You receive the e-mail from your ACT! admin, your ACT! CC, or your hosting provider (hopefully TrilogyCRM!) and you follow the instructions to apply your Service Pack.  The file starts to unpack and. . . “There is not enough space on drive C:\ to extract this package”. 

What?  You know you have about 14TB open.  This is an iddy biddy file.  You have tons of disk space!

It’s true, you do have enough disk space.  If you copy the file the file, within the folder, it should extract just fine.  In most cases, the file will be in your Downloads file.  If you chose a different location, substitute that location where we reference the Downloads folder. 

1. Navigate to your Downloads folder. 
2. Right click on teh ACTPrem2013SP1_US_Update.exe file
3. Choose Copy
4. Right click any where in that folder and choose Paste
5. You’ll end up with the original file and a faile named “ACTPrem2012SP1_US_Update-Copy.exe”
6. Double click the Copy file

The file should extract and you’re on your way to Sage ACT! 2013 SP1!

There are so many reasons the term “cloud-based” is in just about every tech conversation these days. Retirement of servers, desktop support, standardization – they are all viable reasons. The definition of cloud-based varies as well. The key to any of the definitions is out-sourcing. Getting something off your plate and letting someone else handle it. Another great reason is the security of having experts behind your database should something go wrong.

Recently a customer called in a panic. She had deleted virtually their entire database. It’s easier than you think. We all go about a mile-a-minute in our business day. It’s easy to just click something you don’t mean to click, and then “oops”, all the Contacts were gone. Since this is a Hosting customer, we were able to calm the user down, recut a remote database and all was well with the world within 20 minutes of her call. While we were getting her remote database cut, she was able to access the main database via the web. The customer barely skipped a beat.

In another recent customer incident, a self-hosted customer, their server was fried during a recent storm. Their IT department had their database backing up via tape drive. Fast forward 2 days and the IT company digging through tapes to reconstruct their ACT! files, we had to restore a database backup that was more than a month old.

Whether you are downsizing your server room, looking to shrink the burden of desktop support, outsourcing your ACT! hosting makes sense. It’s peace of mind and it’s smart business.

This one goes out to our Sage ACT! 2011 hosting customers. Sage recently released Sage ACT! 2011 SP1 Hot Fix 6. This release does contain schema changes, and if your remote database is not on the same version as your main database, you will not be able to synchronize. Simply put, since our Sage ACT! 2011 servers are now running HF 6, all remote users must install HF 6 to successfully synchronize.

To check your version, from within ACT!, click Help, then About ACT!.

The version should read 13.1.11.0, Hot Fix 6. Here is a Knowledge Base article to help you update to the correct version – http://bit.ly/zshwen. To simply download and then apply the Hot Fix use this link – http://bit.ly/xXlNBk.

Even if you are in a self-hosted environment, the mis-matched versions may apply and could be the root of a sync error. It’s also worth investigating the Hot Fix. There are several key bug fixes worth installing. Just remember, all databases, host and remotes, have to be on the same version for everyone to sync successfully in this case.

We recently developed a summer training series for a customer, yes we do that too, and during that session a user asked, “what if I just want to schedule a dentist appointment? I don’t wanna enter my dentist, but I need the appointment on my calendar.” This is one of those things as a 12 year ACT! CC and user of ACT! since 1993 that I take for granted. It’s a great little tip, really.

One of the great things about ACT! is the relationship to the Contact. If you are new to ACT!, it’s something we long timers take for granted. Unlike PIMs (personal information managers, like Outlook or your Blackberry), in ACT! it’s about the Contact. If you schedule a Call, you schedule it with the person you are calling. This perpetuates the lifecycle of sales. Histories prompt follow up. Clearing Activities creates Histories. Documents get merged and attached to Contacts, and all the while these ACT! items are related to the Contact. That’s the ACT! experience. Everything in one place, related to your Customers and Prospects. Read more

Have you ever bought something new and you just love it?  Then you notice this one flaw that catches your eye?  From that moment on that flaw is this annoyance you just can’t disregard.  Well, we were right there with you when Sage ACT! 2011 was released.  Packed with so many great new features that were obviously based on things we the users asked for.  Love it.  Still love it, but that Company field! 

Yeah, it drove us crazy too.  You are working with your Contacts, glance down at the Company field and, what?  I can only see the last few letters of the Company’s name.  Annoying right?  Read more