Others say...

"Too much time spent supporting ACT for my users"
My experience with ACT comes from the support side, as I provide IT support at my company and provide help for all things ACT. ACT seems to do the job for my users, but it is a nightmare & time-hog from a support perspective. Any upgrade, update, database conversion, or data import I've ever done has resulted in erors and calls to technical support, and this after I've already researched or downloaded step-by-step articles describing how to do it! The Remote Sync takes much time to set up, and any update or change done to ACT requires you to completely reconfigure each user's ACT settings in order to sync. Very inefficient, doable as long as you document the 200 steps that need to be done. My experience with tech support has been good, they always resolve the issue, it just gets old having to call them so often, and is time-consuming.

The last straw came after upgrading to ACT 2006. It slowed laptops down to a crawl. Not just ACT, but everything, including Windows, ran slow on the laptops with ACT installed. Part of the reason (I found after several calls to tech support), is that ACT had introduced new "services" (Stayrunning & Preload) that continually run in the background. These services could be permanently turned off only by doing a reg hack. This sped things up a bit, but some users still complained of slowness and having to wait 30 seconds to open a Word file. So we have uninstalled ACT from most of our laptops, at the request of the laptop users.


"Act 2007 works FAST and FINE with right system."
I ordered ACT 2007 (got a great price on 2007 vs 2008. Shop around). After buying, I read all the negative reviews and figured I was in the deep stuff. However, I found quite the opposite.

As a background - I converted 6500 contacts from Goldmine using conversion software. I left GM because it is not supported any longer and was getting a little paranoid about the consequences of major problems.

Of course there were some duplications and minor errors in the conversion but nothing major. There is also a learning curve for a new user and some quirks as with any program. However, the format is much, much more user friendly for a smaller company (4 users) than is GM.

The major concern to others seems to be speed. Not for us. We are on a peer to peer XP network. We keep one machine dedicated to data storage with no users on it. We did update to all new Dell Vostro and Optiplex machines with 2.0 GHZ or better and a minimum of 1 GB RAM, 80 GB drives. The response from the ACT program is instantaneous. I do not know if the speed problems everyone is complaining about is a function of old slow equipment, converting from prior versions, slow network, or what. Our ACT is fast.

Now I have to admit the manual is crap (aren't they all?). For the first time in 20 years I subscribed to a support contract. I suspected that it would be a lot cheaper with a new and fairly complicated program than beating my head against the wall trying to figure out those little quirks. I was right. I have already recouped the $200 cost with a couple of phone calls. The quality and courtesy surprised me. The contract covers 13 months for less than the price of one license at retail. And as a bonus, you get to talk to real live Americans who actually know something about the program. (Listen up HP. I don't want to talk to India). I also bough ACT for Dummies. Very useful book so far.

I wonder if anyone doing exactly the same as we did has the same concerns about speed as some of the other reviewers. I gave 5 it stars so people would see that the program is not the junk others are calling it. However because of the manual it really should be 4.5 stars.

"Avoid a heart attack, just don't buy it."
Buying Sage Act! 2007 is one of the most stupid things I did on my career.
It simply doesn't work.
And if you want to contact the company for help, you have to pay $200+ for a customer service plan.
The email function it has collapsed 2 times in about 6 months, making me lose tons of valuable information and time.
Sage simply steal my money.
Avoid frustrations like mine and other thousand of users, just get another solution from another company.




"This product is very good (2008 is much better)"
Our company has used ACT for years--ACT2005 was super slow...but ACT2007 really picked up the performance. I found the Outlook integration to be excellent. The company level record, the ease of templates and reporting, the phone dialer integration make for an all-around great product and great value. However, we love ACT2008 even better...so I'd advise to get that if you have the option.

"Lots of money for what?"
I have been an ACT! user for years. Actually started with ACT! 5 several years ago.

I decided to buy this program so that it would sync with my Treo 700wx. Really the only reason I bought it. Did that only a year and a half ago. It worked great until...

I go to buy a new system with Windows Vista. Come to find out, this program will not allow sync with a PDA in Vista. So the biggest reason I bought it was now moot.

Now I am bombarded with e-mails asking me to upgrade for another $199 to ACT! 10 so that I can have the functionality I paid for in the first place. Most companies make a patch or something for Vista and offer it for free...NOT SAGE.

Instead of upgrading ACT!, I kept this version and bought Outlook 2007 for seamless sync with my PDA.

Sage has lost me as a customer probably forever. Great product IMO, just bad corporate policies.