If you've been keeping track, you'll notice we recently changed our product name from Call On ACT! to Call On CRM.  Specifically our product is now called "Call On CRM for ACT!" as Call On CRM is a blanket term to signify our product.  We did this to make our product name act as more of a blanket name for other CRM product integration instaead of targeting ACT! specifically.

Our new product, Call On CRM for ACT! is still in it's beta release phase, but the beta is looking pretty solid, we may push it out as a release here in a few days.  Our new version v1.1 is a major upgrade from Call On ACT! v1.0.  New features in v1.1 from v1.0 include:

• Reverse phone / contact lookup features using WhitePages.com and ZoomInfo.com

This allows you to search WhitePages.com and ZoomInfo.com's databases for a matching contact or company using the phone number or caller id info on an incoming unknown call.  This way you can quickly create a new contact by pre-populating the contact's details instead of having to type them in manually.

• Contact / Call linking, unlinking functionality. Linking a call to a contact is used to determine who's call log to save the call record in.

When a new call comes in, Call on CRM searches the ACT! database for a matching contact record.  3 results can come from this search

1. There is no matching contact in the database.

When no contact matches, you can click the link button to link the call to your current contact, you can create a new contact record, or you can do nothing and the call will end up being logged under your ACT! "My Record"'s call log.

2. A matching contact record is found.

When there is 1 matching contact the call is automatically linked to the matching contact record.  If you have the "Automatically Navigate" preference set, you will automatically be navigated to the matching contact record.

3. Multiple contacts with the matching phone number are found.

When multiple contacts have the same phone, This happens alot when caller id shows a company's "main" number when someone calls from a phone at the business. Call On CRm will display "Multiple Matched Contacts" Clicking on the link button and the "Link To..." will give you a list of the matching contacts.  Obviously until you answer the call, you don't know which of the matching contacts is really on the line.  Go ahead and answer the call, then once you have determined who is on the line you can click the link button and link the call to the proper contact.  Linking the call to a contact allows the record of the call to be stored in this contact's Call Log.

Whenever a call occurs and no link is made, the call is always logged to your ACT! "My Record"'s call log.

• Automatic Call Log Maintenance to keep your local call logs fast and lean.

Call on CRM for ACT! stores temprary call logs for each contact in your database in a seperate file on your hard drive.  Think of these logs as a "temporary" call log like the call log you would see on your cellphone.  The call logs aren't meant to be a permanant record of the call, you should create an ACT! History record with notes for that.  Because of this "temporary" nature, and because if not handled properly these logs would grow into infinity, the new version has a "Call Log Maintenance" feature to automatically remove old calls from the logs based on your settings.  Look to turn on this feature in Settings, Call Log.

Until next time, happy dialing!