ACT! allows you to store a vast array of information about your contacts. You can store the usual name and address information but the real power comes from the additional information ACT! can hold for each contact. You can even attach letters and documents that relate to a given contact. Key to ACT! are the Sales/Opportunities features that allow you to keep track of where you are with each contact. You can also add tasks that may or may not relate directly to contacts.

ACT! can either be used as a standalone tool or you can have a team of staff share a single database, each with their own username and password. Where ACT! really excels is its ability to integrate with existing applications. From within ACT! you can send e-mails using its own e-mail functionality or by calling up Outlook/Outlook Express. You can also send faxes with particular support for WinFax Pro. Documents can be created using ACT! or your usual word processor. With suitable hardware you can even have your phone dial your contacts with a single mouse click.

Finally, ACT! includes a tool to allow you to synchronise data between different databases. This allows laptop users to update their local records then have the changes copied to the office master file.

As a single user/small business on one PC...
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This product has a lot to offer when the database is not shared. It is easy and extremely intuitive to use and has all the typical features that one would expect from CRM software.

Recording and tracking client interactions is easy and the interface between ACT and your mail software (especially outlook) is relatively simple.

The phone settings can be a pain always defaulting to a standard format... but you can disable/change this is preferences.

As multiple-user enterprise CRM software...
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This is where the product is really difficult to use. Invariably after only a few weeks of use you arrive at the common question... "Do we do things in Act! or Outlook?".

All the regular features like new contacts, grouping, searching writing single letters are fine, but the problem comes when you want to share a Act database which may have 5 users with a company of 15 people. Exporting the database so that you can import it into Outlook is tricky and laborious at the best of times even when you work in the IT profession.

The enterprise options within Act! are where it really falls over.

We also use Act! with the rather expensive third party web interface in order to make the product mobile and versatile. this certainly adds a degree of usability, but does not sufficiently address the lack of transferrability of the information.