With the advent of the iPhone, you can work anywhere with an internet connection to check e-mail, facebook and read some e-books.
For ACT!, we support Handheld Contact for the iPhone, and here is why:
- Product stability. It simply doesn’t crash, and I have used it for 3 years. I use their Blackberry version. Other programs tend to duplicate contacts on both sides if the sync log gets corrupted.
- It’s easy to use. You can allow the iPhone and the computer to sync every 15 minutes, and you have to do nothing to make it work after the initial setup.
- Handheld Contact runs as its own application, so you can keep your personal life separate from your business life.
- It offers an offline copy of ACT while you are out of internet range
- You can record history from the iPad and it will show up as a “history” in ACT when you get back to the office
- You can send email from the iPhone from Handheld Contact and it records right to ACT history
- You can send SMS (Text Message) from the iPhone and it will record right into ACT history as well.
OK, what are some drawbacks ?
- The application supports 7,000 contacts on the iPhone. If you have more than that, you need to make a group in ACT!
- Some may say it’s a disadvantage not to use the native calendar and contact list on the iPhone
- It does not work on Windows XP Home Edition
It’s a different approach on licensing.
Handheld Contact is a service that happens to be software at $79/year per user, which includes software updates. In terms of productivity and a “fire and forget” approach to software, Handheld Contact is a critical tool for my CRM practice.
