Act! Pro v16 (2014)- Includes 1 hour ACT! 101 training webinar held weekly

I think the first version of Act! That I used was Act for Windows 2.0 back around 1992. I loved the software and used it through a couple different owners including Symantec and through many upgrades. Then in 2004 it was completely rewritten by Sage in a version called, "ACT! by Sage 2005". It was a disaster. At first I thought it might be just me until I went to post a review on Amazon and saw that most of the other reviews were 1 star. I went to an Act! support forum to try to figure out how to fix things and discovered many others were having similar problems and discussing alternative CRMs. I ended up going to a CRM called Maximizer until they announced recently that they were discontinuing the non-cloud version of the software I was using and would no longer support it. So I took another look at Act! and downloaded a trial version from their website. After trying it for a couple of weeks I came here to Amazon and purchased it. I didn't load the CD, I just entered the serial number that came with it into the trial, which is actually a full version so it wouldn't expire within 30 days. The license is good for 3 of your computers. I'm mostly happy with this software so far and here is why:Swiftpage purchased Act! from Sage in early 2013. The software is even better than I remember it being before the 2005 debacle. It has more features and ways to look at my information. It's a powerful program and much easier to customize. I like the layout although I'm still getting used to some of its features. So far it has been very stable, like the old Act! prior to 2005. It mostly plays nice with Outlook 2013 other than one problem with creating a new template where I had to find a work-around. I'm using the automatic phone dialer to make calls by clicking on a contact's phone number and having a record kept of it on the contact's page. I can send emails to a contact or group of contacts with a simple click. The calendars, task list and follow up alarms all seem to work well. I am going to be trying the Opportunities feature next.For anyone thinking of switching from Maximizer, there is no way that I can find to get much more than names and addresses by way of an export to Excel. I'm in the process of copying and pasting things I need. But since I've exported files for years from one version to another of different software, this is a good time to clean out my database and get rid of companies that have been out of business or bought out for years. I understand there are some 3rd parties who are able to get records out of Maximizer but it seems to be an expensive solution.So why the 4 stars instead of 5? Customer support. When using the trial version I had to phone after not finding a solution online for my problem of creating new templates. It took an hour, most of it on hold, only to find out that I couldn't speak directly to tech support, only to customer service who corresponded with them by email or chat and then relayed the information to me. It didn't solve the problem. There is 30 days of free support when the software is purchased so I bought it here, knowing how good Amazon's return policy is. Once I registered the product I was able to speak to a tech support person in India who was very helpful and showed me a work around that solved the problem. He was very quick and knowledgeable but I still ended up with a 45 minute hold time before I got to him.After the 30 days there is only online support from the online community or knowledge base. Any type of live support is covered by one of 3 levels of paid support packages. There is also 3rd party paid support. I generally don't require live support once I have software up and running so I haven't decided what to do about that yet.Since this version of Act! lives on my computer (running Windows 7 Home version) and not on a cloud, I needed to find a way to get my information to my iPhone. I found CompanionLink which works with Act! and my iPhone 4s and several other devices like my Kindle HD 8.9. It has a very nice GUI and quickly syncs contacts, activities, notes and history, groups and user defined fields. They have excellent and quick customer support. This is a 5 star app. Amazon doesn't carry the Act! version. I purchased the Express version on their website. It works with Deja Office which is free and lives on your iPhone or other device. You can get Deja Office in the app store for your device. You can find DejaOffice for Kindle here:  DejaOffice I'll update this review as I continue to use the software.

The seller of this product offers a 1 hour ACT training webinar which would lead one to assume that they possess a level of expertise with this product and service. I purchased their product working under this assumption. After loading the software and following the instructions to register it with Swift, the company who supports ACT!, I found that it could not be registered because Swift stopped supporting this version, 2 years ago. The problem i faced, if you can't register it, you can't use it. My multiple attempts to reach Software for Salespeople LLC has yielded no response to date. My assumption, either they are not as knowledgeable as I assumed or they knowingly sold this product with full knowledge that it was not supported and therefor unusable. Whatever their position, their unwillingness to address this issue or even make contact with me is telling. There are too many other ethical Amazon sellers that you can work with who will better meet your needs. This is a classic "Buyer beware" scenario and deserving of a zero rating.

I can't sincronise with outlook, becaise ACT came just as 32bits.Regards

The software did not work, and I had to return it for a refund. Spending about 3 days (4 hours each day) on the phone with Swiftpage Technical Support guy. He gave up.

Since my previous review, I have spent time working with the new Act Pro v16 to get it to load and start up and function correctly. It is now working correctly and loading on opening. Seems to be working flawlessly. Accordingly, I want to upgrade my review. The software does exactly what it is supposed to do and meets expectations. I would recommend the product to others and upgrade my rating to four stars.

This software is a scam!!!!!!!! It costs $40 and one hour of my time to recover my password. I highly recommend choosing another piece of software!!!

The process of setting up ACT! could be further simplified, it seems. After fighting it for 5 days, i finally called tech support and they helped me with the installation. it took a little over 2 hours to get it all straightened out. other than the set up process, the technical support was excellent, the product arrived on time and as expected.

The product itself, when working, is amazing! However, the one that I bought is full of glitches. The glitches would be much more manageable if Act's customer service were more efficient. In trying to solve my incessant problems with the program, I have spent over seven hours on the phone, much of that time has been on hold. For example, on one call to tech support I was on hold for one hour before hanging up. The greatest travesty of Act is that, after a mere 30 day grace period, they expect you to pay $100+ to talk to tech support!!! $100 really!!! On a $200+ product. Really? Act, I think, is one of the most expensive programs in this category. A customer has a reasonable expectation that it should work upon delivery. When it doesn't, which might be forgivable, Act should bend over backwards to make their expensive product right, even if it takes 2-3 months. Failure to do is inexcusable.

Excellent Quality!