I’m a small company (3 users) using ACT! 2010 (old Sage version). Does anyone know how difficult it is to migrate that to Suite/Sugar? Are there any existing migration/mapping tools for this?
Thanks
Sid
Hi Sid,
This is not something we have done. It may be worth searching SugarForge or searching the Sugar forums. Or post in the developer help section here and someone may be able to assist.
Thanks,
Will.
Hi Sid,
I’m also a small company (3 users) using ACT!, and seeking help to migrate to SuiteCRM 7. Did you find someone to help?
Thanks,
Ian
Same problem here 
Guess https://www.import2.com/sugar/ could be an option - simply create a fresh copy of SuiteCRM and try a test import. Worked for us (but we´re still at test stage…).
Regards!
acorn89-
Nothing just yet, but I got busy and decided to wait until the SuiteCRM 7.1 release is finalized (since it’s so close).
I have sent 2-3 emails to my ACT consultant who runs the local ACT user group, but she has never responded (so I’m taking that as a no).
However a simple Google search did turn up several places that sell this service. Happy to share the names I’ve bookmarked, but let me say I’ve had NO relationship yet with ANY of these companies so this is NOT a recommendation or referral. (And appologies to the forum admin, and SalesAgility, if I’m over stepping the rules of the forum by posting these links).
http://www.accentgold.com/blog/migrating-from-sage-act-to-sugarcrm/
http://www.starfishetl.com/crm-migration/migrating-to-sugarcrm/migrating-from-act
https://www.atcoresystems.com/services/sugarcrm-migration
With that said, one of the issues I’ve struggled with in the past is finding ACT/Sugar consultants that will work within the budget of a very small company. If you find these are out of your budget, here are some suggestions:
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Check Meetup.com (or Google search) to see if there’s a Sugar user group in your area where you can go to meet consultants. I don’t have one here, but they do exist in other cities. You can also check the local ACT user group but they tend to be ran by one local consultant which naturally keeps others out.
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Try eLance (or another project outsourcing website like it). The biggest advantage Sugar brings to the table is that there are a lot of programmers who know it. However the problem with this is you need someone who knows both Sugar and ACT.
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I know there was someone saying they could provide this service on the Sugar forum (in a thread from a few years ago). So check or ask on SugarForge or Sugar Exchange for options. Those forums are bigger than this one because SuiteCRM is so new. You can also try posting to the ACT forum; It doesn’t appear they censor it.
If you want to try to do it yourself, there are several threads on SugarCRM’s forum that talk about ACT conversion (albeit they’re all several years old). Be warned, one of the problems with old threads on this subject is you have to make sure they’re not referring to pre-2006 ACT (which was very different).
There is a thread on the import2 option which Andreas referenced which does look like it might be a good DIY solution.
(SIDE QUESTION: Andreas, can you tell us if import2 has a solution for the exporting of ACT Notes, History, Activity and other non-core tables the ACT Export Wizard doesn’t export?)
Anyway, the good news is that what I’ve read says the core table structure of the two are pretty close (so that’s a good thing). Some of the more advanced features that have come out in later versions (like Relationships, Secondary Contacts, etc) are probably going to be lost (or difficult), but things that are important to me (Notes, History, Activities) look to be importable.
The bad news is that it appears getting Notes, History, etc to export isn’t as easy as using the ACT Export Wizard. If you’re not a technical person and decide to DIY it, you’re probably going to want to buy an ACT addon to handle those exports.
Here’s a thread from the ACT forum that talks about that
http://community.act.com/t5/Act/Export-Notes-from-ACT-to-excel/td-p/23040
Hope that helps.
Good Luck,
Sid
Andreas,
Thank you for hint - I have also made a test import, and seems promising. Note the cost is based on number of records, not number of contacts in Act.
Have you worked out the best place in SuiteCRM to put ACT USER 1-6, ID/Status fields?
Is there a natural place for these, or should I create custom fields to match these?
Please let us know how you get on with the import.
Regards!
Sidcam,
Yes, import2 has a solution for ACT Notes, History, Activity, Emails, Attachments, etc.
It also works with Pre-2006 versions of ACT.
Regards