The following interview is posted at www.act.com/act-channel-partner-spotlight-act-today:
Time is a finite resource for businesses, and teams today can feel overwhelmed trying to balance everyday tasks with growing expectations and long-term business goals. Fortunately, the dedicated team at Act Today has the experience and knowledge to help businesses of all sizes and skill levels adopt, implement and optimize innovative technology solutions to improve their operations.
Awarded Act! Highest Growth in North America and the Pacific 2021 [and now 2022 as well], Act Today offers a range of Act! products and add-ons, along with scalable consultation, maintenance, and training packages to fit any size operation, to help their clients get the most out of their Act! CRM and marketing automation software. Recently, we sat down with Act Today CEO Josh Noonan to discuss how Act! makes his customers’ lives easier by providing them with the tools and solutions they need with an easy-to-use interface.
Q: To start, please tell us more about Act Today - its history, offerings, expertise, etc.
Act Today was founded over 30 years ago by one of Australia’s first Act! Certified Consultants, Michael Bryant, and since then has remained the leading provider of Act! CRM and marketing automation software in Australia and New Zealand, with consultants in most capital cities. We offer consultation on adoption, implementation, maintenance, and support, as well as training for Act!’s suite of products.
When it comes to size or industry verticals, Act Today’s clients are a mixed bag. We offer guidance and support to organizations of all shapes and sizes within any industry. And we don’t just provide Act! products, our team becomes an extension of our customer’s businesses as we value building strong relationships with each of them. We partner with our clients to develop the best CRM experience possible through strategy, design, development, implementation, training, and ongoing maintenance of their Act! products.
Q: What differentiates you from your competitors?
As the distributor of Act! in both Australia and New Zealand, Act Today’s rivals are vendors offering different CRM software. One of our most significant advantages over our competition is the flexibility and customization of Act!. Many CRM products come pre-populated with different industry-specific packages for their clients. While pre-configured technologies alleviate some of the legwork during adoption and implementation, these solutions are often restrictive and leave clients with a lack of flexibility. We have had clients try other well-known CRM solutions only to turn around and come back to Act! because they miss the ability to customise their platform to fit their company best.
Another key strength is the overwhelming experience of our nine certified consultants, most of whom have been with us for over 20 years, which is a stark contrast to the junior support teams of other CRM providers. This gives us an unmatched ability to understand unique business requirements & create the most suitable solution based on proven strategies.
Act Today offers a wide range of add-on products to implement alongside Act! as well as custom development. Add-on options, like multi-factor authentication to strengthen security from digital hacks and Attachments2OneDrive to improve remote databases, help Act Today clients take Act! to the next level.
Q: How have you seen Act! evolve over the years?
The greatest aspect of Act! is its ability to grow and expand while maintaining the simplicity and adaptability that makes it such a popular tool. Working with Act! since the 1990s, Act Today has not only developed a great relationship with the Act! team but has had the opportunity to see its products evolve over time and grow to include things like mobile and cloud-based CRM integration, as well as the addition of Act!’s Marketing Automation (AMA) tool.
Q: Speaking of AMA, what has been your clients’ overall feedback on the Act! product?
AMA has been a game changer for many of our customers because of how affordable it is for users already leveraging Act!. Act! continues to work to improve AMA’s capabilities. Over the last few years, AMA has become a popular tool for clients looking to launch successful email marketing campaigns because of its ability to automate and streamline many processes throughout the campaign at a fraction of the cost of other big-name competitors.
The most significant feedback I receive about AMA is how much time it saves our clients. Aside from reducing workloads and streamlining processes using automation, the software connects all of its data directly to the CRM platform. So, clients aren’t left with the burden of pulling statistics from a third-party marketing automation tool onto their CRM platform to successfully analyze and store for future reference.
Q: Are there any common roadblocks customers encounter when setting up CRM software?
I believe the overall challenge of successful CRM adoption is knowing precisely what your software’s capabilities are. Often, we deal with clients that are considering moving to a new CRM technology because it can do x, y, and z. More often than not, we can explain to the client that Act! also allows you to do x, y, and z - usually at a lower cost and with more flexibility.
This lack of familiarity isn’t a burden that our clients must face alone. Act Today prides itself on keeping a steady stream of communication with all of our clients and keeping them up to date about any updates, latest features, and product capabilities (subscribe at the bottom of this page). It is up to us, as Act! partners, to provide our clients with the knowledge and understanding they need to make the most of their CRM solution.
