Why we built Xact Inbox and what’s coming up?
Xact Inbox is designed for two main reasons, to record a complete email history in Act! CRM integrated to Microsoft Outlook and to provide innovative workflow for sending, receiving and recording email - more efficient handling, removing roadblocks that get in the way of good process. It replaces Act!’s own email integration while retaining Act!’s address book and performs more reliably, working with the Outlook Inbox primarily but also refines the sending of email from Act!.
CRM should be capable of capturing a complete message conversation but avoiding storing email duplicates that waste storage capacity. It starts with automated attaching of inbound email, matching on sender email addresses held in your contact records. For email from new contacts, you can easily create a record and attach the email in one operation.
There are a number of challenges to email handling, such as being alert to changed or multiple email addresses for the same contact, reacting to those and retaining the history continuity. Or email from people and prospects new to you, but for whom you don’t yet have a record in your database. Examples of improved process are:-
On receipt in the Inbox, those emails that have been automatically saved to contacts in Act! are marked with a color indicator in Outlook Categories giving easy visibility to those emails that have been saved to Act!.
You can quickly see in Outlook what has not been attached to Act! and respond accordingly; perhaps you don’t want to attach them, or perhaps create a new record and attach them, attach against contact records
With Act’s own integration there is a lack of workflow options from Outlook popped-out email message windows. In contrast Xact Inbox supports the same features available to the Inbox ribbon, or on right-click menus.
We value your feedback on our products, it forms the basis for our adding new features through the year. Expect expansion into Act! opportunity support and more workflow refinements as Xact Inbox evolves. We keep an active suggestion list that we review each quarter, so please, offer your suggestions and be part of our developing the best integration for Act! and email. Send suggestions to; support@xactsoftware.co.nz