ACT! 2010 - Making Noise in the Media

[#1]

ACT! 2010 is different.

Not only has the interface been overhauled (now featuring soothing cool mint green!), it has new features that are creating some buzz in the media. There are scores of improvements and changes, but one new feature set has grabbed more attention than all the rest...social media integration. Here's a sample platter of some of the most tasty morsels that have appeared in the media recently:

Sage Unveils Social Customer-Management Tool
CRMDaily.com, Sept. 2nd 2009
http://www.crm-daily.com/story.xhtml?story_id=022001HVFSQC

ACT! 2010 Pulls Data From Social Networks
PC Magazine, Eric Griffith, Sept. 2nd 2009
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2352338,00.asp

ACT! 2010 Ships Today with Social Networking Integration
PC Magazine @Work Blog, Sept. 1st 2009
http://blogs.pcmag.com/atwork/2009/09/act_2010_ships_today_with_soci.php

ACT! 2010 Goes Social
Silobreaker.com Sept. 2nd 2009
http://www.silobreaker.com/act-2010-goes-social-5_2262571021506707480
 
ACT! Gets Even More Social In 2010
CRM Magazine, Lauren McKay, Sept. 4th 2009
http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/CRM-News/Daily-News/Act!-Gets-Even-More-Social-in-2010--55964...

Sage North America incorporates e-mail marketing, social media into latest version of ACT
Phoenix Business Journal, Patrick O'Grady, Sept. 1st 2009
http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2009/08/31/daily23.html

OK, OK, you probably get the point. We've talked a lot on this blog about social media (seems all the rage). The social media integration in ACT! 2010 is clearly hogging the limelight. Now I'd like to hear back from you. If you're considering upgrading to ACT! 2010 or have done so already, how much of a draw are the new social media features in ACT! for you?

Message Edited by russbc on 09-15-2009 05:04 PM

[#2]

I guess it's a sign of the times that the Web Info tab has garnered the lion's share lime-light of the PR focus on ACT! 2010. while the potential is there, it's current implementation is (to me) still short of of providing the business intelligence that is possible with social media.

I posted about this here with some suggestions on how I would improve it:

http://blog.glcomputing.com.au/2009/07/thoughts-on-act-2010-beta-act2010-good.html

On the other hand, the new Sales Ops and (even more so) the Outlook integrations enhancements that add the ability to send/receive iCal activity invites has made significant improvements in my use of ACT! - these, and many other new or enhanced features provide real advantages that justify the upgrade

Funny how the "sexy" features aren't always the ones that will give you your ROI and that you can't make a decision just from PR

Regards,

Mike Lazarus