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The
History of Act!
Back in 1988, co-founders Mike Muhney and Pat Sullivan "sat in a 10x10 office for 10 months and laboriously birthed Act!". From such humble beginnings emerged one of the most enduring CRM products in history.
Over the next decade and half the Act! program evolved from a DOS application to Windows, and from a Foxpro architecture to SQL. Sage undertook the monumental task of making this arduous transition from DBF to SQL, and by 2007 released a version built on SQL2005.
This SQL standard would remain in place for another four years until Act! 2010 came out, supporting both SQL 2005 and 2008. Of note, the Act! 2010 version introduced huge changes to the structure of Act!, as Opportunities were promoted to the level of parent table, to match Contacts, Groups, and Companies. This one change dramatically enhanced the capabilities of Opportunities, and changed pipeline management within Act! for years.
Subsequent years saw fewer dramatic feature changes to the product under Sage's management, until in 2013 Swiftpage took ownership and re-branded it as Act! In May of 2015, Swiftpage made the bold move to transition to a subscription based purchase model, and thereby joined the majority of the CRM industry. This one change made Act! accessible to more businesses as the cost barrier to access was significantly lowered.
You can see an illustration of the Act! historical timeline below. For a historical breakdown of how the product's features evolved over the years, from version to version, please click HERE.
A History of Act! CRM
2021
Act! introduces the new Act! Premium Cloud
In 2021, Swiftpage launched its first iteration of a SaaS product - a fast 64-bit multi-tenant architecture single-sign-on experience. This new Act! Premium Cloud includes a web-only and desktop sync version.
For the first time, customers can completely manage their own account with a built-in purchase portal.
2021
2018
Act! introduces Marketing Automation
In late 2018, in their boldest move in recent years, Swiftpage acquired a company called Kuvana, and incorporated new marketing Automation into the Act! product line.
This new upgrade came to be called Act! Marketing Automation, and lite version was later added for free to Act! Premium called AMA Basic.
2017 - 2018
Insight Reporting tool
2017 - 2018
2016
Swiftpage connects with Zapier
2015
Act! switches to a subscription
2015
2014
Swiftpage sells Saleslogix
2013
Swiftpage buys Act! & Saleslogix
2013
2010
Sage rebrands Act! as Sage ACT!
2009
Seizing the Opportunity
2009
2006
Swiftpage integrates with Sage Act!
2007
Act! moves to SQL 2005
2007
2003
HHC offers true mobility to Act! users
In 2003 Handheld Contact introduced mobile support for Blackberry. Contacts, Calendars, Notes, and Histories reliably synced from Act! to the BLackberry devices, completing users CRM experience. In 2009 HHC added support for iOS (iPhones), and then Android followed in 2012.
In 2017, Swiftpage started selling HHC on www.Act.com as their exclusive 3rd party mobility solution, aknowledging them as the industry leader.
2001
Sage purchased Act!
2001
2005
Sage launches SQL version of Act!
1993 - 1998
Launch of Sales Logix
1993 - 1998
1987
The birth of Act!