Act! Premium v25 is here, and it's the first new Act! release since v24 came out in October of 2021. Act! v25 helps businesses by providing richer insights, better communication tools, and enhanced usability.

• Richer insights: Act! v25 introduces an advanced dashboard builder to Act! Insight, which allows users to quickly create custom analytics dashboards to visualize more of their data, gain meaningful insights, and react quickly to changing business conditions. Upgrades to custom tables also provide a report Designer and Wizard to help you better understand your data.
• Better communication:  - Extend your reach and stay top of mind with prospects and customers with SMS4Act!. SMS4Act! allows users to send ad-hoc text messages without needing to create a full-fledged
  marketing campaign. Text messages can be sent for virtually any occasion, personalized, and saved as templates for future use.
• Enhanced usability: Act! v25 includes several Act! Marketing Automation and Act! Companion enhancements to improve performance and usability, including new campaign dashboard options, suppression
  list filters, campaign list sorting, mobile app accessibility, opportunity filtering, and more

The six main new features that deliver these enhancements are as follows:

• Act! Insights Advanced Dashboard Builder
• Custom table improvements provide faster, more reliable list views, and new reporting functionality
• Integrated SMS Messaging
• Act! Marketing Automation Enhancements
• Act! Companion Enhancements
• Big fixes (including a schema change)

Act! Insight Advanced Dashboard Builder

Actionable insights are vital to business success. Act! v25 introduces an advanced dashboard builder to Act! Insight, which allows you to quickly create more granular, custom analytics dashboards so you can visualize more of your data, gain more meaningful insights, and react quickly to changing business conditions. Click to expand the illustration below.

Features

• Advanced querying allows for multiple sets of criteria
• Create new dashboards based on contact, opportunity, company, and group data
• Pull in associated field data
• Configure grouping and add additional criteria as needed

Custom Table Improvements

Upgrades to custom tables were also bundled with Act! Premium v25 includes several new features and fixes to improve the user experience.

• Tables4act no longer uses the problematic OLEDB Views for lists, using the standard SQL tables instead
• Font settings can now be set for field values as well as labels (Windows)
• Added report designer under Custom Tables > Reports. (Windows)
• Added Charting support which can be accessed by pressing the Chart button on the custom table view. (Windows)
  
  • includes graphs & charts (click to enlarge the example to the right)
  • KPI's and Complex KPIs

Bug fixes:

• Font settings for field labels were not saving correctly. (Windows)
• Currency fields not showing the currency symbol when merging to MS Word or email, nor were they accepting 0 as a value in the web, or exporting to Excel correctly
• Activity fields displaying as an ID in the list view
• Calculated fields not displaying correct values in list view (especially age fields)
• Records in the list view sometimes disappeared after a period of inactivity
• Currency and decimal fields not displaying more than 2 decimal points in list view even if the field supports it.
  
  

SMS Text Messaging

Text messaging is an affordable and efficient way to reach customers and prospects alike. With open rates more than 4x greater than traditional email (98% vs 22%), it’s effective as well, allowing even the smallest businesses to compete with much larger competition.
While text messaging is currently available as part of Act! Marketing Automation for US customers, SMS4Act! Allows Act! users to send ad-hoc text messages globally without having to build a full-fledged marketing campaign. All sends and replies are automatically tracked for reference and follow-up. Click to expand the illustration below.

Features

• Send ad-hoc text messages without the need to create a marketing campaign
• Send to individuals or groups
• Automatically track sends and replies in contact history records
• Create text message templates and personalize with individual contact information
• Send text messages for appointments, order updates, shipping status, event reminders, promotions, and more

SMS Text Messaging FAQ

• How is SMS4Act! different than the SMS functionality in Act! Marketing Automation? The SMS functionality in Act! Marketing Automation is an option for communicating with customers as part of a broader campaign process workflow. It requires a paid AMA subscription and an additional fee for text messages. SMS4Act! can be used without a paid AMA subscription and as a direct contact medium, rather than as part of a multi-step campaign workflow.
• Is SMS4Act! a user- or account-based subscription? SMS4Act! is a user-based subscription, however users may invite other Act! users to share the same SMS4Act! account by providing an API key.
• What terms are available for SMS4Act! subscriptions?  SMS4Act! subscriptions are month-to-month and do not need to align with an Act! subscription. All transactions take place directly with Message Media, the service provider underlying SMS4Act!.
• What rules apply to SMS messages and how are they governed? As a global leader in SMS text messaging, Message Media handles all matters regarding deliverability, opt-outs, and appropriate use. SMS4Act! subscribers are subject to their terms and conditions of use.
• Is there a free trial available for SMS4Act!?  Yes, a 14-day Free Trial of SMS4Act! is available for subscribers of Act! Premium Desktop v25. A Message Media account is created as part of the trial process and all transactions take place directly with the service provider. 25 SMS messages are provided at no charge in the trial.
• How do customers receive support for SMS4Act!?  Message Media supports the SMS service. There is a 24-hour inbox for billing and sending issues available at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.m
• Is the phone number a message originates from chosen by the customer or assigned by Message Media?  Message Media assigns a number from their own system. This allows replies to be recording to Act! History. Message Media can change sending numbers for the customer at no charge, however replies will them be received by their own mobile device and not recording to Act! History.
• Can the customer put their assigned number on their website and receive texts to that number?  No, this is not currently supported at this time but it is under consideration for roadmap planning.
• Does Message Media offer any pricing besides month-to-month? No, monthly is the only option at this time.
  
