Attendees will learn about sales, marketing and software development tools available for ACT! Add-on Partner Program members. ACT! add-on solutions extend the utility of the ACT! contact and customer management product family by offering users a diverse selection of value-added applications. The ACT! user base consists of over 2.5 million registered users and 35,000 additional corporate license accounts.

Webinar attendees can register by visiting https://sagesoftwareevents.webex.com and selecting ?ebruary 13th ACT! Add-on Partner Program.?p>

?age Software built the ACT! Add-on Partner Program to serve ACT! users?unique functionality needs and to fully support the development community that designs applications to meet these needs,?explained Paul Little, ACT! add-on program manager. ?CT! users are interested in add-ons that are reviewed by Sage Software and adhere to ACT! design standards. They also operate in nearly every industry and have many business process requirements that skilled application developers can help support.?p>

ACT! add-on partners address a multitude of business needs spanning 13 categories: Addressing/Shipping, Data Management, E-mail/Direct Mail Marketing, Faxing, Graphics/Mapping, Handhelds/PDAs, HelpDesk/Support, Import/Export, Phone & Web Conferencing, Project Management, Queries/Quotes/Reports, Sales Management and Utilities/Accessories.

Sales And Marketing Tools
The ACT! Add-on Partner Program offers partners a variety of sales and marketing support tools including product listings on the ACT! eStore, opportunities to exhibit at Insights and Summit which are Sage Software? annual partner and customer conferences, plus opportunities to advertise in the ACT! Solutions Guide.

“We benefit significantly from the program? marketing activities which have helped increase awareness of our Swiftpage e-mail marketing service,” said Bob Ogdon, CEO of Swiftpage, an ACT! add-on partner. “The sizable ACT! customer base alone warrants our participation in the program and provides a platform for showcasing how Swiftpage can integrate easily into a user? or organization? ACT! arsenal.”

Software Development Kit
The ACT! by Sage Software Development Kit (SDK), available to all interested developers at www.act.com/partners/addonpartners/sdk, includes sample code and documentation for building add-on applications that integrate with ACT!, ACT! Premium for Workgroups, ACT! Premium for Web and ACT! Premium for Real Estate. ACT! Add-on Partner Program members also receive access to dedicated ACT! SDK support staff, the ACT! SDK Knowledgebase and a partner newsgroup. Thousands of individuals have downloaded the ACT! SDK to develop applications for personal, corporate or commercial availability.

?he ACT! SDK provides a flexible development environment that has allowed me to create six different ACT! add-on products that help users customize their data fields, tabs and layouts,?said Patricia Egen of Patricia Egen Consulting, LLC, an ACT! add-on partner. ?traight-forward development code and the available documentation have aided me in rapidly developing these complementary solutions, and I plan to create others.?

ACT! by Sage
ACT!, first introduced in 1987, is the number one selling contact and customer management solution and preferred choice of over 2.5 million registered users and more than 35,000 corporate customers to organize, access and manage their critical customer information. ACT! delivers powerful contact and customer management capabilities with flexible deployment and customization options to help individuals, selling professionals and corporate workgroups improve productivity and increase sales.

ACT! is part of Sage CRM Solutions, the only family of CRM products designed specifically for the needs of small and mid-sized businesses that also includes SageCRM, SageCRM.com and Sage SalesLogix. For more details, visit www.sagecrmsolutions.com or call 888-855-5222.

Interested developers can learn more about the ACT! Add-on Partner Program by visiting www.act.com/partners/addonpartners. ACT! add-on products are available at www.actsolutions.com.

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ACT! by Sage Premium for Real Estate (8.0) and Real Estate Promoter products enable turnkey prospecting-to-sales solution for agents and brokers

Scottsdale, Ariz. ?January 22, 2007 ?Sage Software today announced a marketing partnership with Real Estate Promoter, a leader in search engine marketing technology and lead capturing services, to offer real estate professionals the ACT! by Sage Premium for Real Estate contact and customer management solution with Real Estate Promoter’s online lead conversion services. The products, now being offered together as a discounted bundle by Real Estate Promoter, enable higher volume online lead capturing and efficient sales opportunity management for real estate agents and brokers.

?hether in fast or slow markets, real estate agents need easy access to customer information as well as support to efficiently find leads and turn them into sales,?said Joe Bergera, ACT! senior vice president and general manager. ?he partnership between Sage Software and Real Estate Promoter brings cost-effective productivity advantages that will help agents and real estate firms automate sales and marketing processes and accelerate their sales results.?/p>

Real Estate Promoter’s search engine marketing and lead capturing services generate top Website placement and qualified traffic via the top 20 search portals including Yahoo? Google?and MSN? and are capable of delivering thousands of highly-targeted, early-market home buyer and seller leads for agents. Real Estate Promoter also offers Hybrid Website?services that allow agents to promote themselves in their local marketplace and also effectively market their services online. Visitor-to-lead conversion rates on the Real Estate Promoter Hybrid Websites?range from 12 to 18 percent, further elevating users?needs for contact and customer management capabilities.

