Merlin,
<< as an ACT! user you realize that the program is contact management >>
Methinks you are a victim of some misleading our out of date propaganda provided by Siebel. <VBG>
Let me give you an example. If you examine the components of "Siebel Sales", the single user version of Siebel's product line at:
siebel.com
You will see there a grid comparing "Siebel Sales" to ACT! and Goldmine. Siebel Sales comprises the following primary components, and according to the grid, both ACT! & Goldmine only have Contact Management functionality and not the last 4 capabilities.
1. Contact Management
2. Account Management
3. Opportunity Tracking
4. Sales Pipeline Tracking
5. Expense Tracking
The same holds for the detailed product comparisons on the Siebel drill downs where you realize that "Siebel Sales" is being compared to ACT! 4.0 and not ACT! 4.2 and above (I think the final release of 4.x was 4.7). ACT! 4.0 was released in April 1998 and the ACT 4.2 upgrade 3 months later. ACT 4.2 added seamless integration with Word 97 (base for ACT! Templates), and most significantly and in close partnership with Microsoft, added exceptional "built-in Contact Synchronization with Microsoft Outlook" capability, greatly (and finally) extending its usability in a remote workgroup environment. Please note that synchronization capabilities using cc:Mail and Eudora dated back to ACT! 3.0.
ACT! 2000 was released on August 31, 1999. It built on the excellent Contact Management and good Account Management (Group) capabilities of ACT 4.x by adding, Opportunity Tracking, Sales Pipeline Tracking & Expense Tracking. It also enhances group scheduling and integration with Outlook. It is a greatly enhanced product and one of the best dot.zero application releases I have ever seen.
If you look at the drill downs on the Siebel and substitute ACT! 2000 for ACT! 4.0 you can place a check in almost every field where there is currently a dash for ACT! and a check mark for "Siebel Sales".
Symantec ACT! over the last 2 years has established some impressive partnerships with Microsoft, Dale Carnegie Training, Dragon Systems (Naturally Mobile), DISC, Paragon Software, Viagrafix and others. Presumably SalesLogix will inherit these.
Here is a very short but decent review of ACT! 2000:
smalloffice.com
The review opens with this quotation:
"Point a gun at a professional salesperson, demand, "Your Act database or your life," and you'll see one confounded sales pro."
That quote applies to me. My whole professional life is tied to my ACT! database(s) and has been for years. Now in actuality these are backed up and synchronized daily with my headquarters (a few mouse clicks here and a few mouse clicks there) so I would respond:
"Here, take the darned thing! Do you also want my other ACT! tools, including my Dragon voice recorder, my laptop, my PDA, and my mobile phone and synchronization cables as well?".
Now if my IT department pointed a gun at me and demanded:
"Substitute this SFA product we have selected and designed for your sales force's use without consulting you on the specifications and design".
I would react differently to this command, and immediately take my ACT! elsewhere.
<< far different from enterprise-wide CRM software modules that Siebel sells >>
That I agree with. ACT! has never attempted this.
Siebel has very successfully implemented enterprisewide SFA products that offer contact and sales management, customer service, marketing, and executive reporting capabilities. They are migrating down into the middle tier of the market which is dominated by sales and marketing automation software (which often have been separate packages supported by different companies that need to be integrated ... ouch!).
ACT! by contrast has been very successful in contact management and Workgroup SFA space in the low tier of the market and has been migrated up to the middle tier by ACT! Certified Consultants that use add ons which are myriad, and have integrated with MS Access, MS Exchange, Notes, and MS Outlook and often use Crystal Reports. Typically these implementations have been in a Windows 95/98 or NT environment.
It seems to me that there is now a new ball game shaping up. Its web based eBusiness, eSales, eMarketing, eService, and eChannel, as Siebel would say. I expect Siebel to dominate. The FM got me on that track and you have convinced me.
At the same time I'm wondering how SalesLogix will compete in this space. I have just added SLGX to my watch portfolio, which until today contained only SEBL in the CRM category. I will also watch for the launch of Interact.com, "a new B2B sales community, delivering dynamic content, commerce, and community services".
"The Internet-activated version of ACT! is in development now with expected general availability in February 2000. Upon release, services will be offered on a subscription basis for $19.95 per month. The initial releases of the service will be free for all registered ACT!2000 users".
I'm curious if you can approximate the number of individual users (seats or clients as opposed to corporate entities) of Siebel SFA software.
I am not into the classic "basket approach" of Gorilla Gaming but I am seriously contemplating supplementing my EMC data storage holding with NTAP based on the superlative presentation here by Down South and his differentiation of NAS & SAN.
I am also close to pulling the trigger on a SEBL acquisition and am starting a watch and doing DD on SalesLogix (which may lead nowhere).
Note: I have never seen the GUI of "Siebel Sales". It is on my hard drive and I will be installing it shortly to compare to ACT! 2000.
A personal thanks to you for that fine "Front Office Game" you share with us.
This post turned out a bit longer than I anticipated. Sorry about that. <g>
- Eric - |
