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Prophet - Sales Software for Outlook
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"I've tried Act Software, Goldmine Software and even custom solutions but have been disappointed by the results. Since we already used Outlook, selecting Prophet made a lot of sense for us."
Joel Gendelman, President
Allegis Communications
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For questions, please email us or call us at 1-800-860-5534.
Prophet News!

Avidian Wins Seattle Mayor’s Small Business Award

Prophet receives prestigious 4 Star Rating from PC World

Prophet wins Best Outlook-Based CRM Solution

Learn More about Prophet:
Sales Management
Contact Manager
Sales Tracking
Opportunity Manager
Sales Reports
Sharing Sales Information
Compare Prophet  |  Prophet Server  |  Prophet Features  |  Prophet FAQ  |  Tutorial & Tips    

Why Choose Prophet Sales Management Software over ACT Software 2000, 6.0?

Avidian's Prophet makes a huge leap in the ease of use category over ACT Software by creating a sales management solution INSIDE of Outlook.
Instead of requiring users to synch with Outlook and use an inferior email and calendaring system - Prophet builds on top of the database and features of Outlook with the .NET technology.
This means a simplified user interface, a seamless management of opportunities with your current contact database in Outlook and the continued use of the best email client for windows.
PC World gives Act Software 3 Stars
Act Speeds Up, Leaves Some Data Behind
Best Software's latest contact management program has a new database and supports better performance, but importing older data can be tricky.
PC World Gives Prophet Contact Manager 4 Stars
Make Outlook More Useful
Prophet plug-in adds small-business contact-management tools to Microsoft's e-mail program.

Compare Prophet to ACT Software 2000 6.0 for 2004

Feature Prophet ACT Software 2000 6.0 for 2004
Email Client Outlook 2000, XP or 2003 ACT Software email manually synched with Outlook 2000 or XP
Calendar System Outlook 2000, XP or 2003 ACT Software calendar manually synched with Outlook 2000 or XP
Contact Database Outlook 2000, XP or 2003 ACT Software contact database manually synched with Outlook
Appointments Outlook 2000, XP or 2003 ACT Software appointment system manually synched with Outlook
Task Management Outlook 2000, XP or 2003 ACT Software task manager manually synched with Outlook
Company Accounts Prophet data relationship built on Outlook contact database ACT Software contact database manually synched with Outlook 2000 or XP
Standard & Customized Reports Prophet Report Manager built into Outlook ACT Software report manager
Personalized Group Emails Prophet Group Email Wizard using Outlook 2000 and XP email ACT Software email
Share Sales Opportunity Data Easy Peer to Peer or Centralize Server Sharing Give access to ACT Software database
I'm Convinced! Download or Order Prophet Sales Management Software
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Customer Review for Act 2005 on Amazon: 2 Stars out of 5.
Here are some reviews of Act on Amazon:
 Our Corporate Nightmare, December 17, 2003
Reviewer: Taylor Huckstep (Las Vegas, NV) - See all my reviews

I am the Senior IT Tech at a large company and our top 2 executives and their secretary have been using Act for years and years. We started getting data corruption on a regular basis in one of the two dbs. So we decided to upgrade to Act v6 2004.

Let me just say that I think the interface is clunky and outdated. The 2004 software feels like something written in the early 90s. You can't use the mouse wheel to scroll through your contacts (we have over 400 employees in the db). The icon graphics are crap, the backgrounds and titles repeat themselves on large monitors. And the program is painfully slow. Clicking from calendar to contacts to task lists often takes 3-4 or more seconds (compared to outlook which is instant).

We first started having major problems with the Pocket PC Link. It's garbage...you cannot sync with the PDA unless you exit act (unlike Outlook). And if you delete contacts on the PDA, they will come back because a malfunction in programming prevents it from being deleted on the Desktop. Deleting calendar events replicates fine, but you cannot delete contacts on the PDA. This was all confirmed by Act tech support on several occasions as we ran into these problems.

