Access vs. ACT

[NJ Pete]

I'm starting a small business and I need a simple customer database.

When I was with a previous employer, we used ACT as a customer database.
Some very useful things were:
A reminder feature....it reminded me to call a certain customer on a certain
date or reminded me to do something else concerning a specific contact.

Reports......it allowed me to run reports on any notes I entered for
specific customers withing specific date ranges.

Does Access allow me to do these things?

Perhaps Outlook would allow me to do these things.

Any comments or info on this topic would be most appreciated.

 

[Dirk Goldgar]

I'm starting a small business and I need a simple customer database.

When I was with a previous employer, we used ACT as a customer database.
Some very useful things were:
A reminder feature....it reminded me to call a certain customer on a
certain
date or reminded me to do something else concerning a specific contact.

Reports......it allowed me to run reports on any notes I entered for
specific customers withing specific date ranges.

Does Access allow me to do these things?

Perhaps Outlook would allow me to do these things.

Any comments or info on this topic would be most appreciated.

Access will certainly let you build a database application that will do
those things, but they aren't pre-built for you. You would have to spend
some time learning to design an Access application and make it do what you
want. There may be a template database on the Microsoft Office website,
though, that you could adapt quickly to your needs.

 

[Philip Herlihy]

Access will certainly let you build a database application that will do
those things, but they aren't pre-built for you. You would have to
spend some time learning to design an Access application and make it do
what you want. There may be a template database on the Microsoft Office
website, though, that you could adapt quickly to your needs.

ACT! has improved (product and support) since it was taken over by SAGE,
who have always provided good support (at a price). You should also
consider "Outlook with Business Contact Manager" which is a competitive
offering from Microsoft - there is probably a trial available. Access
can do it all, but you'd have to build it. Think of it as a set of
power tools, not a finished product.

Phil, London

 

[Fred]

We used Act, Goldmine, and then switched to in-house application written on
Access platform.

At the time of the switch (8 years ago) Act and Goldmine were too limiting
and black-boxish for us. We were spending more time working around tose
problems than it took to write the application from scratch in Access And
Act was weak on dealing with companies as entities.

Advantages of Act are that it is a fully developed and standardized
application. Access is toolbox to develop your own application.