ACT! 2006
ACT! 2006 is the most recent evolution of the ACT! Software for managing business contacts. ACT! was originally released over 18 years ago as a basic contact and customer management program. Over the years it has evolved to include more sales management functions. The current developers of ACT! 2006 have taken advantage of some newer technologies, but some changes will not be welcome by existing ACT! users that are looking for more in the new version and instead find less.

ACT! 2006 has my data
The newest evolution of ACT! Software is utilizing a SQL d atabase for information storage. While this brings ACT! 2006 into the new millennium, it comes at a cost. Users of older versions of ACT! Software are used to being able to export their data in several formats. You used to be able to export your ACT! data as comma separated values or even Excel. With ACT! 2006 you can export your data only as text delimited, and only for the basic ACT! information. If you have created custom fields in ACT! 2006, you may not be able to export that data for use in other programs such as Excel.

ACT! 2006 has a bad Outlook
Many users of ACT! Software are also using Microsoft Outlook for email and appointments. Although ACT! 2006 has its own email system and calendar, many users find it to be inadequate compared to Outlook's best of breed functions. This means many people are maintaining customer information in both ACT! and Outlook. If you are sending or reviewing emails in Outlook you have to switch to a different program, ACT! 2006, to see your sales data. ACT! 2006 does have a synchronization module that will allow you to synch your Outlook information with your ACT! data, but you still have the information in two places. This can create a serious disconnect and can leave you wondering where the correct information is.

ACT! 2006 features inside Outlook

The newest version of ACT! Software does not bridge the gap between working within Outlook and having efficient contact and sales management. Prophet 4.0 solves this problem. It gives you advanced Contact Management like ACT! 2006 right inside your Outlook. Prophet 4.0 provides sales management and reporting like ACT! 2006 inside of Outlook. You no longer have to leave Outlook to look up your sales opportunities. With Prophet 4.0 you can create a sales opportunity from within an Outlook contact or email. Any email, appointment or task created in Prophet 4.0 goes through your Outlook and is saved there. You can review your emails, appointments and tasks from either Prophet 4.0 or Outlook, it's the same information. No required synchronization as with ACT! Software.

Prophet 4.0 solves the ACT! 2006 problems

Although the newest version of ACT! Software, ACT! 2006, endeavors to improve by using newer technologies it falls a bit short. Current users of ACT! will be a bit disappointed to find they cannot export information as easily as they used to. Integration with Outlook, which many businesses use for email and calendaring, has not really improved either. Prophet 4.0 provides an easy way to solve these issues by giving you advanced Contact Management and Sales Management right within your Outlook interface. Prophet 4.0 truly is Sales Software for Outlook.