How to Export Notes from Act!
(Hint: You cannot do this within the native program)

In case you are looking go at it alone or with your I.T. contractor, you can export some of the data, but not all the data out of Act!.  For instance, the contact list view doesn’t export the unique IDs so notes, history, opportunities or the calendar won’t connect back to the correct contacts when you import them into another CRM or an ERP.  For instance, if you employ a native tool such as the ACTREADER, SQL Studio or ODBC connection, these programs cannot strip out the RTF/HTML code formats as shown here.  Our service can export the notes from Act! into a CSV format along with the unique IDs.

Sources:

• Act! knowledgebase answer: “Can I export Act! notes to Excel?“
• Act! knowledgebase answer: “What can I export from Act! ?“

For current Act! users, here are a couple ideas.

If you are trying to get more than what the standard reports provide while you want to remain in Act!, we recommend and implement Keystroke Dash .  Then, you can export on the notes, history or opportunity tables and add additional fields to the reports standard Act! doesn’t provide.

Moreover, you can create dashboards, charts or lists with Keystroke Dash.  Overall, we find it very easy to train people on this program and it offers extensive customization.

We also support Microsoft Power BI, where you can combine Act! with other data sources to gain additional insight into the business.  As an illustration, check out our case study.

Options:

• Keystroke Dash is $150/PC.
• Power BI with Act! (Fees vary by project).

If your CRM or ERP isn’t listed here, we can still help.

We offer the Act! database export service, so you can take the spreadsheets to your consultant so they can do the import.  We have done this for companies in the US, UK and Israel moving to Salesforce, Hubspot, or other industry specific ERP or CRM systems.  If you have additional questions before migrating systems, check out our guide to leaving Act! CRM.

How We Work

• Contact us to review your current situation and timeline.
• 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.
• We’ll email you a link to download the ZIP file for the rest of the data after the invoice is paid.

Fee:

• Budget $700.00 (£565.00 + VAT) per database.

The post Export Notes from Act! appeared first on MondoCRM.

The problem is the in OLDEB provider.  The OLDEB provider is a bridge for Act! report writers to see the tables and relationships in Act!.  For reasons unknown, when Act! is upgraded from v15+, the OLEDB provider doesn’t add this field to the provider.

The solution is to download this fix and run it on the server that hosts Act!, and you must have full administrator rights to install this patch.  Restart your reporting application, and you should see this work.

The post Opportunity Status Field is not Available for Act! Reports appeared first on MondoCRM.

The post Using Microsoft Power BI to put Act! Contacts on a Map appeared first on MondoCRM.

If the rep hasn’t synchronized recently, they can go to Tools-> Synchronize Panel -> Synchronize Now in Act! then synchronize the data.

If you have trouble implementing this or troubleshooting errors, we can help.  Mondo^CRM has been working with Act! synchronization since 1998.

The post Determine if Reps Have Synchronized Act! in Two Clicks appeared first on MondoCRM.

1. Create a dynamic group in Act! and create the lookup.
2. Customize the columns in the list view (Press F8 if you don’t see the list view).  Then customize the columns by pressing Tools -> Customize -> Columns
3. Export to Excel by pressing Tools -> Export to Excel

If step 2 is too tedious, use this app to save time.  It saves customized versions of the contact list view so  you don’t have to rebuild this every time you come back to it.

The post Creating an Act! Report to Excel Using the Contact List and Dynamic Groups appeared first on MondoCRM.

For example, instead of measuring how many tech support cases we had to offer at no charge, we should measure our success rate of solving it within 30 minutes.

Check out this indepth article, citing the airlines industry.

The post Defining the KPI for a Professional Services Firm appeared first on MondoCRM.

The post Act! Dashboard – Find New Contacts in Two Clicks appeared first on MondoCRM.

The first step for Act! users is getting the data in effectively. Use history (CTRL-H), not notes. Why? Notes don’t allow Act! to do all the analysis. But a history classifies entries as “Call Completed”, “Meeting Held” or “On-Site Presentation”. Then, the report tools count history entries by type, date, sales rep etc.

In version 17.1+, you can change the default result from “Appointment Completed” to something else like “Call Completed”. Here is how:

1. Tools -> Preferences
2. Click Startup Tab
3. Under History, select a history type as default

Then, you can create an ad hoc report using the History List View (v16+ )

The post Act! Reports – Easy First Step appeared first on MondoCRM.

In my opinion, here is why Act! reports don’t work:

• Data entry is too tedious
• The reps have no incentive to update the system
• Act! Report Writer isn’t flexible

I recommend three things before completely switching systems. It’s a little different from an article from Forbes but we have similar opinions.

• Change your current screens so it’s even easier to enter data (Hint: Use Tools -> Design Layout to move fields)
• Change your default history (v 17.1+)
• Make it mobile with Act! Premium Mobile (v 2013+) or Handheld Contact for Android, Blackberry
  or iOS.
• Show them something self-serving once the data is entered such as the rep no longer needs to create an extra report since the Act! History list or other reporting apps do the work for you

Once data entry is easier; then, we can use Act! features like the history list view (v16+), opportunity list view (v 2005+) or power tools like TopLine Dash and Alerts, Excel via OLEDB and Microsoft Power BI to make informed decisions.

The post Why Act! Reports Don’t Work – Solve It without an Upgrade appeared first on MondoCRM.

The solution is to download this free tool allows you to change the default setting from “Appointment Completed” to “Call Completed” or a customized entry for Act! 2011+.

The post History Fix for Act CRM appeared first on MondoCRM.