In 1988, co-founders Mike Muhney and Pat Sullivan toiled away in a 10x10 office for ten months, painstakingly giving birth to what would become the world’s first CRM. Initially named “Activity Control Technology”, then “Automated Contact Tracking”, it eventually settled on the succinct acronym “Act!”.
It’s amusing to consider that one of the most enduring CRM solutions in software history sprang from such modest origins.
Over the subsequent fifteen years, the Act! program underwent significant transformations. It transitioned from a DOS application to a Windows platform, and its architecture evolved from Foxpro to SQL. Sage, the custodian of Act!, faced the formidable challenge of migrating from DBF to SQL. In 2010, they introduced substantial structural changes: Opportunities were elevated to the same level as Contacts, Groups, and Companies. This shift significantly enhanced Opportunity management within Act! and shaped its pipeline strategies for years.
Under Sage’s stewardship, the product saw fewer dramatic feature changes in subsequent years. However, in 2013, Swiftpage assumed ownership, and two years later, they embraced a subscription-based model, aligning with the majority of the CRM industry.
The ensuing eight years witnessed Act! embracing exciting technologies, including Marketing Automation, API integration, custom tables, Insights reporting, and the introduction of a robust 64-bit SaaS-enabled version called Act! Premium Cloud. As Act! celebrates its 37th birthday, let’s all raise a virtual toast to this venerable CRM product! ??
