ACT! 2010 goes social

By Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 02 September 2009 10:37

Development

ACT! by Sage 2010 hooks into social networking services. It also sports user interface improvements.

One of the headline features of the SME contact and customer manager ACT! by Sage 2010 is the ability to add information from social networking profiles (including LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo and Twitter) into contact records.

"Customers want to be able to seamlessly connect with their customers. As Web 2.0 technologies such as LinkedIn, RSS, map programs, marketing programs and mash-ups infiltrate both social and corporate scenes, we are seeing business applications increasingly incorporate them into their features and functionality to improve productivity," said Mike Lorge, managing director of Sage Business Solutions, Australia and New Zealand.

"Social media naturally augments contact management and CRM systems with valuable information to help marketers create more thorough customer profiles. At Sage, we are focusing product R&D on advancing integration of social media into the sales cycle so customers can develop more meaningful and profitable customer relationships," he added.

ACT!'s social media technology also provides support for Google Maps, Google News, and Zoominfo.

Other changes include user interface improvements (25 percent higher productivity than competing systems according to competitive study conducted by Measuring Usability, Sage officials claimed), a subscription-based e-marketing service, and new dashboard charts.

ACT! by Sage 2010 costs $A279, or $479 for the premium edition.