Filemaker and ACT

[Wade]

Does anyone know if there is a solution for importing ACT files, and is there a really good Contact management database that approaches ACT's level of information management?

Thanks

Wade

[LiveOak]

Wade is looking for a way to preserve the relationships between elements in ACT when imported into FM. -bd

[payexpert]

HI

I'm still looking for solution myself. I stopped digging once I found substantial modification would be needed to meet my particular needs. Here's what I've found so far:

Vedatrak CRM 2.1

Nice layout and has expanded fields and script above what’s in Filemaker starter kit. What you see is what you get. I didn’t find much beef behind this. $299 for full pack, $99 for contacts only. Nice looking, may be promising-

- Can you mail merge easily and create drip campaigns?

- Does not recognize if company is already in system while typing and will create duplicate contacts. ACT offers a little image that you can click and pull the company from after you start typing. This eliminates duplicate company entries with similar spelling such as co and company. How easy will this be to modify?

- Allows duplicate contacts within a company. How easy will this be to modify?

Core2crm $499 the contacts tab out of box looks a lot like ACT! . BEST OUT OF BOX CRM DEMO TESTED

* It has integrated email and letter creation per contact, group, dynamic drop down and edit industry and department.

* Add group.

* "Items" looks very much like adding items in Quickbooks.

* Can I dynamically add to a group out of box or do I need a script?

* Duplicates- same issue as Vedtrak. Need dynamic recognition to avoid dupes and save time.

* Above the contacts tab is LAYOUT> looks like built in change will be easy. Re: drop down shown, nice but where ACT automatically makes these hyperlinks, script still needs to be written to do the same here. I use the email hyperlink all the time so I consider it important.

BusinessMan_Enterprise

Good start, but as a CRM falls short on layout and interactivity for database groups. I think a lot of the programming dynamics are there, but additional work is needed to get it to where it needs to be for me. I wonder how easy this database framework will be to modify?

LIKES

* Beyond CRM, this is a full business manager and has many features not found in Core3. Many features I don’t need but probably very valuable to larger business and manufacturing business.

* Inventory is set up for mfg so you can add parts & labor. If I were to use product manager, I need it for internet/ecommerce, which tends to have different needs. There is an option to add category (1 per item), but no sub-category. I’d also have a vendor product code, our product code and sometimes child product codes (sizes and colors). So this section would need a lot of work for my company use, including all the descriptives for meta data etc.

DISLIKES

* Left navigation panel- very distracting. I don’t like to see a bunch of contacts once I’m working on one. It’s too busy.

* Scheduling something for a customer/prospect requires selecting one of the many tabs instead of “schedule”, then drop down to select what you want to schedule. Just a preference based on habit.

* Nice- click on current tab, see prior same type activity

* It does have a company branch tab- I need branch or divisions (not in a tab) which I’m not sure Core3 has.

* Troubleshooting- the drop down menu for reminder time is all AAAAAA instead of the actual time. Maybe because of demo mode?

* Company layout is default-when I click on a company, I want to see a list of contacts and a HISTORY for all contacts.

* CRUCIAL- need a contact layout. When I click on a contact, I want to see all record history below it. Here you select the contact from the company layout, then click on each tab to see the tasks, letters etc. PREFERENCE: Click on a contact and see a window with ALL activities by date.

* Cannot select a group of contacts from left nav, and create any action.

* I think most of the concerns here could be addressed by a different layout, though I think much more scripting will be needed than Core3 to get desired end result.

Once the Filemaker program is set up, I've heard good things about using CIcorp Act conversion.