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All of us who are (or were) ACT! Certified Consultants tend to slip into the mindset that apart from ACT! - there's no other software in the Universe. We might "live and breathe ACT!". IMAGINE A WORLD OUTSIDE OF ACT! So, we are going to need to imagine a World outside of ACT! Where I.T. Departments have programmers using languages that they have used for decades with multiple legacy systems. With or without Dot Net. With their own needs and wants. Maybe companies who are Java Based, C++ etc and where their computers may be older too. Perhaps they are a mainframe house, or an Oracle-Based company and maybe 75% of their users don't use ACT! at all, indeed perhaps, many of them use Apples. BELIEVE IT OR NOT, NON ACT! USERS NEED CUSTOMERS' INFORMATION TOO The other point is a little bit more political. Oftentimes there are people in a company who need information in ACT! but have no need to waste valuable time learning how to use ACT! and also do not require basic ACT! functionality In a nutshell - they do not need ACT! Licenses to get at their own customers' information if they do not need to use ACT! functionality. RESOLVING WASTED SALES TIME Many sales people consume time reviewing reports and using other applications to make enquiries that relate to in-house and external data sources. Non-Linked applications require manual processes that involve training and valuable sales time in using them. Why should a sales person have to make enquiries manually or worse still, tie up another company resource on the phone asking for information? This wasted time can only result in lost possibilities. Companies with Web Driven Databases FIRST -
WITH MIDDLEWARE SDK WE MUST NOT WORRY ABOUT THE DATA SOURCE MULTI-DIVISION INVENTORY MANAGEMENT - DATA LINKING An Internet driven company purchases after-market medical equipment from hospitals/doctors in various states in the USA. Acquisition staff are responsible for sourcing suitable equipment, to maintain a web-based inventory system and to manage the stock availability dates too. Their sales force (who use ACT! as it happens) need to be able to MATCH any of their designated customers with what's available on the Web, INSTANTLY on the push of a button. Middleware SDK for ACT! is a perfect component in this solution. INTERNAL ACCESS TO ACT! CUSTOMER DATA Owing to the nature of ACME Soap's operation, their really most up-to-date customer information source is the ACT! database. Everyone in the company needs to be able to look up customer phone numbers. The shipping department needs to be able to print out sticky labels, and require no additional ACT! features. So they do not need an ACT! License. The Switchboard lady has a TAPI interface on her PC that needs to trigger a window to show her who the call needs to be directed to. The Credit Control Person needs to know if she is going to upset the apple cart if she chases up that late account payment. So she needs to be able to press a button that links her collections system to the customer's Sales Opportunities. The Company Director is particularly interested in having his morning reports on his desktop printer as he drinks his morning coffee on arrival at the office. He does not use ACT! to do these things manually. Why should he? REMOTE APPLE-BASED INTEGRATION The Toledo Office who are completely Apple-Based need to be able to press a button and walk over to their Central Printer to pick up the sheets of Labels that they need to stick onto information packs that they print and distribute for ALL of the divisions. They do not have a WAN as it happens, but curiously enough, they have Internet access. MOMS WORKING FROM HOME WITH CRM FOR MS OFFICE Johnson Bronze Shoe Corporation have a Work-At-Home plan for housewives throughout America to obtain orders for bronzing of baby shoes. As these ladies use their CRM for MS Office programs to qualified their leads, they press a button and the prospect gets sent back in the company's ACT! Database. These leads are automatically added to a Group in ACT! for the relevant Sales People who also get an alert on their cell phones whenever their daily cumulative opportunities exceed $5,000. ( They hear a "cash register ring" on their cell phones for those alerts :-) THE GRAND BAHAMAMIAN TIME-SHARE CORPORATION A sales guy can press a button in ACT! when looking at a customer and instantly find and book a slot in June for the Customer for two weeks in a great condo near El Casino. As can Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice who are in Winnipeg, London, Paris and New York. JANET'S REAL ESTATE PARLOR IN LA - KNOWS WHAT THEY WANT! Janet uses an ACT! Database for Property for Sale. Her Realtor Staff use CRM for MS Office to manage their prospects. Some are in the office and some are at home. Whenever an agent clicks a button, they can generate a list of all of the properties in ACT! that match their client's needs and wants and they can also UPDATE ACT! remotely (even though they don't use ACT!) with Calendar Times that the properties are being shown. At any time, Janet can click the agent's Group in ACT! to see what's been happening with each property so that she can keep the sellers apprised. Middleware SDK for ACT! is a perfect component in this solution. MULTI-DIVISION INVENTORY MANAGEMENT An Internet driven company purchases after-market medical equipment from hospitals/doctors in various states in the USA. Acquisition staff are responsible for sourcing suitable equipment, to maintain a web-based inventory system and to manage the stock availability dates too. Their sales force (who use ACT! as it happens) need to be able to MATCH any of their designated customers with what's available on the Web, INSTANTLY on the push of a button. Middleware SDK for ACT! is a perfect component in this solution. JOE THE PLUMBER USES ACT! FOR EVERYTHING Joe lives and breaths ACT! Every facet of his customer management is handled with this wonderful tool. He even uses records with the ID/Status "STOCK" to manage his plumbing components that he uses. Bob asked his ACC to get a system put into place that makes it possible for him to have orders automatically generated and sent to his suppliers as stocks hit their danger levels. His wife, Anne, uses an accounting system to bill the customers. This has been automated from his ACT! Bob's quite an up-to-date fellow. His customers can Twitter Him whenever their taps leak or they have a flood. His ACT! Database gets updated with each Twitter. WHATEVER THEY WANT - MIDDLEWARE SDK IS THE ANSWER Golly! Ladies and Gentlemen in the ACT! Certified Consultancy fraternity, whatever your customer wants, you will probably always be able to say "YES" it can be done for/by/with ACT! by your own programmers. Period. And if you don't know a programmer - we can get one for you!
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