Comments on: Why Businesses choose ACT! Software over Salesforce.com

By: John Kaufman

John Kaufman — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:08:41 +0000

@Ray – ACT! doesn’t requite a dedicated server in a majority of installations, nor is an MSP or anyone else required to maintain it monthly. The lifecycle of ACT! is typically 2-3 years. If you take the cost of the installations and upgrades, ACT! still has a lower TCO than salesforce.com over the same time period.

Many ACT! users also have ACT! for Web, which allows them to do the same thing if PC dies. The only difference is when the salesforce cloud goes down everyone looses. When a server with ACT! on it goes down, one can just access ACT! for Web in cloud.

Neither salesforce.com or ACT! is the best CRM out there becuase there isn’t one. The best CRM is the one the ideally matches the needs of the client, whatever that may be.
Thank you for your comments.

By: Ray

Ray — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:37:48 +0000

You did not add the cost of your new server to run ACT nor the price of your MSP to maintain it monthly.You did not add the cost of Paying IT/MSP to come out and install it on server/client PC nor the cost of any additional support.You did not add the cost of downtime when a client PC has a bad drive and needs act re installed when they can just move the the next PC and open their web browser .
- Flawed and Biased review

By: Sage ACT! CRM Software or Salesforce.com | Solutions for Accounting

Sage ACT! CRM Software or Salesforce.com | Solutions for Accounting — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:12:41 +0000

[...] read more about the product comparison visit the blog article If you do not currently have a CRM package (customer relationship management software) and you [...]

By: John Kaufman

John Kaufman — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:52:20 +0000

Each of you had some great points to add for and against ACT! 2010 vs Salesforce.com, from Julie who is a salesforce.com advocate to the rest of you for your input as well.

I’d like to thank everyone for taking the time to chirp in.

We’d be very interested in comments from ACT! and SF users, too.

By: john kaufman

john kaufman — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:58:48 +0000

Allow me to elaborate on several statements that I think are incorrect:
Fact: If you want Outlook integration with Salesforce.com, you must download and install the Salesforce.com Force.com Outlook Connector
Fact: You can’t reduce your number of subscriptions mid-contract. Look at the Salesforce.com Master Subscription Agreement for all of the terms and conditions that Salesforce.com imposes on you. It says customers pay in advance, and MOST customers pay annually in advance
Fact: You CAN’T get your data out of SFDC ANY TIME yourself if you want it. Unless you have the Enterprise Edition, you have to pay extra for the weekly export service BUT even then Salesforce.com uses case sensitive, 15 character serial identifiers that make it very difficult to use any common database tools. When you finish your contract, you will get your data back in 45 / 50 .csv flat files (unless you have the Professional or Enterprise edition) – basically, your data in its most basic format with Notes truncated. With ACT! you always own your database. If you stop using ACT!, you still have a database, not a rat’s nest of csv files
Fact: Salesforce.com’s mail merge capability require you to generate a report list, then export to Excel, then carry out the merge using Word. According to Salesforce’s own documentation this is a 14 step process. Compared to ACT!, I think this is utterly useless.
Gartner has stated that Salesforce.com is the most expensive SFA CRM solution in the market. The infrastructure costs of ACT! are minimal, and we conclusively prove that Salesforce.com is 2x / 3x more expensive compared to ACT over the lifetime of the application. PLUS what about all of Salesforce’s hidden costs such as Storage and Offline Access
Fact: Between 15% and 20% of Salesforce.com customer are dumping Salesforce.com every year because of the high cost and restrictions of the solution.

By: Julie Peterson

Julie Peterson — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:38:32 +0000

I think you are guilty of doing what you claim SFDC does – providing innacurate information about competitors/

Just a couple of innacuracies – not all but the most glaring of them

You dont need software loaded on your PC to capture Outlook emails. That is certainly one but not the only option.

MANY, probably MOST clients pay their subscriptions other than annually. SFDC is very flexible to accomodate the client’s needs. eg They have allowed us to swap licenses as our needs changed mid contract.

You can get your data out of SFDC ANY TIME yourself if you want it. You can also have a weekly export service set up for you. I’d love to see an ordinary ACT! user export their Activity History, Notes, Groups themselves! Horrible!

And another comment from a similarly ill informed ACT! devotee, SFDC CAN do Mass Mail Merge and its easy and done entirely within SFDC. No Excel, Outlook required.

You can compare license costs but you havent taken into account your infrastructure costs. Gartner and others have proven that Salesforce.com is cheaper over the long term

If you are going to write an article such as this, then get your facts right. Otherwise it just serves as a forum for other similarly ill informed people to propogate their innacurate information as well

Just one question, if ACT! is so much better than Salesforce.com, then why are people dumping it in droves and moving to the superior product – Salesforce.com!

By: Dave Worral, ACT! Certified Consultant & Premier Trainer

Dave Worral, ACT! Certified Consultant & Premier Trainer — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:51:36 +0000

John,
Thank you for your concise yet informative article. I appreciate your level-headed approach to this matter. This is an excellent example of the spirit of many of our fellow ACT! Certified Cconsultants.
I would add: ACT!, at no extra charge, COMES WITH offline access!
Dave

By: Dominic

Dominic — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:53:25 +0000

Hey,

thanks Reece I do totally agree with you. I have used Salesforce and it is so difficult to navigate through and understand how it applies to collective and intelligent workflow. Not only the scrolling kills me, its the layouts, design of the fields and lack of flexibility. Get this, saleforce say they can do MASS mail merging. They cannot! If you read the instructions on how to do it, you must export all your emails and field data and use outlook. Such a Joke.

ACT! have been the leaders for 22 years and will remain that way. Salesforce can only try harder with their marketing tactics such as free car give-a-ways… you should have seen them at CeBIT. ALL they did was collect email addresses so they could market to people. They gave NO business advice and did not even talk about their product.

Cheers,

Dominic
Act Today

By: Reece Harper

Reece Harper — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:46:37 +0000

Good comments,

The funnies thing is we can still offer 45 a month a user and even 10 a month a user a month with Act! for Web… But its the tin car sales tricks that the client falls for. I have used Sales force and found it the worse software you can use, I call it a web response forms, and 10 clicks of serperation to do a tasks. They do have Speed over Act! for Web because Act tried too much in the Web version. Ajax will solve this. Come on Act! web developers, you have had that issue for since .net 2. (2007)

If Web is your thing, and you really need certain functions,make sure you get a good ACC, as we can get a few more tricks out the product.