Act Archives

Migrate Act! to Hubspot

Smoothly Migrate Act! to HubSpot
for Advanced Sales and Marketing Capabilities

To migrate Act! to HubSpot can be a significant step forward for your business. We built our practice on Act! and supported Act! since 1997, and we realize some clients will eventually change. Or, you found us here, but we never supported Act! for you. Since we’re product agnostic, we provide a service to migrate Act! to Hubspot.

Our Act! export service will prepare get the Act! contacts, notes, histories, activities and opportunities ready for Hubspot. Act!, by itself, won’t export the history or notes so it can be imported into other systems as cited by their knowledgebase. Once your data is ready for import, you can begin the process of setting up your HubSpot account. This will involve creating custom fields to match the data from Act! and setting up any necessary integrations with other tools your business uses.

Need a Hubspot Partner?
We'll hook you up in the USA or the UK.

Since we’re not certified in Hubspot, we can refer you with a Hubspot certified partner in the United States or United Kingdom if you don’t already have someone in mind. We recommend working with a certified Hubspot partner because it’s a meticulous process. Furthermore, Hubspot does not offer an “undo” option if a mistake was made on the import. You will have to delete those records assuming they are easy to find; then, start over.

No matter which CRM you choose after Act!, it’s important to train your team on how to use HubSpot effectively. This may involve setting up training sessions or providing access to online resources. You should also plan to have a support team in place to assist with any issues that may arise during the migration process.

In summary, when you migrate Act! to HubSpot, you will provide your business with advanced sales and marketing capabilities and access to powerful analytics and reporting features. By following a structured approach and properly preparing your data, you can ensure a smooth transition and start taking advantage of the benefits of HubSpot.

How We Work

Give us a backup of your Act! database.
We'll send you a sample set of 100 records from your database.
If you like it, we'll finish the export.
Once our fee is received, we'll email you a link to download the ZIP file for the rest of the contacts.

Our Fee:

Budget $700.00 (£565.00 + VAT) per database (Export Act! only)
Complete Conversion: Quoted per Project

Compare Act! And Zoho

To compare Act! vs. Zoho, solely on a list of features and pricing isn’t adequate. For that reason, you need to determine whether the platform could be customized to match your business process, not the other way around.

Our backstory

In addition to supporting Act! and Zoho for our clients, we applied the programs at MondoCRM. Currently, we utilize Zoho One to operate MondoCRM which includes: CRM, Books, Forms, Cliq, Workdrive, Social, Analytics and SalesIQ . Comparatively, our Act! experience started in 1989 by operating it for a family business, and we made it the cornerstone to start MondoCRM in 1997.

Act! & Zoho Backstory

Act! invented the CRM industry in 1987 when they released Act! for DOS. Presently, SFW Capital Partners owns Act!, LLC. with headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona and an office Newcastle, United Kingdom.

Zoho CRM, published in 2005, creates the cornerstone to 50+ office productivity applications known as Zoho One. They are privately held with their main office in Chennai, India with US offices in Austin and Pleasanton, California.

Are there differences between privately and investor-owned software companies? Absolutely! I wrote about this a couple years ago.

Important Price Considerations

When you compare Act! and Zoho, consider these details:

Act! only offers Act! Premium as an annual fee.
Zoho offers Zoho CRM with annual or monthly options.
Zoho CRM offers technical support as part of a paid license while Act! charges extra fees for remote support.

Features Gained when you migrate Act! to Zoho

Zoho CRM doesn't require paid 3rd party CRM addons for these features:

Creating custom tables
Automating workflow and standardizing data entry processes
Integrating accounting software
Integrating with Zoom
Integrating with 40+ applications of the Zoho One ecosystem.
Creating advanced reports
Creating formula fields

Features lost when you migrate Act! to Zoho

Act! converts to Zoho will lose a few items as a tradeoff:

Act! offers offline synchronization while Zoho is only available with internet access.
Act! can be installed and managed on your own server while Zoho cannot be locally installed.
Act! works with Microsoft Word for mail-merge while Zoho is optimized to work with Zoho Writer.
Act! can be installed in a hybrid environment with Act! for Web users and Act! for Windows working on the same database.
Zoho users will lose right-click shorts used extensively in Act!.
Zoho users cannot take advantage of keyboard shortcuts like Act! for Windows can.

Differences

Instead of stating a product preference, we’ll highlight differences on how they approach essential features needed for a good CRM.

Lead Management

Act! puts it all in one database. Then, you use fields to segment the database between leads and customers. It's easier to setup, but the drawback for some is the database gets clogged with dead weight, and there isn't an easy way to archive it unless it's deleted.

