Using Act! as CRM?

We have been using Epicor's CRM tools since we upgraded to 905 and find that they are OK, depending on your expectations.
So to avoid you integration question, wanted to outline what you CAN do with their tools.
1 – we are using IW with a limited scope and syncing only customers, contacts and CRM calls into Outlook (2007)
This allows all contacts to `drop' onto our sales people Blackberries and contacts can be updated on the BB or Outlook and synced back to Epicor
Users also can create their CRM calls and capture outgoing emails to Epicor contacts as CRM calls
2 – Use of Epicor Mobile allows us to create dashboards and updateable dashboards to be displayed on users Blackberries – performance is very good and development tools are OK if you don't need to get too complicated with requirements
3 – Planning to use EWA Epicor Web Anywhere as a lightweight client – down the road will evaluate integration into Outlook and SharePoint as Web Parts

All in all, Epicor does not have a complete solution that can be called CRM but has developed a pretty good platform that organizations with IT staff can develop and deploy a good solution.

If you would like to know more, let me know

Take care

Motty




--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, Joe Sanders <vantage@...> wrote:
>
> Currently, We are on Vantage 6.1 and have been trying to get to Epicor 904
> or 9.05 for almost 2 years. We have had issues with data migration of
> dimensional tracked inventory. But believe Epicor has gotten it to work
> now. We planning on going live with Epicor 9.05 on September 1, 2011.
>
>
>
> I was approached by the owner that wants to start using Act 2011 for his
> sales people. The owner isn't tech savvy. So he will do basically what
> most people want to do as far as software. While there are about 12 sales
> people that want Act against a couple that would rather go with Epicor 9 CRM
> and Information Worker.
>
>
>
> Now the question, How well would Act integrate with Epicor 9?
>
>
>
> Any information that you have would be greatly appreciated.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Joe Sanders
>
> Wipaire, Inc.
>
> jsanders@...
>
> 651-209-7181
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
Currently, We are on Vantage 6.1 and have been trying to get to Epicor 904
or 9.05 for almost 2 years. We have had issues with data migration of
dimensional tracked inventory. But believe Epicor has gotten it to work
now. We planning on going live with Epicor 9.05 on September 1, 2011.



I was approached by the owner that wants to start using Act 2011 for his
sales people. The owner isn't tech savvy. So he will do basically what
most people want to do as far as software. While there are about 12 sales
people that want Act against a couple that would rather go with Epicor 9 CRM
and Information Worker.



Now the question, How well would Act integrate with Epicor 9?



Any information that you have would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks,

Joe Sanders

Wipaire, Inc.

jsanders@...

651-209-7181



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Hi Joe,

> Now the question, How well would Act integrate with Epicor 9?
>
> Any information that you have would be greatly appreciated.

As you know, we've been on E9 since the Beta. Epicor CRM (for
Vantage/Vista/Epicor and not the standalone Epicor CRM) and Act (or MS
Dynamics/Salesforce.com/etc.) are NOT interchangeable products. It
does what it does but it is not a suitable replacement for these
programs. You are wise to look for integration.

We bought the Productivity Pyramid from Epicor but they didn't sell us
SQL Server and so we couldn't use it. E9 doesn't have the SQL
requirement. Our initial E9 was so unstable that it's been difficult
to get the users to upgrade. We've been sitting on a patched version
of 9.04.504B for nearly two years. We took the arrows last time and
are waiting for a version of 9 that is better than where we are today.
We're also finishing the infrastructure improvements to make sure that
9.05 will be more successful. We've upgraded our Office to 2010 and
going to upgrade our domain controller to 2008 shortly. We also got a
beefier server with a LOT more memory for 9.05.

We're moving to MS Dynamics because, like you, we want Outlook to be
the tool (which everybody already uses) to update information about
customers and suppliers. The trick is in the integration. Do we want
to follow the IW model of integration where the user downloads certain
objections and optionally updates them? Eh. Being able to update
static information like contact names and addresses would be cool but
as far as quotes, orders, payment status, and RMAs, we'd be happy to
display that information in an iFrame (HTML window) within Outlook.
That's what we're looking at right now. You should be able to do
something similar in Act.

Mark W.
I haven't used ACT in years. Last time I messed with it, it had a 'Sync via
email' option. Technically speaking you could possibly use that + service
connect to connect the two. I can't imagine it would be a very pretty
solution though.

Unless there is some 3rd party software to fill the gap or you feel like
writing such software, I'd say they're probably not going to talk to each
other.

On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 10:05 PM, Joe Sanders <vantage@...> wrote:

>
>
> Currently, We are on Vantage 6.1 and have been trying to get to Epicor 904
> or 9.05 for almost 2 years. We have had issues with data migration of
> dimensional tracked inventory. But believe Epicor has gotten it to work
> now. We planning on going live with Epicor 9.05 on September 1, 2011.
>
> I was approached by the owner that wants to start using Act 2011 for his
> sales people. The owner isn't tech savvy. So he will do basically what
> most people want to do as far as software. While there are about 12 sales
> people that want Act against a couple that would rather go with Epicor 9
> CRM
> and Information Worker.
>
> Now the question, How well would Act integrate with Epicor 9?
>
> Any information that you have would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Joe Sanders
>
> Wipaire, Inc.
>
> jsanders@... <jsanders%40wipaire.com>
>
> 651-209-7181
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]