Integrate ACT! with website

[glaughlin]

Hello,

After much searching I haven't found a solid answer for my need, so now I will ask...

I have a client that is wanting to integrate forms on their website we have done for them with their ACT! database/software.  In a nutshell when a form is submitted on the site they want the contact to be added/updated in their ACT! data.  Is this possible with a simple db connection, does the software's .net librairies have anything to field this?  Any help/direction would be appreciated.

Thanks

[annejnsn]

Probably the easiest way to do so is to create a "survey" using Swiftpage and embed it into your website. Depending on how you do the setup, you will get notified when someone submits the form, then you bring the results into ACT with the results tool. In addition, if you are using drip marketing in SP, submission of the form can be the initial stage of an automated campaign and you can stay in touch with that respondent based on the campaign stages.

Otherwise, if all you are looking for is the ability to bring contact info into ACT, you might take a look at some of the addons that allow you to copy select contact info from an email and use the addon to create the contact in ACT! AddressGrabber and Contact Capture are two that come to mind.

[glaughlin]

Thanks for the quick reply Anne.

Unfortunately adding a form into the site will not be an option.  We have a form that sends the customer/user a quote immediately as well as emailing our client.  This is why I was hoping I could find a solution to populate the ACT! database somehow from my existing form.  My client was unsatisfied with how the 'add to contacts' functionallity was working in their outlook from the emails we were generating to their reps.  It only grabbed the email, and their reps are having to key in the address etc.

That being said, I am not sure if they are using either of the addons you have kindly suggested.  If they are superior to what they are doing now it might be enough to satisfy their need.

Thanks again!

[GLComputing]

Are you storing the data in a database on the web or just sending an email?

[glaughlin]

I would like to do both (save to their Sage database and email my client), and eliminate the need for my client to click the 'add to contacts' button in Outlook ideally. 

Thank you.

[vivek]

Hi,

Another possible option which I admit may not be possible at this late stage, could be to use Google Forms. When a GForm is sent  designed and sent, you can opt to have GDrive create a spreadsheet automatically to receive replies. This spreadsheet can then be downloaded as a csv file and then simply imported into the ACT! dB.

Is it at all possible for you to do a copy paste of an example reply, it might even be possible to use a bit of Excel jiggery pokery to do it with some of Microsoft's beta lab utilities (which are of course free).

[glaughlin]

The email is pretty simple really.  It passes along the application info that the user entered for the product they requested and also contains comments and contact info so the rep can follow up.  We are sending phone and zip code in the email too, they would like those to be picked up by the 'add to contacts' functionality instead of having to key it in.  I was hoping to just directly save it into the ACT! database and save them the trouble.  But it is looking like that is not an option.

[alduet]

I don't think this is too hard to do.  If I understand correctly - you have an IIS server with a form capture page you've already created?  Install ACT! on that IIS server and (asusming you can access your ACT! DB from the IIS server) you'll need to call into an instance of the ACT! framework you create from your code.  

Once you have the framework you create a new contact object and fill it in and post it through the framework.  

I know Graeme Leo also has a web service layer for ACT! that I'm sure would make this an even easier code effort, but I wouldn't imagine this would be terribly difficult.

[glaughlin]

Ideally I would just like to fill the ACT! database that resides on my client's server from the website on my IIS server.  But I haven't seen anyone doing this, what I have seen is always on the same server.

Following the links that Anne suggested earlier, eMAil-Lead Grabber might be all my client is after.  Since I don't have access to their ACT! system, I will reccomend this to them and see what they think.

[GLComputing]

So, you're not storing the data in something like a MySQL database on the web server?

How about something like:
http://www.crmaddon.com/en/addons-en/act-addons/e-marketing/fetch-it-basic