  

Act! Marketing Automation Enhancements

Act! Marketing Automation has something for businesses large and small, from basic outbound marketing tools to dynamic campaign automation, response-driven sales activity creation, and much more.
As part of Act! Premium Desktop v25, we’ve made Act! Marketing Automation more intuitive and user-friendly for all users. Improvements include an enhanced campaign dashboard, new suppression list filters, additional date formats for mail merge, and improved list sorting. Click to expand the illustration below.

Campaign Dashboard Enhancements
To improve overall usability, a new “Properties” dropdown menu is now available with options to “Jump to Campaign”, “Jump to Campaign Dashboard”, and “Export all Email Campaigns”.

• Jump to Campaign - Allows users to access to email campaign editor to quickly make content or design changes.
• Jump to Campaign Dashboard - Allows users quick access to the campaign dashboard to view more granular data around campaign success.
• Export all Email Campaigns - Quickly exports campaign data to .csv which is sent directly to the users email

Email Suppression List filters
To make it easier for Act! Marketing Automation users to zero in on the right data, we’ve added three new filters for suppression “Reason”, “Status” and by date. 

• Suppression reasons include things like bounces, spam filters, unsubscribes, and blocked.
• Suppression status includes things like active or inactive

Additional Mail Merge Date Formats
The mail merge functionality is a time-saving option to personalize outbound marketing content.  In locales or industries where the 24-hour time format is preferred, users can now select this option on the fly or set it as the default option within the Account Properties settings

New Email Template Sorting
To make it easier for users to find email templates, we’ve improved load time performance and introduced four new sorting options. Users can now sort by:

• Template Name Ascending
• Template Name Descending
• Last Edit Data Ascending
• Last Edit Date Descending
  
  

Act! Companion Mobile App Enhancements

Available for iPhone®, iPad®, and Android™, The Act! Companion mobile app keeps users connected to their Act! database from anywhere. To improve the overall mobile app experience for all Act! users, we’ve made a number of enhancements to the login experience, opportunity filtering, and Act! proximity search. Click to expand the illustration below.

Accessibility
We’ve made it easier for users to quickly access the mobile app with the option to “Remember Username”. A new blue background helps improve text readability.

Opportunity Filtering
Act! Mobile app users can quickly review opportunities by status with new filtering, search for opportunities by opportunity name, and which filters have been applied.

Proximity Search
 Act! Proximity Search performance and stability has been improved to easily find contacts in a given radius. When zooming in and out, users can easily adjust the search radius. Users center search location will now persist when navigating away and then back to the search. 

Additional Act! Companion mobile app improvements

• Company name visible in opportunity list view
• For contact records with more than one phone number, users will be prompted to select which to dial.
• Google Maps address autocomplete
• Return all records when the search field is left blank
• Favorites page styling updates
• Clicking save multiple times does not create multiple histories
• A timestamp is not automatically added for timeless activities
• UK date format displays correctly 
• Improved German translation quality 
• See all associated activities in the contact detail view
• View and Manage “Hot Leads” from a single page
• Improved scrolling experience
• Phone extensions now appear in the contact record
• Record Manager added to opportunity detailed view
• Act! API out-of-date notification
• Creating an activity and assigning to contact automatically associates with company

Bug Fixes

Summary

Act! v25 is only available in Premium version at this time, as the Web version is expected out in August and the Pro version has been discontinued. Act! Premium v25 will be available for download from Download Act! v25 - Act! on June 8th for North America, and all active Act! Premium v25 on-premises subscribers will be notified when the web version is available for download. Before upgrading, always check the Act! system requirements to confirm compatibility with your workstation setup. If you're on a 32-bit version currently and planning to upgrade to v24 or v25, please note the installation directory of Act! has changed, and will require the current version to be completely uninstalled before the new one is installed. Also, all addons will need to be reinstalled. Please consult with your addon vendor to confirm the availability of compatible updates, and if additional costs are involved.

For tips on upgrading your Act! software, please click HERE. 

If you're hosted with Act! Premium Cloud, your transition to Act! Premium v25 will be seamless. Even after Act! upgrades the databases on their side, you can continue to sync with your Act! v24 remote databases until your team is ready to upgrade their workstations. If you're hosted by a third party, please coordinate any upgrades through your Act! Administrator or Consultant, as upgrading early can cut off your sync access to the team's master database.