1. What is ACT!
ACT! is the most widely used contact management
software program in the world. It is licensed
by Interact Commerce Corporation, a division
of Best Software. ACT! was the original contact
management program originally developed in 1988.
ACT! has over 4 million users world wide and
over 11,000 corporate accounts.
As a contact management program, ACT! allows
you to track clients, prospects, associates
and any other contact that is important you
and your business. ACT! incorporates shared
calendaring, notes and histories, sales tracking
and project management. These features are easily
used making ACT! the number one contact management
program in the world.
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2. What is
Act4Advisors?
Created by Allied Financial Software, Inc.
(Allied FS), Act4Advisors is a customized ACT!
database, layouts, reports, queries and other
files specifically for financial services professionals
who use the ACT! software.
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3. Why should
I consider a contact management system?
This is an excellent question.
Contact management systems organize time and
data. Most advisors are inundated with
data they must be able retain and access quickly
and easily. Without easy and fast access to
client and prospect data, an advisor may lose
critical information eventually costing the
advisor a lost sale, a lost client or a lost
career.
ACT! and Act4Advisors helps you
manage relationships by managing data and processes.
With ACT!, you can:
- Remind yourself to call a special client
on his birthday.
- Send out a disclosure letter to a new prospect.
- Enter a time stamped note about a concern
the client has regarding a particular type
of investment.
- Keep a history of every meeting, call, letter
and task you have completed for the contact.
- Attach any electronic document to the contact
for easy retrieval.
- Delegate a task to your assistant to send
a welcome package to a new client and find
out if and when it was sent.
- Keep in constant contact with your best
clients and prospects.
To summarize, Contact Management Systems by
definition will help you better systemize the
management of contacts (relationships.) helping
your business grow and flourish.
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4. I
already use ACT! but why should I consider Act4Advisors?
When you purchase ACT!,
the basic ACT! database comes with 70 predefined
fields that allow you to keep track of names,
addresses, phone numbers and emails. To add
or modify data fields and the layouts, the software
requires customization. This customization demands
extensive knowledge and time… time that most
advisors don’t have to spare. Act4Advisors IS
an ACT! database but it includes over 280 data
fields specific to the financial professional’s
practice. Fields added include contact, spouse
and children information such as dates of birth
and social security numbers, fields for account
numbers and account registrations, insurance
policies, net worth, securities held, suitability
information and much more.
Because Act4Advisors is used by thousands of
other financial services professionals, it has
become a “standardized” ACT! database. This
allows us (or anyone else) to create interfaces
to third party software programs and platforms.
Without a standardized database, interfaces
can only be written individually for each user’s
database. This keeps industry platforms from
interfacing with your ACT!
Currently, we have developed an interface to
Laser App Software, dbCAMS and we are currently
working on an interface to Statement One. We
also have plans for other interfaces for popular
financial planning and portfolio management
systems.
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5. Can I import
my existing data into Act4Advisors?
Most often, yes.
ACT! has an import wizard allowing the import
of data from several sources. The existing
data can be other ACT! databases, Comma or Tab
delimited text files (ASCII), Microsoft Outlook,
dBase III-V and Q&A 4 and 5. If you
are using dbCAMS, you can purchase a separate
conversion program from us developed by Custom
Advisors Solutions. This dbCAMS Data Import
Module brings in all related dbCAMS data including,
contact, spouse, children, dates of birth, addresses,
phones, social security numbers, notes, activities,
groups and insurance policies. Importing
from another ACT! database will bring in all
of your old notes, histories, activities, groups
and any other data you have that can be “mapped”
to the Act4Advisors fields. If you are
using another database program, we may be able
to import your data for an additional fee.
Contact us at 800.831.7636 for more information
or visit our web site at
www.software4advisors.com.
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