Smart tasks Duplicate Entries

[patgenn123]

Hello all,

Does anyone experience multiple duplicate/triplicate/quadruplicate ad infinitum tasks(of the same task) in the Task list when a Smart Task is triggered? 

If so,  is there anything is the actdiag or SQL or any resolution that anyone knows of?  I am getting tired of this...

PG

[patgenn123]

Hello,

Does anyone have an idea of how to solve this issue?

Thanks!

PG

[docaberle]

I agree. Read some other posts from 2011 and some of the same deficiencies in smart tasks that people were complaining about 2 years ago are still there. I'm not refering to the duplicate entries, but there's so much more that needs to be done with Smart Tasks. I'll call support today and see if I can get any answers. Weird thing about the duplication is it's not consistent. Sometimes it doubles up, other times not.

[docaberle]

I spoke with customer support and they diagnosed this as a database problem. The support person had to copy my database into a new one and that solved all the double entries. Not sure what the original cause was. May have been a computer crash or may have been the ACT Service Pack that had to do a lot with the database. Either way, cudos to the support team for ACT. They did a wonderful job...took control of my computer and everything to solve the problem. Sage has a different support payment thing now. One fee got me unlimited support. At first I was hesitant. Not anymore. Hope this helps someone out there.

[GCCase]

I talked my firm into embracing ACT (up to that point I was the only one using it), so this summer we upgraded to 2013 Premium Pro with web and ever since our Smart Tasks have sent out duplicates, anywhere from 3 to 6.

The swiftpage 'experts' seem clueless as to why this is happening.

I, too, am VERY tired of this as clients are complaining.

[RJS]

I posted earlier not seeing all the problems over the lat 2 years with smart tasks. I have a few problems not mentioned myself but not worth noting again.

The real issues is when experimenting with new task processes and something does not work, determining where the problem is, you or the Software.

[davidb]

I first posted the problem with multiple Smart Task entries over a year ago. I spent many hours with technical support testing  solutions including creating a new database, adding a Wait 1 Minute step and many others too numerous to mention. The most frustrating part of the experience was the limited understanding of Smart Tasks by the technicians and the lack of feedback on this and other forums from anyone using this product. I have concluded that most Act users have wisely avoided these so called Smart Tasks.

As mentioned previously I had hoped that Smart Tasks would have been if not improved then at least fixed in 2012 and then 2013 but even new ownership by Switfpage failed to result in a thorough debugging or overhaul of this feature.

David

[davidb]

As per my post, I have spent a long time trying to fix this bug. Have you had any luck?

David

[RJS]

I have been over the smart task process so many time I just decided to make brand new templates making sue of no edits along the way and followed each step exactly while adding additional steps. Then ran Act diagnostics, deleted all old histories,renamed tasks and rebooted machine to ensure no trace of old records. Used new contacts and opportunities even making sure old ones were deleded with no record of duplicates. Of course I had the check box chosen to only run once as well.

After all this I still only sometimes get the tasks to run without duplicates. Some of the time I cannot get them to trigger at all and have to go back and rename all templates deleting the old and starting from scratch. I am running Act v16 on a new laptop with very good processing speed. The basic Act program works extremely fast so no issues with my computer.

I believe the inconsistencies lie in the way the software is handling the process on the back end with very sloppy code. Smart Tasks directly align with Swiftpage's mission about how they want to handle collaboration in the future with tighter integration between act and their email services so I would think they see this as being an important fix.

I would be happy wiht a working version of what is in place now. No sense in adding more functionality unless the core application can handles all the variables better. Bottom line is - Smart Tasks only run correctly SOME OF THE TIME!

[davidb]

Rob,

Thanks for confirming my findings.

I spent  hours attempting to fix Smart Tasks including trying to get tasks to run consistently and preventing the occurrence of multiple steps. I have tried many of the steps you included and with the same results over a year ago but gave it another try over this past week. After many tests, the results are that the ST simply does not work consistency or reliably.

I was hopeful that new ownership by Swifpage would result in these and other deficiencies being addressed but they went ahead and released V.16 without fixing these problems. Swifpage's silence on this is telling of their lack of commitment to this feature.  

Basic work flow automation is one of my basic needs, any ideas and suggestions on alternative options appreciated?

David