In the previous article in this series, we talked about the background of the inception of Act! and Saleslogix. In this article we’ll look at a high level overview of the technical attributes of the two systems.
Again, as a quick recap – both Act! and Saleslogix are owned today by Sage Software. Act! is the ‘entry level’ product of Sage’s CRM family and Saleslogix (SLX) is the ‘big boy’.
General similarities:
- Both offer Windows and web based versions and both support mixed implementations whereby you can have network connected users, remote disconnected users, and web only users co-existing.
- Both integrate with Microsoft Office for saving/sending email and creating mail merge templates.
- Both use Microsoft Windows SQL Server as their database engine.
- Both can be rolled out rapidly without requiring any customization.
- While there are opportunities to have either system set up for you in a hosted environment, the systems are generally intended to be ‘on premise’ and most companies use them this way.
- Both offer ‘drag-and-drop’ customizations for fields and screens.
- Both support data synchronization for road warriors who spend much time disconnected.
- Each system has ‘top level’ entities consisting of contacts and company records, either of which can be related to their counterpoint or not. And now with version 2010, Act!, like SLX, supports a top level opportunity record offering extensive customization capacity.
Now for some differences:
- Pricing.
The ‘base’ version of Act! has a suggested price starting at $229, topping out at $540 for Act! Corporate Premium with Microsoft SQL Server Standard. SLX uses a somewhat different model in that you first select a core ‘server’ level (a bundling of administrative functionality) and then you add client licenses for your users. The SLX ‘Standard’ server is $2995 and the top-of-line Premier Server is $8995. Client licenses for the standard server are $795/user while those for the Premier system start at $1095 and go to $1395 depending upon feature set desired. - Packaging.
Act! is pretty much all inclusive. It includes the licenses for the version of SQL server to which it is married along with the features that are part of that version.SLX is more of an ‘a-la-carte’ situation. Microsoft SQL must be purchased separately on your own, and all of the server levels (there are actually three) provide for various SLX feature upgrades (things like additional synchronization servers, remote office servers, Microsoft Exchange server link, etc.). - SQL Server.
As mentioned, Act! comes with licenses of SQL included – current versions being either SQL Express or SQL Standard. Keep in mind that these ‘bundled’ versions of SQL Server are Act! specific. While they maintain the same technical specs as their ‘generic’ Microsoft cousins, they cannot be used to host other database and they do not come with the various Microsoft utilities such Reporting services, or the Microsoft Management Studio. Another item of note: The SA password for the server instance is locked down, encrypted at the time of install, and is not to be cracked, hacked or otherwise used to access your data directly by tools outside of Act!. Read the Act! EULA. (For most of us, this matters not.) Lastly, the version of Act! that you have is tied to that one specific version of SQL, i.e. – if you are using Act! 2009 today, which runs on SQL 2005, you will never upgrade the SQL server version to SQL 2008. Simple, then, right?Conversely SLX does not come bundled with SQL. As such, SLX generally supports being installed on the two most recent version of SQL available at the time of an SLX update. So, for example, the current version of SLX is 7.5x. It can be installed on SQL server 2005 or 2008. And since you ‘own’ the SQL instance outright, it has all of the Microsoft goodies, and you control the SA password. - Updates/new Versions.
Since 2004, Sage has released a new version of Act! each year. At this time there is no indication that this will change. All users in an Act! implementation most be on the same version.As a product aimed at larger implementations and companies, SLX has a much slower upgrade pace. The version naming scheme is not married to a date in any way, and the primary version number typically stays in use for several years. As an example, SLX 7.5 was released circa September of 2008. Sage is just now about to release the second service pack to this version – SLX 7.5.2. By way of comparison Act! 2009 was released in the same month as SLX 7.5 and Act! 2010 is already out the door today.
Well that ought to be enough to ponder upon for now. We’ll continue our discussion in a follow up article, and while there are many other similarities and differences in these two CRM cousins, we’ll talk about some real world applications where the differing systems make a good fit for business needs.
M. Scott Schaffernoth, ACC
Senior Analyst
Winnovative Technology Consulting, LLC
InsideSmallBizCRM.Winnovative.com
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