CRM Customisation - Expert Advice

EXPERT ADVICE FOR ORGANISATIONS LOOKING TO PERSONALISE & SIMPLIFY THEIR BUSINESS

Struggling with your existing system, or looking for a new CRM solution? Talk to us. We can design your system from the ground up — AI included — or give an existing Act! system a complete makeover. Either way, Smarter Business will get your organisation on track and help you build  long lasting and profitable customer relationships.

 

 

CUSTOMISATION

Making your system useful

Most CRM software offers standard functionality right out of the box. To turn it into a real business differentiator, our consultation services help you get the most from the system — customising it specifically for the way your business works, and increasingly, using AI to go beyond what standard configuration alone can do.

We tailor your system starting with your organisation’s own “vocabulary,” what you want to track, who should have access to what, the reports you need, and how the interface should look. We can also build AI-powered capabilities into the mix — from intelligent data entry and automated insights to AI-driven recommendations tailored to how your team works. Together, these customisations make the software easier to use and give your organisation a genuine competitive advantage.

  • Database fields & industry specific screen layouts
  • Custom schema / custom tables
  • Web form integration
  • Document, email & emarketing templates
  • Staff security roles and user permissions
  • Reports
  • Dashboards
  • Workflow and process automation

REPORTS, DASHBOARDS & INSIGHTS

See your Act! data from a perspective you may not have seen before. Get a real handle on your organisation’s critical business metrics, with a deeper understanding of individual and team performance.

Act! provides 88 pre-configured reports covering Contacts, Groups, Companies, Opportunities, Sales Pipeline and Activities. Smarter Business adds custom reporting and report automation — emailing them out on a time-specific basis, with AI used to surface the trends and anomalies worth your attention rather than just the raw numbers.

Act! Dashboards and Insights (Premium & Cloud subscribers) give you a comprehensive, visual summary of activities and opportunities in a single view — tracking KPIs and other business metrics in an interactive, at-a-glance format.

Let us unlock these insights for you. We’ll build custom reports, dashboards and new ways of seeing your data — using Act!’s own capabilities, or AI tools like Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Microsoft BI to go further still.

Act CRM API integration

CONNECT | INTEGRATE

Making your system even more useful

Get your apps talking. Speed up your workflow and eliminate duplication with AI-driven application integrations and connections.

Integrate your disconnected processes so all your business systems work as one. Improved workflow, sharpened by AI, makes your business more agile and responsive to customers and changes in the marketplace.

The benefits of integration combined with AI and automation add up to a more productive organisation with reduced costs. Get Smarter Business on your side and App integrations and automation are no longer the preserve of large organisations — we make them affordable.

  • eCommerce
  • Business productivity
  • Sales & marketing apps
  • Web forms and enquiries
  • Customer service
  • Accounting and back office

AUTOMATION & CONNECTIONS

Grow your business and improve workflow with AI-powered add-ons that automate and connect with your other business systems. Say goodbye to time-consuming, repetitive tasks. Setting up AI and automation can be time-consuming and complicated, so call in the experts — Smarter Business.

The benefits of AI, automation and app integration add up to a more productive organisation with reduced costs. They’re no longer the preserve of large organisations — we make them affordable.

AUTOMATION

Say goodbye to time-consuming, repetitive tasks. Act!, together with Smarter Business’s MCP products, AI tools, and other app developers and integrators such as Zapier, gives organisations the opportunity to automate the work that used to eat up your day. Setting up AI and automation can be time-consuming and complicated, so call in the experts — Smarter Business.

Successful CRM relies on the smart use of technology, and by customising, automating and integrating with AI, you bring it to the very heart of your organisation.

  • Emarketing auto responder and specific template choice.
  • Sales reporting and email alerts based on activity rules
  • Date based event reporting: Service, subscriptions, events
  • Organisation specific – if event A occurs, this changes field B in CRM
  • Get Smarter Business to set up app connections and automation for you
Smarter-Business-Act-CRM-Automation

CRM automation and integration gives your organisation the competitive advantage.

Be more productive | Simplify Management | Reduce Costs

Web form capture CRM Integration Benefits:

Web form capture CRM Integration Benefits:

Many businesses have an online presence and use forms to capture and generate leads from landing pages, gather feedback from website visitors and invite customers and prospects to upcoming events. Act! CRM integration with Act! email marketing or Link2forms can offer:

  • Form integration will speed up time from form enquiry to sales action
  • Get accurate and up to date enquiry information to your sales and support teams
  • Significantly reduce cost of manual data re-entry and report generation
  • Lower ongoing system administration expenses
  • Manage and simplify business processes via workflow
  • Reduce overall website maintenance costs
  • Save valuable time and resources
smarterbusiness-Act-CRM-webform-integration

With Act! email marketing or Link2forms web forms, landing pages and surveys integrated within Act! it is simple and quick. It saves time and streamlines the lead generation process by capturing website visitor’s information directly into your CRM. 