Furthermore, even with the new ACT 2004 we again kept getting the databases corrupting. When they get corrupted, you better hope you have backups, cause all tech support will tell you is they have a data recovery team. We looked into it, expect to pay near $1,000 to recover your data. So we restored our General Managers data from tape backups, from local backups, or from his PDA, on a regular basis. After hours and hours on the phone with tech support, they finally told me that storing the database on the network can cause the db to get corrupted. This was not written in any documentation I could find anywhere that came with the software. The only way to share the calendar with a secretary is to have it accessible on a network. MAJOR DESIGN flaw. And to make things worse, when I asked for help to implement their "bandaid" workaround to "reduce the risk" of further data corruption, they asked for a credit card.

We're going back to Outlook 2003 using our Exchange server, never had any problems. I guess we fell for their marketing by thinking that a $200 product is actually worth something. This software is not worth anywhere near the price we paid.

Do yourself a favor and skip the hastle.

 I really don't know what to think yet... September 20, 2003
Reviewer: "maxjss" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

As a 1st time buyer I bought ACT! after 2 months of intense research including downloading a trial, interviewing current users etc., however during a tech support call this afternoon related to separate issue I learned that the one feature that I'd have thought to be a given is missing from ACT! 6.

I use 20 different email accounts in conjunction with my various businesses on a daily basis, however was informed that I can ONLY email from the (1) Default email address listed in Outlook or Outlook Express (beware OE isn't really supported no matter what ACT!'s marketing says). I was told that even if I create a separate database for each business I'd still be limited to the (1) default address to mail from! YIKES!

What do small businesses do that use multiple accounts like sales@, info@, request@, service@, webmaster@mydomain.com that are perhaps only a 1 or 2 person operation? Great a tech as he was, the only workaround he could offer was to log out of ACT!, switch the default address in Outlook/OE & then log back into ACT! each time I want to send email from a different address!

He also mentioned that many customers in the past several years had suggested the same feature upgrade!

I rated this a 2 (benefit of the doubt) because I can see a good deal of "potential" usefulness in ACT! In my opinion sophisticated and integrated email support is essential in this day and age, and without it what good is the contact manager? Perhaps the larger question is what good is a software company if they don't listen and respond to their customers' needs?

 I'm out! January 17, 2005
Reviewer: Jack "CIO" (CA) - See all my reviews

I was using ACT for several years. No considerable complaints with ACT6. But when I upgraded to ACT!7 I was very suprised by its performance. I spent a lot of time waiting it. I'm out! I'll better wait for Goldmine 7 or go to Terrasoft CRM

 Worst Upgrade Ever! January 7, 2005
Reviewer: Dean K. Dickinson See all my reviews

I have been a faithful ACT loyalist for 7 years...and never been disappointed until this upgrade. It is completely horrible and borderline useless. I have a very high end notebook (3 gigahertz processor and plenty of ram) and this program makes it slow to a crawl. Lookups that were almost instantaneous are now so slow that this program is totally useless. DO NOT BUY IT. I am trying to get a refund and go back to a previous version. If I cannot....I am going to change to another contact manager. Do not waste your money. If you have the previous version...keep it.

 No free support, little improvement in years January 5, 2005
Reviewer: cad yellow "cad yellow" (Boston, MA USA) See all my reviews

I've been using ACT! since 1990 so have a huge investment in ACT! data and customization and would be therefore be very reluctant to discontinue its use. However, I'm disappointed with how little the product has improved in these many years. The thing I protest most adamantly is the lack of phone or email support. There's no way to communicate with ACT! support without paying a very high rate. It's not a way to create a good feeling of relationship with customers, and it's frustrating to have only expensive support available.

 Slow beyond belief December 2, 2004
Reviewer: gigahertz (Texas) See all my reviews

I have been using ACT for 10 years and each version has been worse than the last. Act 2005 is the worst ever. It is so slow, it is unusable. I would rather keep my contact on post-it notes!

DO NOT waste your money.

Click here to read reviews on Amazon
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