I have been using ACT! 2012 for many years and it’s time to migrate to something more modern like Suite CRM.
I have a few reservations and cant locate the answers in the online wiki.
First of all, will I face any issues importing ACT! fields to Suite CRM?
The main concern are ACT! features like;
Groups (what is Suite CRM’s alternative)
Import of Notes (to which field in Suite CRM?)
Some custom fields I have creative (I assume I can create custom field names in Suite CRM)
Any advice on this migration would be very much appreciated.
Groups (what is Suite CRM’s alternative)
In ACT! I have grouped my 10,000 contacts in different groups.
Example Group Names: Personal, Business, Golf Club Member, etc.
In ACT! it is possible for a Contact to belong to several Groups.
I plan to export each group from ACT! and when I import into SuiteCRM, I would like to assign that Group Name to those Contacts.
Since a Contact could belong to multiple Groups, when that Contact is imported the 2nd or 3rd time (in another Group) Suite CRM should not overwrite the previous Group Name or record. It should merely assign one more Group Name to the existing previously imported Contact.
Import of Notes (to which field in Suite CRM?)
My ACT! database has multiple Notes fields assigned to each Contact.
ACT! will not allow export of the notes, so for some records I may need to manually “Copy/Paste” some Notes.
Is a searchable Notes / Comments field possible in Suite CRM??
Custom fields
In ACT! I have some custom fields like Skype ID, Customer Number, Referred By, etc.
In ACT! these are user-defined fields.
Can I create Custom Fields in Suite CRM and import the relevant ACT! field??
1-) I don’t thinks there’s something like that on SuiteCRM but you can create a new Multiselect field, adding the groups you need and assign the contacts to them
2-) There’s a Notes module in SuiteCRM, they are related with plenty of things, you can check on the demo page
3-) SuiteCRM is very powerful creating simple fields, don’t expect calculated ones, but you can achieve this with some custom coding, there’s a Studio section for this
I’ll recommend to you to install a local SuiteCRM application, and test it out.
I am also trying to migrate from ACT! (2000) and I am the author of the postings that Mike referenced. I am currently testing a small database and I am trying to duplicate the functionality that I want.
I found the MultiSelect data type may be a usable option for the ACT groups. But, it has a serious limitation. I have not been able to create a report that uses the MultiSelect data field as a filter parameter. I opened an Issue on GitHub. The MultiSelect data seems to be OK on the Edit View and List View screens (when added to those layouts).
I do not know if the number of Group names will cause a problem in trying to use MultiSelect. It could result in a long dropdown list. Also, I do not know how to implement SubGroups (eg. House -> House-Electrical)
I am presently working with several Custom Fields that I created. One is a field to flag contacts for mailing list labels. The other is an expanded priority field (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) instead of High, Med, Low.
I am trying to create the reports that I want (activities, calls, meetings) and I am having problems with filtering calendar dates in the reports. This is also open as a GitHub issue. I have also experienced problems trying to print a calendar, but I have not spent too much time on this problem.
I will have a similar Notes migration effort once I get to that stage in the process.
I have not tried to import Account and Contacts yet. ACT 2000 does not separate the Account from the Contact since it is not a relational database. So, this may be a manual effort.
Mike, sorry for my delay in responding to your post.
I have started looking at the AlineaSol documentation.
On the Dynamic Dropdown suggestion. I understand that an item in the 1st dropdown list can reference one of several items in a 2nd dropdown list. But, does Dynamic Dropdown work with a MultiSelect data dropdown?
I would create a custom module (groups) in module builders and create a ONE-ONE or ONE-Many relationship.
For a selected assignment to only one group it would be good if no subpanel is present, but a field that is importable and available in Detail, Edit and ListView. If multiple assignments are to be made to several groups, a subpanel is more useful. The module does not have to be visible.
Importable it would be important, that during the import process an assignment can take place. In order for an assignment to be made during the import in the contact module, the bending must be present accordingly.
The report module should be able to deal with this, in any case better than with multiselect fields.
I would also try this locally at a test environment and test.