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snake454Flag for United States of America

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Act 2010 Alternative

Hello experts!

I have a client that has been using Act for years.  Currently, he is using Act 2010 v 12.1.181.0 Hotfix 1.
He is using all the robust database features of Act to store information about his clients...data fields not usually found in Outlook without going through some king of customization process.  He is a life insurance agent, so fields like marital status, date of birth, notes...etc. are all necessary info he needs to service his clients.  He also pulls his email, (using the internet email option), through Act instead if Outlook.  Suffice is to say that over the years he has put all his eggs into one basket so to speak with Act.

The problem is that one or two times a year his email gets corrupted in Act.  I have managed to pull him out of some jams in the past by spending way too much time researching the issue and writing down my bill in the process.  Issues that I could solve in Outlook in an hours take me 3 or 4 hours with Act.  Can't send him a bill for $ 400 when I know that the resolution should have only taken an hour tops.  A technician needs to know his strengths and weaknesses, and I just do not have enough demand for me to go through the trouble getting proficient on Act's database structures.  I need to move him away from Act or cut him loose!

So...my question is...does anyone know of some kind of "export utility" I could use to migrate the Act data into...preferably Outlook...keeping the same robust data structure?  He is not very computer literate, so there would be no way he could handle using Access or a true database unless it has some kind of user friendly front end...and even then I would need to farm issues out to someone as databases are just not my thing.

Since the Act data seems to be stable, and he knows how to use it, I suppose an alternative would be to pull off the email portion from Act and move it to Outlook.  Then just have him go to Act for database work and Outlook for email.

Thoughts...advice…suggestions?

THANKS!
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Mike Lazarus
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Use Outlook for the email function within ACT! ... it works fine that way (it's how most people who want the most would use it)
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What are the file extensions associated with the mail data?  The user has Carbonite and I could try and restore his missing mail if I know the file extension associated with his missing mail.
It's SQL database ... I'd be surprised if Carbonite backed it up
It's SQL database ... I'd be surprised if Carbonite backed it up
OK then...so going forward, if I select the Outlook Mail option,  his mail will go to and stay in Outlook...in a PST format.  Correct?
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Mike Lazarus
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Final question...so probably no chance of recovery on the lost "Act emails"?  Would it be worth it to the client to pay Act support for a per incident case to try and recover these emails?

Thanks for your your help!
I think tech support have a tool to recover the SQL email data... worth a call