Software Vault: The Sapphire Collection/Software Vault (Sapphire Collection) (Digital Impact).ISO/cdr16/cyberr02.zip/ACT20

Text File | 1994-10-18 | 6KB | 98 lines

                              ACT 2.0
                             review by
                             Bill Lehr

    When I entered the world of business, things started to happen.
I met people and went places.  All sorts of information started to
pile up on slips of paper.  I quickly learned, the mind can only
absorb and retain so much information.  Meeting people and
remembering what happened can be kept under control with a good
simple customer contact program.  Let me tell you about my copy of
ACT2 for Windows.
    The installation was simple and self explanatory.  Within a
couple of minutes the program was installed and an interesting
question came up on the screen.  Did I want to register my ACT2 by
modem or by mail?  I couldn't believe the speed with which the
program was set up, including the modem, so I chose sending my
registration by modem, a chore I sometimes forget.  Within a few
seconds ACT2 dialed an 800 number, registered my program, hung up
and said thank you.
    So far, everything went right.  Why not take a trip with the
tutorial and find out all that I could about an advertised
productivity tool?  ACT2's tour whisked me off to a contact screen -
the main productivity tool of the program.  Across the top of the
screen was a standard Windows menu.  Below this is a 17 icon panel
with plenty of room for extra icons to be used with macros which can
be written to make ACT2 more efficient.
    The contact screen offers some 70 plus fields of information
about each of my business contacts.  If I don't like the fields, I
can change their names or order to suit my specific business wants
and needs.  This provides a custom-made contact file for my clients
with fields pertinent to my business.  The screen is simple to use,
and includes a help index that hasn't failed to understand my
requests made to it in my non-computer lingo.  My interest in
business programs is in their ability to provide higher p
roductivity.  If the program can make money (and time is money), I'm
interested.
    As a hypothetical scenario, I talked to a close acquaintance
about ways in which ACT2 could help his air-conditioning business.
He has a large number of residential and commercial customers for
which he installs and repairs air conditioners.  He repairs
equipment, sells service contracts, and performs warranty work.  How
can ACT2 help him?  ACT2 keeps a record of all his calls.  It knows
when a service contract goes into effect, when it's time for the
semi-annual equipment check-up, and when renewals are due.  It
reminds him of this information about two weeks in advance, on a
popup screen.  Then the screen directs him to the client.  Another
command dials the telephone and lets him set up an appointment with
the client.  The appointment is then entered into his date book
along with the time, name, address, phone number and equipment model
number.
    With new equipment sales, a certain period of time is set aside
for the warranty.  When the warranty is about to expire, a pop-up
reminder tells that it's time for a service contract with a
semi-annual or annual check up included.  Again, with date, time,
name, address, phone number and equipment model name.  With this
information, he loads parts into his van for the new machine's first
service call.  This is productivity!
    Customer Service?  ACT2's word processor generates template
thank you notes and/or "it's time for service" notes including
envelopes.
    What else does ACT2 do?  I have a thing about carrying address
books.  I'm always away from the office when I need someone's name,
address or phone number.  ACT2 will give me an address book each
week with updated information on all new clients.  (With past
programs I usually print two of them: one with my contact's name and
personal information, and a second one printed by company name
showing other contacts and people met within a given company.  ACT2
does the same thing.) ACT2 also gives me an updated daily, weekly
and/or monthly calendar for all upcoming appointments, projects and
other events.
    If anyone wants to know, I can tell them how many calls I've
made within any given time, how many sales, how many orders pending
or any other needed information.  I can also do a few of the
advanced features like write and send faxes to my fax program, make
custom reports for my manager, make mailing labels or envelopes,
send E-Mail messages through Compuserve, and retrieve or send ACT2
records to and from our branch offices.  And by the way, all record
entries are date stamped.
    ACT2 prints daily, weekly or monthly reports.  It will also
print pages for all of the popular planning books like Day Timers,
Day Runner and most others regardless of page size and layout.  If
you have your own custom sheet, ACT2 will work with it.  Sincerely,
ACT2 is a class act.  It is an economical program that can be
tailored to your particular business.  In my testing, we adapted it
to a law office, a dentist, a real estate sales office, a newspaper
reporter's personal contact file and made up a progr am for a seven
person sales office.
    ACT2 for Windows is a no nonsense program filled with simple
information which allows business people to increase organization
and productivity, regardless of what that business is.  ACT2 also
works well with most LANs, including Novell, and is available for
Macintosh systems.

                              Symantec
                         10201 Torre Avenue
                     Cupertino, CA  95014-2132
                           [phone]