juliaatpcgp
Technical User
My company use a version of Act which I realise is now rather old - 5.0.4/2000.
Everyone in Sales is happy with the way it works and can see no reason to change.
However, they're struggling now because the sales team has grown to 7 and we only have 6 user licences. I've been told there is no way to buy more.
It seems the only way forward is for 1 of them to not be able to get into the database (hardly ideal!) or to upgrade the entire salesforce to the latest version - which would cost over 1,200 GBP in software alone (additional cost would be involved in upgrading PCs because the latest software eats MUCH more memory than ours, also possibly if we needed to call someone in for installation, conversion and training).
Because the database structures are different, we can't just purchase a single copy for the extra salesperson to save money. It's been explained to me the reason is that Act 5 is a flatfile database and the new version is relational, like Access.
I found that I'd been sent a 30 day demo of Act 8 so I decided to install it on one of our non-Act computers, I copied our data onto the local drive and asked Act to convert that - but it failed ! I wanted to look at our database in the new version and invite the sales team to check it out for themselves, but now I'm stuck.
If I were to pass on the exact wording of the message, would that give you any clue as to the problem ? would it give a chance of getting the database converted without calling in expensive help ?
The fact that the conversion has failed makes me concerned that we would almost certainly have to call in a consultant to ensure everything came across reliably.
Is there a web site which gives a feature comparison chart so my sales team can see at a glance what extra features they would gain from an upgrade ? This would also enable the Financial Director to see if they could be justified within the business.
I would really appreciate any input, comments or suggestions.
Regards,
Jay
Everyone in Sales is happy with the way it works and can see no reason to change.
However, they're struggling now because the sales team has grown to 7 and we only have 6 user licences. I've been told there is no way to buy more.
It seems the only way forward is for 1 of them to not be able to get into the database (hardly ideal!) or to upgrade the entire salesforce to the latest version - which would cost over 1,200 GBP in software alone (additional cost would be involved in upgrading PCs because the latest software eats MUCH more memory than ours, also possibly if we needed to call someone in for installation, conversion and training).
Because the database structures are different, we can't just purchase a single copy for the extra salesperson to save money. It's been explained to me the reason is that Act 5 is a flatfile database and the new version is relational, like Access.
I found that I'd been sent a 30 day demo of Act 8 so I decided to install it on one of our non-Act computers, I copied our data onto the local drive and asked Act to convert that - but it failed ! I wanted to look at our database in the new version and invite the sales team to check it out for themselves, but now I'm stuck.
If I were to pass on the exact wording of the message, would that give you any clue as to the problem ? would it give a chance of getting the database converted without calling in expensive help ?
The fact that the conversion has failed makes me concerned that we would almost certainly have to call in a consultant to ensure everything came across reliably.
Is there a web site which gives a feature comparison chart so my sales team can see at a glance what extra features they would gain from an upgrade ? This would also enable the Financial Director to see if they could be justified within the business.
I would really appreciate any input, comments or suggestions.
Regards,
Jay