ACT! by Sage Premium for Workgroups 2006 Introduced

ACT! is used worldwide by over 2.5 million users and more than 30,000 corporate accounts to help sales teams and workgroups collaborate efficiently and build profitable customer relationships.

“ACT! has long been recognized as the leading contact and customer management tool for individuals and, with our Premium edition, this same functionality is extended for front-line sales teams and corporate workgroups,” said Joe Bergera, ACT! general manager for Sage Software. “Larger organizations that have historically only considered expensive systems with features beyond their needs can now leverage ACT! as the tool best suited to their direct business requirements. ACT! Premium for Workgroups 2006 builds on the strength of a leading-edge database architecture to enable scalable and secure features for corporate IT environments.”

ACT! Premium for Workgroups functions as an organization’s central repository for critical customer information. High-impact sales professionals, who manage high-value customer relationships requiring personalized attention, can track opportunities from initial prospecting through closed sale using standard or customized processes.

“The CRM and sales automation requirements of large sales teams continue to define unique market segments, including one focused on corporate workgroups with specific contact management needs,” said Sheryl Kingstone, CRM research director for Yankee Group. “ACT! Premium for Workgroups, with its strong heritage and new architecture, is well suited for this growing segment.”

Organizations using ACT! Premium for Workgroups 2006 benefit from a perpetual licensing model that can realize up to 60% lower total cost of ownership when compared with market alternatives.

Enhanced user productivity features include:

• Advanced company and group tree view to easily visualize group and company relationships and their hierarchy within subgroups and divisions;
• Customizable opportunity fields and drop-down lists allowing currency, decimal or number fields, mandatory fields, easy-select field values and disabled editing;
• Enhanced attachment synchronization and database memory optimization;
• En masse contact access granted from contact list view to easily make contacts public, private or limited to specific users or workgroups;
• Lotus Notes®1 integration to perform ACT! functions from email and track history;
• Expanded accounting capabilities including Sage BusinessWorks 50 Accounting, Peachtree by Sage, Simply Accounting by Sage and QuickBooks 2005 Pro/Premier integration.2

New administration, deployment and security features include:

• Automatic database sync and backup enabling scheduled sync times for remote databases and scheduled backups; once set up, no user involvement is required;
• Silent installation enables ACT! to be pushed to users in different locations using existing software distribution methods from a central network server, with pre-defined user preferences;
• Custom user permissions to allow or restrict deletions and export to Excel;
• Easy-view team membership allowing administrators, managers and individuals to right click a team name to see members of that team;
• Contact lookup by access to see which contacts specific users or teams can access, including quick access assignment for new employees and workgroups;
• Terminal services/Citrix3 support to leverage existing infrastructure and allow users from different locations to access the same ACT! database without the need for VPN access.

The feature-rich ACT! toolset allows sales teams and corporate workgroups to:

• Increase productivity by organizing data in group, subgroup and company categories, and managing opportunities, notes/histories and appointments;
• Access data quickly using keyword searches, detailed views and list sorting;
• Increase sales by automating and customizing key aspects of the sales cycle to provide better forecasting and opportunity tracking;
• Collaborate with team members using permission-based access to customer information, team calendars and company resources;
• Customize data fields, views, calendar options and sales processes for specific industry and individual business requirements;
• Integrate ACT! with common business applications including Microsoft® Office, Lotus Notes, and popular Palm OS® and Pocket PC handheld devices.