In 2016 Keystroke acquired Handheld Contact and immediately set out to improve its’ feature set. Opportunities were added to the basic contacts & calendars and then followed by mobile mapping, searches, quoting, favorites, contact pictures, and so much more. 

This year we took it a step further and introduced a new technology called Handheld Contact API, which allowed users to sync directly with their master database and update more data across more devices more frequently. It included a new dashboard, and changes made to the calendar appeared instantly in Act!.

Recently we started to wonder, though, if we hadn’t left some of our customers behind. With all the innovations of the past few years, we became concerned that many of our loyal customers might like a version closer to what they had for 15 years with the original HHC – namely contacts & calendars only, but offer this basic service at a steeply discounted price.

It is with this thought in mind that we’re going "back to the basics", and introducing in the new year “Handheld Contact Basic”, a feature-gated version of our premium API product that will be available for $49.95. HHC Basic customers will still enjoy all the API perks of more updates on more devices, but some of the premium features introduced the last few years will be suppressed. HHC Basic customers will get all Contact & Calendar features they’re used to, including the new Favourites, Sharing, Alerts, and exporting to native address book, but premium features like opportunities, mobile mapping, quoting, Searches, and importing will be unavailable with a Basic subscription.

Handheld Contact Basic will include the following:

• Wireless syncing of contacts, calendars, task lists, notes & histories
• Fast setup with no computer software to install or configure
• Export contacts to native address book
• No Windows Console needed, syncs directly with the master database using the Act! WebAPI
• Use on multiple devices with no contact limit
• Sync with multiple devices per account
• New Dashboard, Favourites, Sharing, and Keyword Search
• Modern new look

One of the beauties of feature-gating a product like Handheld Contact is the customer’s choice of subscription will control which features they have access to, not the software they download & install. So if a Premium customer wants to downgrade to Basic, or a Basic customer wish to upgrade to Premium, there is only one program to install, and whatever subscription you apply will dictate what features you get.

Very simple.

In addition to the nearly 40% cost savings, Handheld Contact Basic also offers your team flexibility. Instead of being forced to pay for Premium features some users may not require, you can tailor-fit your HHC subscriptions to the needs of the users. For instance, salespeople may need the Premium service to access their Opportunities, where the rest of the staff may be perfectly content with just the contacts and calendars on their phone.

Handheld Contact Subscription Options
However you slice it, we think the choice is good, and we think our customers will agree as they now have a wide selection of Handheld Contact products to choose from:

• Handheld Contact Classic – our original version that works on all releases of Act!, Pro or Premium, back to Act! v16… $79.95
• Handheld Contact Secure Plus – a security-enhanced version of our Classic product that includes many HIPAA compliant features for those in industries that demand higher security… $129.95
• Handheld Contact API – our Premium API service that includes all our mobile features, while offering more data, on more devices, with more updates. … $79.95
• Handheld Contact Basic – Sync more Contacts & Calendar data on more devices with more frequent updates using the API technology at big savings … $49.95
• Handheld Contact Lite – Download your address book once a week to always have your contacts at your fingertips for searching, calling, emailing, texting, and mapping….. FREE

Handheld Contact Basic is scheduled for release the second week of January 2021, subject to beta results. It's important to note that the trial of Handheld Contact API will include all the Premium features, but the features available after the trial expires will depend on which type of subscription is applied.

Please note:
The Handheld Contact Basic version is only available in our API product line and is not available with a Classic subscription. Accordingly, only the current Act! users with an active subscription (and Web API permissions) are eligible to use Handheld Contact API and Basic, as they both use the Act! Web API, which is a subscription benefit. To learn more about the Web API, please visit www.keystroke.ca/connections, and to see a detailed breakdown of the feature comparisons between all our paid Handheld Contact products, please click HERE.