Introducing ACT! Mobile Live #actmobile

[#1]

As you know from reading my blog, I am a big fan of connected services.  It gives me great pleasure to introduce our newest connected service ACT! Mobile Live.  As a quick reminder, connected services extend the capabilities of ACT! with specific capabilities that are delivered in the Cloud.  Here’s a quick overview of ACT! Mobile Live, which first supports Blackberry® devices:

•    Wireless synchronization of ACT! Contacts and Calendar with your Blackberry®
•    Works with your existing wireless mobile service
•    Integrates with the Native Contacts and Calendar applications on your device
•    Schedule synchronization at convenient times or sync when you request
•    Easily update as you change your Smartphone
•    Fast and simple sign-up
•    Supports ACT! 2010 (v12.1) and later

The best part of the service is it’s simple and easy to use.  Basically, your contacts and calendar on ACT will be in sync with your handheld.  If you meet a client and add their contact details and schedule a meeting with them from your handheld – both will be transferred to ACT!.  Likewise, entering information on ACT! will be transferred to your handheld.  Any edits/changes will also be transferred to/from ACT! so you are always up to date.

A new and very interesting service that is available today.  Please check out the links to learn more and I hope you enjoy ACT! Mobile Live.

Sign up for free 30 trial

Learn more about ACT! Mobile Live

Read the ACT! Mobile Live press release

Listen to Brandon Balsley, Sr. Product Manager, as he introduces the new ACT! Mobile Live service

Larry

Message Edited by tmergel on 06-15-2010 03:01 PM

[#2]

Thank you for sharing. Could you please comment on the roadmap of this product please? I would like to know whether Sage sees this product also evolving towards a multiuser/server setup, in order for larger organisations to maintain control over the syncing process. Also a server based solution would be a perfect next step in product evolution for organisations already running a Premium setup and a WEB based setup.

In fact.. if one server program would be able to handling all sync requests from mobiles any special need for the clients leaving their PC's on would also be dealt with. (In the current setup there is only a sync process if the client pc is on and is instructed to sync every ... hours. In larger organisation one would prefer to have the calenders of the employees that are 'outside' to be synced frequently in order for the people 'inside' to see whether certain appointments have been made or any scheduling at a certain date is no longer possible.

Get the point?

I hope you are able to reflect a bit on the thoughts of Sage on the roadmap and my above company 'needs'.

Kind regards,

Rene van der Velde

aka The Dutch Betatester

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[#3]

Thanks Rene (aka the Dutch Betatester)

I really appreciate the specific and constructive suggestion.  Generally, we don't comment on roadmaps but I'll share a bit here.

Our next primary roadmap items will be focused on adding additional device support like iPhone and others.  Further, we want to broaden the international use of the service, especially to our German and French speaking customers.

Your comment here is an excellent one regarding overall improvements to enable easier adoption and streamlined use within workgroups. I totally understand the request and agree with the need.  In fact, your suggestion is something we have discussed internally as a potential enhancement.  

Although ACT! Mobile Live can be used with workgroups, we are indeed planning enhancements that more specifically address the unique needs of larger workgroups who share a centralized ACT! database. As we continue to refine and collect feedback on the feature set for this centralized mobile solution, we’re actively seeking constructive input from our community - you have done a super job of doing just that!

 

By posting your suggestions on our Share Your Ideas community forum you can see other similar suggestions and receive Kudos votes from others who also like your idea. Those ideas that get the most Kudos from our users help us prioritize and focus on the most critical new features and products.

Thanks again for the post.  It's great to be in market with the service and able to converse with the community on directions you would like us to take ACT! Mobile Live.    Larry

[#4]

Hi!

I would like to know if it is any new about iPhone compatibility aviable now!

I would like to present this option to my company, but all of them are using iPhone devices!

Please let me know as soon as you can!

Thanks!

[#5]

Hi Marketingcommercial,

We're planning to add iPhone to Sage Mobile for ACT! in 2011.   Based on timing clients becoming available to us, we are likely to introduce Android support shortly after the new start of the new year and then follow with iPhone.  I appreciate your patience on this. 

Larry 

[#6]

I've purchased and installed ACT Mobile Live, and I am NOT an happy customer. It doesn't allow to choose what type of activities to sync, and I end up with 500+ more to-do on my device, while I care only for the meetings and calls while on the road, and the to-do are my assistant's job anyway. Worse, the details field of any activities synced to the portal are shrunked to about 600 characters (the rest being replaced by "..."). While I don't really care to not have every details on my device, I DO care if the sync sends back that shrunked information to the ACT data base, resulting in PERMANENT LOSS OF DATA. Adding to that, cleared activities are synced to the device (I don't need that), and they are not even sent to the portal on the right date (scheduled as non-cleared activities on the creation date, instead of as cleared activities on the cleared date : it doesn't even match the history !!!).

And to use Mobile Live, I had to upgrade 7 licences from 2009 to 2010. The result : getting Mobil Live costed me a few thousands. Know what ? ACT 2010 Premium for Financial Pro cannot even manage to do a simple and so basic task : attach a file or shortcut to an existing non-recurring activity. No patch yet for that ? Hey, wasn't it 8 months ago it was released ? That kind of things should be repaired in a flash, and a patch released for download for free.

Will I ask for to be reimbursed ? What's your bet ?

Patrick Boucher, Financial Planner

[#7]

Hi pboucher,

Sorry to hear you had some difficulties with AML and ACT!. I've just sent you a private message to see if we can connect on the issues you are experiencing and work through them together.

[#8]

Moved to Sage ACT! discussion board for greater exposure

[#9]

I have had a great deal of difficulty transitioning to the new Sage Act Mobile.  All of my difficulties (which have taken untold hours of my time and your tech's time to resolve) are attributable to bugs in the product that were known to somebody in Sage but not to your users or easily accessible to your tech support staff.  For everybody's sake, you absolutely should start posting in a readily accessible location all bugs that are known to Sage together with workarounds, if available.  It would save both your users and your tech staff much time.

[#10]

Hi rconant,

Thanks for your suggestions on how we could better track and communicate service issues. The issues you experienced have been documented and updated in our internal tech support knowledge base so, that they can be more quickly accessed and addressed by Sage tech support personnel in the future.

Unfortunately, the problems you experienced stemmed from an early build of our service's PC client which, when upgraded to our Sage Mobile for ACT!, caused a misrepresentation in the messaging of data that was syncing.