If you are using Act! and have current Business Care (previously known as Software Assurance) then this is important information for when your current Business Care expires.
The reason for providing you this information is that Swiftpage, the owners of Act!, have changed the way they sell Act!. This means that you will no longer be able to purchase Business Care when your current subscription expires.
The new way to buy Act! will be via subscription. Instead of buying the software and then paying an annual busines care subscription, clients will just maintain an ongoing subscription.
For clients that move to subscription from Business Care, there are significant benefits. Our recommendation is that clients take advantage of the offer from Swiftpage when their Business Care contract expires
- What is Business Care?
- Why is Business Care being discontinued?
- When will Business Care expire?
- What are the benefits of migrating to a subscription from Business Care?
- What is the special price on offer for moving to Subscription from Business Care?
- What happens if you are on Business Care and don’t move to subscription?
- How will you know when your Business Care expires?
- Who should move to subsciption?
- What’s in the latest version of Act!
- What else can I do with Act!
What is Business Care?
This is an annual fee that you have paid for each of your users. It entitles you to the new version each year. Rather than buy the software, then pay for an upgrade every few years, software companies introduced a program where you paid a smaller annual fee and always got the latest version. This worked out to be more economical for you the client, ensuring you always had the latest version, and it was better for software companies as they have a more predictable revenue stream and have more certainty to invest in the development of their product.
Swiftpage called this program Business Care.
Why is Business Care being discontinued?
Swiftpage has moved to subscription based pricing as of May 1st, 2016. This is very similar to Business Care as it is effectively an annual fee that you pay for each user that entitles you to the latest version of Act!
When will Business Care expire?
12 months from when you bought it. If you would like to check when your Business Care expires email admin@evolutionmarketing.com.au.
What are the benefits of migrating to a subscription from Business Care?
Swiftpage are really wanting to reward clients that have been paying business care. They have special Business Care to Subscription migration pricing. The main advantages of this are:
- Deeply discounted pricing. It’s fairly similar to what you have paid in the past for business care.
- Discounted additional users. Not quite at the same price as your business care migration users, but it’s less expensive than would normally be available.
- Grandfathered pricing. This means the number of users you migrate to subscription will stay on that special pricing tier for as long as you maintain a subscription with Swiftpage.
- Grandfathered perpetual rights. This is very good. It means that if you reached a point that you didn’t want to continue your subscription (hard to imagine I know), then you could keep your copy of Act! and continue to use it forever, or as long as you want.
What is the special price on offer for moving to Subscription from Business Care?
If you have 4 users or less, then it’s AUD$144 each. It does get progressively cheaper the more licenses you have. Contact us for a quote.
What happens if you are on Business Care and don’t move to subscription?
You will still be able to use your current version for as long as you like. However, if in the future you would like to upgrade, you will pay the full subscription price as if you were a new user.
The Business Care migration offer is designed to be attractive for loyal users that have supported Act! in the past by maintaining their Business Care. We have seen most clients take advantage of this when their Business Care has expired.
How will you know when your Business Care expires?
We have setup a series of automated emails to go to the key contacts in your organisation in the lead up to your Business Care subscription expiring. It might even be that it was one of those alerts that brought you to this page. We would like you to be as informed about this important transition as early as possible.
When the time comes, we can provide you a quote for the subscription and organise the order with Swiftpage. We can also quote you on any services you need at the same time.
Who should move to subsciption?
If Act! is an important system in your business and you see yourself contuing to use it for the foreseeable future then you should move to subscription. As an Act! user already investing in Business Care, it is a very similar prospect to migrate to subscription.
If you feel that Act! is something you have or will soon outgrow give us a call. We do support other platforms that sometimes suit larger organisations with more sophisticated needs. However, Act! is a product that we find many clients love and there is no better or more feature rich CRM for small business that we’ve come across that we could recommend like we do Act!.
What’s in the latest version of Act!
The latest version of Act! is version 18.1. It’s the best new version we’ve seen in some time. Some of the highlights include:
- Windows 10 compatability
- Improved Web interface
- Ability to connect to 100’s of other platforms via a new API (this sounds technical but it’s very useful and important)
This link is to a PDF that highlights the changes in the recent versions. What’s new since your version of Act!.
This link is for the version 18 product brief.
What else can I do with Act!
There is so much that you can do with Act! these days. We find that many clients aren’t scratching the surface of the potential benefit Act! can bring to their business. Some of the areas we really like with Act! include:
- Dynamic Groups – automatically group contacts based on key criteria.
- Improvements to the Company records and how they work with Contacts.
- History list – this is way easier than running reports.
- The new Act! e-Marketing platform that’s built in for email marketing.
- Calculated fields – calculate someones age, countdown days until, calculate commissions etc..
- Activity Management – using Act! to manage follow up calls effectivey.
- Opportunity Management – ensuring all your sales opportunities are being properly managed.
We also have found clients get a lot of benefit using various add-ons including:
- 123 Syncronizer – replaces the need for the Outlook plugin and syncs your email, calendar and contacts between Act! and your mail server.
- Handheld Contact – a very effective mobile app for Act!. Bring the functionality of Act! to your mobile android or ipad/iphone.
- Act! Mobile Messenger – a brilliant SMS utility.
- Stonefield Query – a great reporting tool for Act!. Read the story about how eUtility got control of their Act! reporting.
- Oak Merge – a great utility for merging data into Act!. This can often be used for merging data from other systems into Act!.
- Accounting links to MYOB, Quickbooks and Xero. Give you Act!users visibility to sales history when they are working with contacts.
- QuoteWerks – a powerful quoting system that integrates with Act!. Create a quote and pull the contact details from Act!, then push an Opportunity record back along with a follow up call. The fastest way for your staff to quote and spend more time selling.