Email Integration and Marketing Automation Benefits:

Email Integration and Marketing Automation Benefits:

With Act! emarketing emails are easy to create, send and track. No more spending time importing and exporting of contacts to 3rd party email systems. Act! lets you easily segment your contact recipients and email your message to them. It is cost-effective and a very time efficient way to grow your business by regularly communicating with your customers and prospects with the right message at the right time. Want to know the hottest leads to follow up? No problem Act! emarketing includes Call lists (lead scoring) to help generate sales.

Want to send Surveys through Act! CRM? Swiftpage surveys are also integrated with Act!

Using Mailchimp, Constant Contact or other popular email marketing tools? We offer integration for these and most other email marketing systems. Smarter Business can assist with marketing automation software to help you with:

  • Email marketing
  • Lead nurturing
  • Lead scoring
  • Database segmentation
  • Drip email campaign builder
  • Sales alerts
  • Forms, subscriptions, payments

Act! Premium Mobile app

Act! Premium mobile app

Sales and service personnel are already using smartphones so make them more productive. Start reaping substantial improvements from their business and give them access to customers and prospects on their devices and at no additional cost when using  Act! CRM Cloud.
Mobile technology usage research shows the following:

  • Increase field selling time 26%
  • Eliminate redundant activities 27%
  • Increase win rates 26%
  • Reduce sales call costs 25%
  • Decrease administrative time 24%
  • Decrease sales cycle 23%
Act_Companion_Mobile_app

Accounting & CRM Integration Benefits:

Accounting & CRM Integration Benefits:

Close more sales by streamlining business processes starting with your accounting system: Sage, Xero or QuickBooks.

 

  • Faster responses to customers by allowing sales and service personnel to respond promptly to customer enquiries on order status and product details. This reduces business cycle times and delivers a healthy competitive advantage for your business.
  • Reduce (or even eliminate) dual entry of data to save time and minimise data entry error by moving data seamlessly between CRM and accounting systems.
  • Reduces the workload on accounts by allowing sales staff to have controlled access to accounting functions such as quotation and invoice creation.

See how CRM integration works with Sage, have a look at this video.

 

sage

Phone Integration Benefits:

Phone Integration Benefits:

The ability to call all your contacts from your PC or mobile device via Act! CRM using either a phone dialer or VoIP.  This functionality can often be a primary ROI driver for many organisations to purchase CRM. This is simple to implement and more affordable than you might think. Act! CRM provide this functionality as part of the annual subscription.  The benefits of CTI integration are below and depending on your phone provider some functions will require additional costs.

  • Increases the time your staff spend on the phone dealing with incoming calls or with outbound telemarketing
  • Can automatically dial any list from your CRM
  • Simple Click-to-Dial any number in the CRM
  • Inbound call control and screen pop
  • Can manage call-back promises
  • All calls logged to contact history
smarter-business-act-emarketing-on-phone-mobile

SMS/Text Integration Benefits:

SMS/Text Integration Benefits:

Act! CRM now provides SMS integration as standard. Instantly send or schedule a text message to any contact or group in Act!. It is great for any application that requires instant communication and it will automatically record the details in the contact history including message detail, dates and times.

Additional charges apply for sending SMS, prices vary depending on the SMS carrier.  

What organisations commonly communicate using SMS / text messaging:

Utilities Education Retail Healthcare Logistics Financial services
Outages School and social Confirmations Appointments Deliveries Transactions
Service Appointments Security Surveys Feedback Confirmations Notifications
Upgrades Schedule changes Invitations Reminders Scheduling Security
Emergencies Attendance Loyalty Vaccinations Reminders Anti-fraud
Appointment cancellation Staff notices Promotions Information Updates Updates
Refuse Collection Urgent notices Notifications Health Education Staff Updates Balances

Time & Billing for ACT!

Time & Billing for ACT!

Xact Time & Billing integrates with ACT! Contact Manager to offer the complete job management solution. Now you can manage jobs, customers and accounts all from one place!

SEAMLESS OPPORTUNITIES makes quoting in Act! easy. Create quotes, tenders or proposals in minutes, create and customise your own templates, pick from your product list, quote in different currencies and track your opportunities.

  • Capture: In many organisations time often slips through un-billed. With Xact’s Time & Billing for ACT! no activity goes unrecorded. Now you can easily capture all your activity information, every time.
  • Manage: with Time & Billing for ACT! you can review, update and complete activities, ensuring the data remains accurate and up-to-date. You can also ensure accountability by tracking activities and invoices back to the record manager, and keep track of products used by adding line items to any Time and Billing ticket.
  • Bill: Combine Time & Billing with selected Xact Accounting Links and you can turn completed Time & Billing activities into invoices direct from ACT! with the click of a button, eliminating duplication of data and reducing data entry errors. You can also bill for entire projects by merging multiple activities into a single invoice.
Smarter-Business-XACT-Time-and-Billing-2

Quotation Integration Benefits:

Quotation Integration Benefits:

LOVE MAKING SALES, HATE DOING QUOTES!

SEAMLESS OPPORTUNITIES makes quoting in Act! easy. Create quotes, tenders or proposals in minutes, create and customise your own templates, pick from your product list, quote in different currencies and track your opportunities.

  • Forget separate programs
  • Customise your own templates using Microsoft® Word.
  • Build your own product database with images.
  • Provide quotes in different currencies.