Some readers may remember that the previous ACT! upgrade didn't go so well. While downloaded service updates eventually made the version 6 a stable product, it was clearly released long before it was really market ready. With that history, I decided to give ACT! 2005 a few months to settle in and to see how the program ran after a few upgrade patches.

Now that this has occurred, here's my summary view of the new ACT! program.

The Upside

On the upside, the program installed and converted my previous database without much trouble. Unfortunately, related files such as templates, layouts, email are not automatically updated by the installation. Instead, you must update these items one category at a time through a separate "Convert" utility, accessed through the Tools menu, making the overall upgrade process quite long, repetitious and tedious.

Once installed, likely the greatest improvement is to the Activity Series function, which can now support forward and backward tasks anchored to a specific date. This means that you can have a list of activities leading up to a transaction closing, for instance, and then continue on past that date. This feature alone likely makes the upgrade worth while.

For those users with busy schedules the improved calendar functions, which include more information displayed and better mouse-over pop up windows, will be greatly appreciated as well.

Another very handy feature for just about any user is the ability to create custom activities. You're no longer limited to Call, To-Do and Meeting but can instead add all sorts of useful categories as your needs dictate. Being able to add task categories for Email, Deliver Contract, Flight, Closing, and whatever else you need, can substantially improve your ability to manage your time well. This is especially true as these custom activities can be included and automatically scheduled as par of any Activity Series.

When it comes to finding contact information, searches, and organizing contacts by Groups and Companies have all been improved. However, while you can now create "sub-groups" these don't "roll-up" to the master group, so it's a great idea that's not fully functional and this actually makes a great idea much more confusing.

Finally, for anyone who was intimidated by the process of creating and modifying the actual data fields themselves, this task is now part of a "wizard" process and this does actually make such customization easier to implement.

Overall, many of the upgraded and expanded features definitely do add value to the ACT! program, and in a meaningful way.

The Downside

Unfortunately, the 2005 release follows the pattern begun by the last upgrade, in that new functionality appears to override maintaining consistency and program stability.

Almost every function of the current version (even after patching to version 7.02) has inconsistencies and bugs that range from mild inconvenience all the way up to causing the system to crash.

There's not a day that goes by (or even an hour) where something fails to function as expected or in a reliable manner. Sometimes the workaround is acceptable, but at other times the program will frustrate you to the point of anger.

Inconveniences begin with launching the application, which takes roughly 30 seconds to start. Then you'll wait another 20 seconds or so to load even a small database and typically a minute or so to roll over past due events.

All said, starting ACT! is a process that takes over a minute and a half, making it the slowest program to launch in a decade, and an embarrassment if you're on the phone and wanting to schedule an appointment with someone on the other end.

Ironically, this is actually much faster than the before the latest 7.02 patch was applied.

Worse yet, during this time the entire system becomes very unstable, making it nearly impossible to perform any other tasks while ACT! chugs to a start. Screens don't refresh, ALT-TAB becomes unreliable and the ACT splash screen often stays "on top" of any other program you might try to use in the meantime.

Once launched, simple tasks often require monumental leaps of faith.

Email templates are confusing to modify and commonly don't function properly, mixing fonts and ignoring graphics. Mail Merges often fail, crashing ACT!, which then tells me that I have no email systems configured and forces me to run through the email setup-wizard all over again. This has happened on a monthly basis, somehow losing all previously saved email in the process.

On occasion, ACT! will tell me it has successfully completed a small email merge, when in fact it hasn't.

While many of these issues could be overlooked as growing pains, the worst is that my ability to sync contacts to a Palm device is completely broken. Though the ACTlink feature seems content to run through the Hotsync process (no quick process as it's no longer a two way sync, but a one way copy instead) and the calendar activities appears to be complete, contacts are not sent to the Palm itself.

The Palm log simply displays countless repetitions of a cryptic error "Object reference not set to an instance of an object." thus rendering my once very "smart phone" just another dim witted device.

Support to the Rescue?

While ACT! Includes 30 days of free support "from the date your product is registered" tying to resolve these issue through support has not been a productive process, either.

On my first attempt, I was informed there was a 45 minute hold time.

My second try a few days later included no such warning and I held for a full 48 minutes before being connected to a human being. Worse yet, every 5-7 minutes the classical music is interrupted with a sales pitch for additional products and the occasional reminder to visit their web site.

Support suggested that I re-index and repair my database to solve the HotSyncing issue. Unfortunately this broke the process even further and apparently resulted in resetting the entire system causing ACT! to consider my computer to be a new installation.

The result was modifying all of my settings again, including the email system, and the loss of all saved emails once again.

As for the email issues, support politely informed me that there is no support for "custom templates" at all. In 72 minutes on the phone (including hold time) I learned that if you install this product, you're pretty much on your own.

If the trend follows the past upgrade, enough patches will most likely be issued to eventually make the product both stable and fully functional.

At least that's my hope.

In the meantime, it's a slow, frustrating and risky program to use on your most valuable business data. While some very nice new features and capabilities have been offered, the upgrade cannot be considered a success.