?ur customers?success hinges on their willingness to stay in constant contact with the leads they receive while using our services,?explained James Grierson, vice president of business development for e-Harbor Inc., parent company of Real Estate Promoter. ?ontact and customer management is crucial for every real estate professional and we recommend ACT! Premium for Real Estate as the ideal solution for tracking appointments and managing all elements of the sales process.?/a>

Real Estate Promoter is offering tiered discounts on the purchase of ACT! Premium for Real Estate when purchased with one of its Real Estate Promoter traffic building services or Hybrid Website?systems. For details, visit www.realestatepromoter.com or call (800) 665-7495.

ACT! by Sage
ACT!, first introduced in 1987, is the preferred choice of over 2.5 million registered users and more than 35,000 corporate customers to organize, access and manage their critical customer information. ACT! delivers powerful contact and customer management capabilities with flexible deployment and customization options to help individuals, selling professionals and corporate workgroups improve productivity and increase sales.

ACT! by Sage is part of Sage CRM Solutions, the only family of CRM products designed specifically for the needs of small and mid-sized businesses that also includes Sage CRM, SageCRM.com and Sage CRM SalesLogix. For more details, visit www.sagecrmsolutions.com or call 888-855-5222.

Originally Syndicated via RSS from Blog

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Canadian-based printing and publishing company? direct mail campaign facilitated by ACT! generates 74 percent response rate

Scottsdale, Ariz. ?February 12, 2007 ?/strong> Sage Software announced today that the Catalog and Magazine Group of Transcontinental Printing, the largest Canadian and seventh-largest North American printing company, is using the ACT! by Sage Premium for Workgroups contact and customer management solution to manage its direct marketing campaigns. A recent direct mail campaign managed using ACT! generated a 74 percent response rate, significantly exceeding typical response rates, which were 2.6% or less for lead generation direct marketing campaigns in 2006, according to data from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). The results won Transcontinental Printing the DMA? 2006 International ECHO Award for strategy, creativity and results in the business-to-business marketing category.

?or our award-winning ?et the Right Combination?campaign, we mailed 200 lock boxes to prospects matching very specific criteria organized in our ACT! database,?said Bruce Jensen, Transcontinental Printing vice president of sales. ?wo years ago, we could not have generated targeted lists with this level of precision in such a short time, but using ACT! we did it all in a day.?/p>

Adopting An Easy Approach To Contact And Customer Management

Transcontinental? Catalog & Magazine Group had minimal results with an alternative contact management system prior to implementing its ACT! solution. The company? previous system was not well adopted among employees, resulting in fragmented use, inconsistent lead tracking methods and no central location for customer information. The Catalog & Magazine Group has since used ACT! to standardize its sales and marketing processes and cites a cost-effective rollout and easy to use features as key benefits.

Fifty-five employees in Transcontinental? Catalog and Magazine Group including vice presidents, sales directors, sales representatives and business development coordinators now share a centralized ACT! database.

“ACT! is well received by everyone on our team because each employee has experienced the first-hand benefits of having all of our customer information accessible from one location,” continued Jensen. “Our salespeople have quickly embraced ACT! as a simple to use and effective productivity tool that helps them make more sales.”

Transcontinental worked with Donna Freedman of Success Analytics, an ACT! Certified Consultant and Premier Trainer, to customize ACT! for the Catalog and Magazine Group’s specific workflow requirements. Freedman also integrated ACT! with Swiftpage, an ACT! add-on solution that provides enhanced e-mail marketing and response tracking capabilities, to support the Catalog and Magazine Group’s electronic marketing activities.

“ACT! has helped Transcontinental’s Catalog and Magazine Group become a sales leader within the company,” said Freedman. “Their success with ACT! has inspired other groups within the organization to take a look at adopting ACT!.”

ACT! by Sage
ACT!, first introduced in 1987, is the number-one selling contact and customer management solution and preferred choice of over 2.5 million registered users and more than 35,000 corporate customers to organize, access and manage their critical customer information. ACT! delivers powerful contact and customer management capabilities with flexible deployment and customization options to help individuals, selling professionals and corporate workgroups improve productivity and increase sales.

ACT! by Sage is part of Sage CRM Solutions, the only family of CRM products designed specifically for the needs of small and mid-sized businesses that also includes Sage CRM, SageCRM.com and Sage CRM SalesLogix. For more details, visit www.sagecrmsolutions.com or call (888) 855-5222.

Originally Syndicated via RSS from Blog

Filed under: ACT! | No Comments »