one additional thing that it sounds like you need to factor in in this search is the difficulty of transitioning your data from ACT! to whatever you plan to move to.
The CRM projects that trochee points to all seem to really think of themselves as sales tools, so you'll most likely need to do some heavy customization on them to get them to work for you. This makes me wonder (given the short list of specs you have above) if it doesn't make more sense to just do the work to get something specific working that does precisely what you want (and can import all the data you started with cleanly).
i'd start by trying to export your Act! data to a set of comma delimited files (CSV) or some other generically-readable format. my stupid first-pass google search turns up a lot of history terms (duh: 'export act'), but also shows this absurdly-priced Act! plugin. If that's yer only option, i would be really sad. That's yet another argument for open source tools, actually. Because they are open-source, they are by nature open-format: you know that you will always be able to pull the data out if you find yourself dissatisfied with the tool for some reason.
Another approach aside from exporting the ACT data directly would be to look for CRM-type tools that claim to be capable of importing ACT! data directly, such as the project open (?) CMS. Of course, i can't tell whether their ACT! import features encompass all the data that you want to retain. And even if it does, you might find that there's a lot more work to do.
Does your version of ACT! contain any information about exporting capabilities?
questions about your requirements_dkg_April 10 2006, 21:05:10 UTC
What is the acceptable lag for the alarm functionality? That is, do you need precise alerts which pop up exactly at the second you specify (2006-04-01 00:00:00: "make the first april fool's phone call!"), or is this something that could allow for some delay around a minute? 5 minutes?
what do the alarms need to do? just trigger a text message popup window for you? Present a clickable button that takes to to a certain view/task? Trigger the entire application and drop you directly into a text editor? Send out e-mail on your behalf?
What does "sort by any field" mean? What data is it searching? what does it mean to "sort" by, say, the notes? Are you looking to browse output, or just selectively display output that meets some certain criteria?
hope you don't mind the questions. i'm just trying to get a sense of what you'd ideally want.
Re: questions about your requirementslaparteraApril 11 2006, 14:16:41 UTC
the alarms don't have to be very precise. even 5 minutes wouldn't really matter.
Ideally a tone and a text box would be great for an alarm. a text box alone would be OK. An easy way to clear the alarm and to postpone it would be good.
I don't need to sort or search the notes, I don't think. I can remember a couple of instances when that would have been great, but Act can't do it and I haven't really needed it.
by sort, I mean, say, find all the people who are my students and in level 1.
history retention?_dkg_April 10 2006, 21:07:58 UTC
sorry for the question-flood:
how much history of your work do you need to maintain? that is, do you need to be able to recover the address that a student was at 3 years ago? Should you be able to edit old notes that you made or should they be locked/append-only? if you want note editing, should the system be able to store old versions of the notes to compare against?
Re: one more question!laparteraApril 11 2006, 14:36:22 UTC
Status: Inquiry, Applicant, Frontier Bound, Level I, Level II, qualified for Level III, Level IV, Graduate (preferably with ability to add date of graduation to this field, Preceptor, Faculty, suspended, withdrew (again with date of withdrawal if possible to be hand added)
I could handle grad and withdrawal dates in separate fields, I guess.
Program would be CNEP, CFNP, CWHCNP, non-matriculated
links to the Advisor and RCC would be good -- though I'd also like to be able to call up all students for whom I am the advisor, for instance. so maybe just a pick box for these. I don't really need to call/email their RCC if I'm it.
For Preceptor, it would be GREAT to have it link directly to the Preceptor's info. Would only have to type it once in that case. Act does not do this. At least not the version I have.
Comments 17
The CRM projects that trochee points to all seem to really think of themselves as sales tools, so you'll most likely need to do some heavy customization on them to get them to work for you. This makes me wonder (given the short list of specs you have above) if it doesn't make more sense to just do the work to get something specific working that does precisely what you want (and can import all the data you started with cleanly).
Reply
Where would I begin with this?
Reply
Another approach aside from exporting the ACT data directly would be to look for CRM-type tools that claim to be capable of importing ACT! data directly, such as the project open (?) CMS. Of course, i can't tell whether their ACT! import features encompass all the data that you want to retain. And even if it does, you might find that there's a lot more work to do.
Does your version of ACT! contain any information about exporting capabilities?
Reply
Reply
what do the alarms need to do? just trigger a text message popup window for you? Present a clickable button that takes to to a certain view/task? Trigger the entire application and drop you directly into a text editor? Send out e-mail on your behalf?
What does "sort by any field" mean? What data is it searching? what does it mean to "sort" by, say, the notes? Are you looking to browse output, or just selectively display output that meets some certain criteria?
hope you don't mind the questions. i'm just trying to get a sense of what you'd ideally want.
Reply
Ideally a tone and a text box would be great for an alarm. a text box alone would be OK. An easy way to clear the alarm and to postpone it would be good.
I don't need to sort or search the notes, I don't think. I can remember a couple of instances when that would have been great, but Act can't do it and I haven't really needed it.
by sort, I mean, say, find all the people who are my students and in level 1.
Does that help?
Reply
how much history of your work do you need to maintain? that is, do you need to be able to recover the address that a student was at 3 years ago? Should you be able to edit old notes that you made or should they be locked/append-only? if you want note editing, should the system be able to store old versions of the notes to compare against?
Reply
Old notes -- depends how old you mean -- greater than 1 year don't need to be editable. Could be, though. that's not critical.
Don't need old versions of notes. this is just for my use.
Reply
fields for Status, Program, Advisor, Coordinator, etc. for each contact?
maybe just an example of what might go in each field would be good. For example, here's my guess at what you meant:
Status might be one of active,hiatus,graduated,droppedout
Program might be one of CNM,NP,RN
Advisor should be a link to the student's advisor
Coordinator should be a link to the person who would be the student's regional co-ordinator
is this what yer looking for?
Reply
I could handle grad and withdrawal dates in separate fields, I guess.
Program would be CNEP, CFNP, CWHCNP, non-matriculated
links to the Advisor and RCC would be good -- though I'd also like to be able to call up all students for whom I am the advisor, for instance. so maybe just a pick box for these. I don't really need to call/email their RCC if I'm it.
For Preceptor, it would be GREAT to have it link directly to the Preceptor's info. Would only have to type it once in that case. Act does not do this. At least not the version I have.
Reply
Leave a comment