Before there was Act! Premium Cloud (MTA) there was the original Act! Premium Cloud (STA). APC's "Single Tenant Architecture" version existed for many years and was based on the traditional Act! for Web model. It was slower than the new "Multi-Tenant Architecture" model built on SaaS technology introduced with Act! CRM and Act! CRM Classic.

Over the last few years Act! offered both these technologies to their customers until their pricing evolved to be the same, and maintaining both made no technical or commercial sense. It was for this reason that Act! started migrating the old STA accounts over to MTA in July, intending to deprecate the STA service altogether by year-end.

We're pleased to report that after some early success, that process is now being accelerated in August, and will unfold thusly:

• A selected batch of customers (a “Cohort”) will receive an email describing the event, outlining the benefits, and informing them of actions they need to take by a specified date (3-4 weeks) in preparation for the migration. Links to a KB article, a dedicated email box, and a calendar link are included.
• The selected Cohort will then see an in-product pop-up in their account each day directing them to update their user credentials (to be email-based) via a new admin menu item. Once complete, these customers are still on STA for the time being but can begin to log in via my.act.com if they choose.
• Each Monday night, those from the Cohort that have completed updating their credentials by the prior Wednesday will be migrated to the new platform. The prior Thursday, they will receive an email notice setting expectations and providing another specific KB article.
• This group may include customers that locate the “Update Credentials” option without being prompted by an email.
• Please read the KBs articles to familiarize yourselves with the content and to be prepared to assist as needed

Currently, STA customers are being hosted on Act! Premium v23, but will be migrated to Act! Premium v25, and later published to the web with Act! Premium 25.1 when it's released in mid-September.

For those worrying about disruptions to their database syncing, that is covered, as well. Act! Premium v23 RDB's sync with Act! Premium v24 and v25 master databases. The only hitch is if you need to cut new RDBs, which will require an Act installation! v25 to support them. As you might guess, this cross-version compatibility is only intended to buy customers time to upgrade at their schedule, and not maintain the lower version indefinitely.

When this process is complete, customers will enjoy a faster, more modern architecture at the same price as they were paying before. What's more, Act! intends to focus all their development on improving the MTA version of Act! Premium Cloud, which will include including improved Outlook integration, Calendar enhancements, and UI updates through 2023.