posted on 8/31/2011 7:52:52 AM
The ACT! 2012 software, due to be announced September 1, features a host of usability upgrades as well as a mobile application that allows salespeople to access the stripped-down CRM system through mobile phones and tablets.
With many in the CRM world focused on San Francisco and Salesforce.com’s annual Dreamforce conference this week, Sage hopes to draw some attention of its own on Thursday, when the ERP and CRM provider will unveil the latest version of its ACT! software.
In Sage’s well-stocked CRM stable, the ACT! offering resides at the lower end of the market, automating contact and sales management primarily for small businesses. When it debuts later this week, Sage ACT! 2012 will deliver a series of usability upgrades as well as a new add-on service aimed at making salespeople or marketers more productive, the company said.
In a nod to Google’s growing popularity among the businesses that use ACT!, the 2012 offering features integration with Google’s free email, calendar, and contact applications. A salesperson who sends an email through Gmail, for instance, will find that communication recorded in the appropriate account in the ACT! software. The same salesperson can also create a contact in Google and find an identical record established in ACT!, Sage CRM Senior Vice President Larry Ritter told Managing Automation in a briefing.
“ACT! naturally aligns to small, individualized businesses,” Ritter explained, noting that many, but not all, of the CRM software’s customers are small in size. On the cusp of the 2012 release, the ACT! product boasts 59,000 corporate customers. Of those, 1,700 have more than 1,000 employees on their payroll, Ritter said.
More than sheer numbers, what separates ACT! customers from those of more robust CRM systems is the sales model they pursue. ACT!, he said, is geared toward businesses in which each salesperson focuses on individual customers; that is, a relatively unstructured, one-to-one selling model.
Those users will also find a new Scratchpad tool in ACT! 2012, a digital notepad that allows them to take notes that they can then synch with the CRM system. Sage also updated what has become a core feature of enterprise applications: ACT!’s search function, which, according to Ritter, now features more filters to better organize results.
While developing the latest version of the software, Sage was bitten by the mobile bug, as so many enterprise software providers have been. Sage ACT! Connect lets salespeople and other CRM users access the system through laptops running Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, or Safari browsers; smart phones running BlackBerry, Windows Mobile; or Android, and tablets such as the iPad. The user can create and save new accounts and update a calendar from the mobile device, while the full ACT! database remains on a local machine. The Connect add-on also features a social media twist, allowing users to import customers’ photos from their Facebook profiles.
The Connect service is available for an additional $69 per user, per year. “We’re beginning to feel that mobile is just part of what [we] do,” Ritter said of the general business community. That helps explain why he and the development team at Sage considered baking the Connect service into the ACT! product. Ultimately, they decided to price the offering separately, and low enough to be attractive to ACT! users who are often on the road—a contingent that still represents the minority of ACT! customers, Ritter believes.
Making good on a promise set forth in 2008, ACT! 2012 also features integration to Peachtree, a Sage ERP system used mainly by small and midsize businesses.
The ACT! 2012 product will be available on Sept. 1. For new customers of the basic Pro edition, the cost is $239.99 per license; upgrades cost $179.95. The price for the more robust ACT! Premium 2012 offering is $479.99 for new users and $319.95 for upgrades.