Software companies always say their program is easy to use. ACT! proves it. Not only did it invent the category of CRM, but it remains easy to adapt after 24 years int the business. How many programs can say they have been around for 24 years ?!
Executive Summary:
Usability should be a major criterion for purchasing software and is an important component of total cost of ownership. At Sage, usability is a cornerstone in creating the user experience of our products and productivity is the benefit to you. In the past year, Sage Global CRM Solutions has increased our efforts related to usability. We have implemented a progressive program of customer research involving hundreds of customers and partners. Through this research we’ve gained a better understanding of customer needs. From studying your use of earlier versions of ACT!, we learned that you wanted to more easily find what functions are in the product and that you needed ACT! to be easier to use so you can do more. As a result, one of our major goals for 2010 was to increase the focus on the overall user experience to make it even easier to learn, use, and do more with ACT!
To determine the effectiveness of ACT! 2010, we conducted benchmark usability tests. A comparative usability test showed that the learning curve of ACT! 2010 improved by 250%. Using an industry benchmark for ease of use based on the System Usability Scale (SUS), we found that ACT! 2010 scored higher than previous versions of ACT! and scored well above the industry average with a score higher than 79% of all other products rated. In addition, we found that ACT! 2010 is preferred over previous versions.
To determine the quality of the ACT! 2010 design compared to the competition, we conducted a Keystroke Level Modeling (KLM) study of ACT! and five competitors. KLM is an analysis technique where common user tasks are assessed by scoring the number of operations (e.g. “clicks & keystrokes”) thereby creating metrics to compare user productivity.
The results of the KLM study show that ACT! was rated number one in user productivity, while Microsoft® and Salesforce.com finished 5th and 6th respectively. Overall, ACT! was rated as most efficient with on average 17% higher productivity than competitors. Notably, the same tasks take 25% longer to complete in Microsoft Dynamics® CRM and 37% longer using Salesforce.com. With ACT!, it simply takes less time to get the same work done.
In order to prove and improve design quality, we’ve measured it. We know that usability and the quality of the user experience are vitally important. That’s why we’ve made ACT! 2010 easier to learn and easier to use. Most importantly, with ACT! it’s also easier to do more.
