WARNING--SAGE PROVIDES BAD INFORMATION-ACT DOES NOT RELIABLY INTEGRATE WITH OFFICE 365

[rconant]

In its Knowledgebase article 33125, Sage says the following:

With the introduction of Sage ACT! 2013 Service Pack 1, Sage ACT! 2013 will now recognize and integrate with Office 2013 (complete installation of 32-bit version of Office). The integration has not been fully tested to be advertised as 'Compatible', but at this time there have been no major issues identified. 

This is egregiously wrong.  Act 2013 SP1 does not integrate with Office 365 and Sage is well aware that there is a major issue.  Office 365 does not use the same MAPI (Mail appllication programming interface) as does Office 2010.  Installing Office 365 therefore permanently breaks the email connection between Act and Office.  Even if one removes Office 365, the connection remains broken.

This was confirmed by the Sage Tech, who provided me with this information in return for my paying $200 for the priviledge of speaking to him.  He told me they are working on a patch, but have no estimate as to when it might be completed.

[Roy_Laudenslager]

With all due respect, please read the statement you copied from the KB and please tell me where it indicates thatOffice 365 is supported.

[rconant]

Office 2013 is the same product as Office 365, except the former is delivered via DVD and is paid by a fixed price and the latter via downloading.and is paid on the basis of a yearly subscription.

[GLComputing]

It does work with Office 2013 ... see this article on how:
http://blog.glcomputing.com.au/2013/04/office-2013-integration-in-actcrm-2013.html

[jonmklub]

Couple of things.  ACT 2013 is not the same thing as Office 365.  I"m not aware of ANYTHING FROM ANYONE that ACT works with Office 365.

[rconant]

Ah, but except for their distribution, the two "products" are produced by exactly the same company,  have exactly the same names ("Word", "Powerpoint", etc), look exactly the same, act exactly the same, have exactly the same functions, serve exactly the same purposes yet, according to other contributors to the thread, are not the same, 

I find it interesting that the livelihood of these other contributors who so promptly leap to Sage's defense likely are dependent upon Act's success and perhaps even Sage's good will.

Could that dependency be stimulating the eagerness with which they defend Sage?

[Roy_Laudenslager]

With all due respect, you are betraying your lack of understanding of programming. Office 365 and regular office aren't the same program even though they may look and ack the same. The industry term is Look and Feel. Microsoft doesn't provide the same interface capabilitiy for external programs for Office 365 and they do for regular 32-bit Office. If you'll check some other threads you will find that ACT! can't work with the 64-bit version of Office because they haven't provided the necessary connection capability.

[GLComputing]

As to my questionable motives ... there's a video of it that you can actually see it working in that article - and the video wasn't made by me.

Office 365 subscription is typically for Home users. Office 2010 is intended for business use.

As to tech support, you will usually find that the consultants (no, I'm not one) will know the product better than the phone support guys.

Not only that, but I've not been one to "leap to Sage's defence" as I don't like Sage (they tried to close my business after I pointed out that their Connect product is inherently flawed) - and Sage no-longer own the product.

[kquigley]

I find it surprising this post's author thinks questioning other contributors motives or competence advances their point. Office 2013 and 365 are similar, but not the same. I use Office 2013 on several machines with Act 2013SP1 every day, and with only some minor tweaks, it works perfectly.
I'm not not as smart as Roy, but I sell more than him, and I can comfortably report many are using Act & Office 2013 together without the difficulty you describe.
I would refine your argument a bit, and show Roy and Mike a bit more respect. I may not always agree with them (actually I seldom disagree with Roy), but I have never had occasion to question eithers competence or integrity.

[benhamilton]

rconant, I can understand your initial confusion, however it is a little misplaced.

See this link: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_home-office_install/difference-between-office... 

Specifically the answer flagged as "Most Helful Reply" by Rohn007.

This link may be of help: http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/products/office-frequently-asked-questions-FX102926087.aspx#

See the fourth question "What is the difference between Office 2013 suites and Office 365?

Key points are:

• Most Office 365  plans also include the full-featured Office 2013 applications (emphasis mine)

You might buy Office 365, it includes Office 2013, but if you're not using 2013 (i.e. you're using 365) there is no integration with ACT!, which, as it turns out, is not officially supported either, it just happens to mostly work. 

Also on that page, the question "Should I install the 32-bit or 64-bi version of Office?" (spoiler, 32-bit is the default because it is more compatible with the applications and add-ins that work with Office).

The real issue here is that Microsoft have muddied the waters with their terminology.

I'm with Ken on this one.

Edit: just added another link re 365 v 2013