Activity Series (Act) alternatives?

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MarkO

Registered
All:

I have been reading thru your posts recently trying to get some help on a few things. I used to use Act for years. We now use Outlook (for e-mail), and I just don't want to go back to Act. I'd like to find an Act alternative for Outlook.

Basically, I am more and more task oriented. When working with a prospect, I tend to put in activity series tasks that remind me to do things. For example:

Day 0 - Send e-mail
Day +3 - First Cold Call
Day +6 - Second Cold Call
Day +9 - Send e-mail
Day +12 - Create follow up routine for 1 month if no contact.

I have a ton of these "series". Another?

Day + 2 - Prepare Presentation Material
Day + 5 - Assistant to confirm
Day + 7 - Send thank you note , etc.

Back to my question, does anyone know of a tool/add-in that allows for the creation of templates of sequential tasks?

Prophet has a "Sales Assistant" that allows you to create a task in the future. The problem with it is that it gets created automatically only on THE DAY IT IS DUE!!! So much for preparing and time blocking.

Help! I can't go back to act, as my whole company used Outlook. Any advice, comments, ect, would be greatly appreciated.

Best,

Mark
 
D

Doug Walsh

Guest
You can use ACT with Outlook. The integration works flawlessly. I use like you mention the activity series within ACT and love it. Makes follow up stupid proof. I also have integrated ACT with GTD methods. So, if you like ACT, you can stick with it and integrate it with Outlook.

Now there some out there that hate ACT so much that they want to move off it. I have not found anything that works with Outlook that does and activity series like ACT does. The prophet comes close, but like you say you cant edit dates. So whats the point then?

One more thing about ACT versus Outlook. And I have seen this a thousand times. Anything that you put in an Exchange/Outlook profile is legal property of your company. I have had past company take my profile and all of my contacts and notes with it. I have seen this with my peers in sales. So, I like keeping them separate for this purpose. Plus ACT is a salespersons dream for follow up and tracking details. So I would give it a second look.

Let me know if you have any questions....
 
M

MarkO

Registered
Doug:

Thanks so much for the response. I really appreciate it. The problem I have with the integration (at least in v10.0) is that To-Do's in Act come across as Appointments. Perhaps I am being too picky? As well, I cannot stand that the activity series To-Do's in v10 go onto the banner (the default). Just curious, what version of Act do you employ? Do I need to go down a version or two?

I hear you on everything else. I'd love to hear about how you integrated GTD into Act, if you wouldn't mind. I bought the book this weekend after having stumbled on this website. As a salesperson, I really appreciate the process in GTD.

In advance, thank you for any further help.

MarkO
 
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Doug Walsh

Guest
Marko

I use v10. I have not had the issue with the banner, but I'll do some activity series today and see how it looks. It usually goes right to my task list.

GTD is fantastic and using it with ACT is good. The email ease of use is a bit hard, but the benefits outwa just using Outlook.
 
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daveedwards

Guest
Web 2.0 ACT! Alternative

Having used ACT! since its early DOS day, I've been impressed with Oprius as an ACT! replacement. Worth a look...(www.oprius.com)

David William Edwards
 
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MistyKhan

Registered
HuntressPro add-in for Outlook will replace ACT!

Mark,

You might want to take a look at HuntressPro which is a Microsoft Outlook add-in that will replace ACT! as your contact management software. Check out http://HuntressPro.com for more information on HuntressPro and http://Arrow-Tips.com for more information on how to use Outlook more effectively from a business development perspective.

Best of luck!

Misty
 
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