Sage ACT! 2012 Starter Solution

Is this right for me?

Sage ACT! Pro
Establish, manage and build business relationships, and find new prospects and convert more of them into customers.  A simple but powerful contact management system, Sage ACT! Pro (RRP £190) centralises your contact information, organises your diary, tracks sales leads and can organise marketing campaigns. In short, it's a vital member of your sales and marketing team.

SageCover
The Sage ACT! Pro Starter Solution includes one year's SageCover support (worth £90), our complete support service that includes telephone & email support, our monthly Solutions Magazine, practical business advice, discounted bespoke screen layouts & reports & free software updates. Find out more.

Training
Also included is a £99 Sage Training voucher, which can be redeemed against our range of training options, including Self Study Workbooks as well as classroom training courses to ensure you get the most out of Sage ACT! Find out more.

Pay by interest-free Direct Debit:
All this from just £25 per month (12 months 0% APR)

Total saving: £84

In-depth information about Sage ACT! Starter Solution

Get up and running easily

• One year's SageCover included
• Voucher to spend on any of our training courses.
• Intuitive, easy-to-follow interface means you’ll be up to speed in no time.
• Welcome page gives you handy hints, tips and the latest news.
• Set up ACT! with your own business and user preferences.
• Built-in templates for emails, tasks and processes to help you get started.

Store all your contact & customer information

• Save all your contact information in one place.
• View a complete communication history for all your contacts.
• Create customised filters so you can view your database however you like.
• Instantly search your entire database to find the information you need quickly.
• Create bespoke data fields to suit your business, including free text, drop-down lists, tick boxes and images.
• Sync your contacts Sage 50 Accounts and Instant Accounts – no more duplicates.
• Run customer reports at the click of a button to see quick overviews and summaries.
• Work smarter by allowing all your employees can access the same information simultaneously.

Keep on top of all your sales opportunities

• Simple dashboard gives you an instant view of all your sales activity.
• Create, monitor and nurture leads from first contact to conversion.
• Track sales opportunities each stage of your sales cycle.
• Forecast your sales by estimating close dates and probability of closing.
• Highlight sales trends, historical performance and forecasts with a selection of intuitive and customisable reports.
• Export your reports to Excel with one click to gain even more insight.
• Filter sales opportunities by sales rep, interest, notes, decision makers, competitors and probability of conversion.
• Generate and import quotes from Microsoft Word to help you win new business.
• Generate quotes and invoices in Sage 50 Accounts and Sage Instant Accounts, and link them directly into ACT!

Communicate better with your contacts

• Communicate with your contacts by email, letter, fax and more.
• Send specific messages to individuals, or communicate in bulk with mail merge.
• See a full communication history for every contact at a glance to make sure you don’t duplicate messages.
• Analyse historical sales trends, preferences and profiles to make sure you send the most effective messages possible.
• Use pre-prepared templates or customise your own with personalised layouts.
• Send emails from Microsoft Outlook and automatically save them in ACT!
• Use ACT! email merge to send targeted newsletters, promotions and other communications to all your contacts.

Save time and work more efficiently

• Handy dashboard gives you a quick overview of any outstanding tasks.
• Storing all your relationship information in one centralised location saves time and ensures information is never lost.
• Manage daily responsibilities by scheduling and tracking activities like phone calls and meetings.
• Manage your time effectively with the built-in calendar and sync it with Outlook to stay up-to-date.
• Customise your dashboards to get a quick and easy snapshot of the information you need.
• Use the powerful new search tool to quickly search your whole database.
• Use Smart Tasks to automate everyday processes.

A perfect fit with your business

• Use the ‘Web’ tabs to integrate ACT! with online content:
• Assign websites to specific contacts
• In-built Google & Yahoo links run automated searches using contact fields
• Add Linkedln, Facebook and MySpace profiles to contacts
• Find your contacts using integration with Google Maps
• Link with iCalendar and vCard to keep your information up to date.
• Integrate with Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes and Gmail to keep your records accurate.
• Integrate with Sage Instant Accounts and Sage 50 Accounts to sync your contacts, view transactions and generate quotes and invoices.

Looking for more - try Sage ACT! Premium

• Available for 1-100+ users so you can work faster and smarter.
• Scalable as your business grows - add more users and expand your database.
• ACT! for Web included so you can access your contacts and database  remotely.
• Share dashboards and reports between users so your team is always up to date.
• Assign specific user rights to different data fields for added security.
• Synchronise your data remotely and across your network without ACT! open.

Get the most out of ACT! with connected services

• Make sure you get the full benefit of ACT! with Sage Connected Services, which give you even more flexibility and opportunity for your business.
• Sage ACT! Connect: remotely connect to your  ACT! data using a mobile device - including Blackberry, Android, iPad and Windows Mobile
• Sage E-marketing: design, build and send targeted email communications to your contacts, and build online landing pages to win more business.
• Sage Business Info Services: import leads from a database of 68 million companies and 85 million contacts, and filter down to find the perfect leads for your business.

Technical Requirements

Important note: In a networked environment, Sage ACT! Pro  has a maximum of 10 users. If you require more users we recommend Sage ACT! Premium. Call 0800 694 0569 to find out more.

Recommended system requirements

• An IBM® compatible computer with a 1.8 GHz (or equivalent processor); 1GB RAM; 1GB of free disk space;
• 32 Bit versions of Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008;
• 64 Bit versions of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008.

Notes

• Network Users only: 1Gbps network cards and switches with Microsoft Windows networking
• Works with Microsoft Office 2002/XP and all later Editions
• Concurrent User Limits: Windows XP Home and Vista Home Basic 5 users, Windows XP Pro and Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Enterprise or Ultimate 10 users

Additional software

• Microsoft Outlook® 2002, 2003, and 2007 (SP3 recommended for Outlook 2002/2003)
• Microsoft Outlook Express 6.0 SP2
• Lotus Notes® 6.5, 7.0.2, and 8.0
• Eudora® 5.2
• Internet Mail SMTP/POP3
• Microsoft Office 2002, 2003, and 2007 (SP3 recommended for Office 2002/2003)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer® 6.0 and 7.0
• Adobe Reader® 6.0, 7.0, and 8.0
• VMWare® Workstation 5.0, 5.5, and 6.0; VMWare Server 1.0.1

Palm OS® minimum device requirements

• Palm OS 3.5-5.4
• Minimum 33 MHz or higher processor
• Minimum 8 MB or higher memory
• Minimum 500K free memory plus 1K for each contact
• HotSync® Manager 3.5 and 4.1.0

Pocket PC minimum device requirements

• Pocket PC 2000/2002/Phone Edition (Windows CE 3.0); Windows Mobile 2003 (Windows CE 4.0 and 4.20.0); Windows Mobile 2005/5.0
• Minimum 133 MHz or higher processor
• Minimum 16 MB or higher memory
• Minimum 500K free memory plus 1K for each contact
• Microsoft ActiveSync® versions 3.5 - 4.5 (XP operating systems only)
• Windows Mobile Device Center (Vista operating systems only)

Apple Mac compatibility

Sage software is not compatible with Apple Macs, unless you are running Windows via Apple’s Boot Camp utility