Zoho dedicates a module to leads. This way, you can keep stuff separated until it's a qualified lead and use different workflows or blueprints to ensure this data gets its own rules. The disadvantage is you must customize an additional set of fields and map out a lead conversion process.

History and Notes Management

Act! puts it all in the history table. Whether it's a phone call completed, e-mail sent, a meeting held or an opportunity updated Act! records in one place to make it easy everything that happened with the contact.

Zoho separates e-mails from completed events. Zoho's advantage here is you can easily relate an event to either a lead, contact, opportunity or an account. The Zoho drawback is it's not easy to pull a report of e-mails sent by user over a timeframe.

Account Centric vs. Contact Centric

Act! sees the core relationship with a person first; then, it has options to connect people to accounts (Companies in Act! parlance). The disadvantage here is if you work with several contacts at one account, you need a process to designate the primary contact and main account details.

Zoho sees the world "account first" then you add multiple contacts against it. This model suits the b2b account-centric sales model where the accounts' contacts are more transient. It's also easier to manage opportunities against the account rather than one more contacts. The disadvantage here is you need a process to automate copying data from the account level to the contacts so target mailings are done correctly.

Reports

Act! offers a banded contact report writer, so it's easier to make reports that reflect the "Crystal Reports" era of report writing. If you wanted to see contacts, opportunities, notes and activities on one printed page, Act! makes it easier.
Act! uses a built in report writer, and you can extract most list views to Excel. For complex reporting, we work with third party tools for optimal business insight.
Act! offers a customizable label template.

Zoho CRM offers a built report writer to build list views and charts. Advanced users can easily tie Zoho CRM to Zoho Analytics to report against multiple data sources simultaneously such as Zoho CRM + Zoho Books.
The Zoho CRM report writer doesn't require any scripting knowledge to create reports.

E-mail Management

Act! can make e-mail part of the Act! history table. Great for the rolodex model of CRM where every conversation is easily documented and reportable in one table. It cannot retrofit emails from the past automatically. We field tech support problems because Act! needs to keep up with more changes in Microsoft technology or work with local desktop security policies. If you need to run reports against the number of emails managed as a report metric, Act! has the upper hand versus Zoho as well.

Zoho uses IMAP integration to make hyperlinks to the original email messages. This simplifies the integration, and it will easily go back to all emails from your sent items or inbox. We have fewer tech support problems, but it's harder to do a report against e-mails if your metrics are measured against the quantity of e-mails sent and received.

Data structure

Act! over Zoho

Act! offers a "tag" mode to easily hand pick a lookup and an "edit mode" where inline editing of a list of contacts is done in one step.

Zoho over Act!

Zoho ensures data remains structured. For instance, a text field can be a free-form text field, single pick list or multi-select pick list (not all 3). When it's a single pick list, this allows Zoho to make proper workflows for business process mapping and automating workflows.

Calendar Management

Act! requires every activity to be assigned a contact, or the user's record.
The calendar can be configured to show tasks, meetings, calls and custom activities on the calendar.
Color codes are available.
Each activity offers a privacy option.

Zoho doesn't require an activity to be assigned against a contact, which emulates behavior similar to Outlook or Google calendars.\
Meetings are automatically considered completed after the event date passes.
Zoho calendar easily imports and exports .ics (calendar invite) files.

Integrations

Act! for Windows offers an extensive library of third party addons since 2005.
Act! for Web works with Zapier and third party addons.
It's imperative to check whether an Act! for Windows addon offers an Act! for Web equivalent before migrations take place.

Zoho CRM works with 40+ Zoho applications within the Zoho One ecosystem.\
Zoho CRM works with Zoom without paying for additional fees.
Zoho CRM works with Zapier.\
Zoho CRM works with their own scripting language (Deluge) to write additional custom functions.

Conclusion

To compare Act! vs. Zoho just listing feature checkbox charts and pricing isn’t enough to know which product is better for your business. Occasionally, we teach our Act! clients a new feature, revise a process or buy an addon to solve a problem rather than upgrading the whole system.

In conclusion, before make any changes we offer a complementary discovery call using our unique approach to see if we can help you leverage your current Act! installation before you commit time and treasure to changing CRM systems.

Sending Activities to Outlook from Act! Using Act4Outlook

This commercial plugin enables you to send activities from Act! to Outlook and vice versa. We recommend this for multi-user sites since it eliminates the chance for the sync engine to break and create duplicate entries on either side.

The Act4Outlook/Act4Mail products only transfers the date, subject line and the details field from Act! to Outlook.

How to Reduce the Number of Act! Users

If you need to reduce the number of users on your Act! license, it’s best to do this before the renewal charge hits your credit card. This video shows you how to accomplish this. Otherwise, Act! will throw up an error message when there are too many users against the license count.