ACT! by Sage for Real Estate 2008 (10.0) Contact and Customer Management Solutions Debut at Sage Software Customer Conference

ACT! Industry Solutions Feature New Real Estate-Specific Sales Processes, Property Closing Activity Tracking, Expanded Buyer and Seller Data Fields, and New Interactive Dashboards to Improve Agent, Broker and Team Sales Productivity


CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwire - November 5, 2007) - Sage Software today announced the new ACT! by Sage for Real Estate 2008 (10.0) and ACT! by Sage Premium for Real Estate 2008 (10.0) contact and customer management solutions during its Sage Summit customer conference at McCormick West Convention Center in Chicago, IL. ACT! for Real Estate solutions help residential real estate agents and brokers organize their buyer, seller, and property information in one place, communicate effectively through custom flyers and letter templates, and manage property showing, closing, and reporting activities.

The National Association of REALTORS® 2007 REALTOR Technology Survey shows significant demand for sales productivity tools. The survey found that 80 percent of sales agents and associate brokers rated the value of technology supplied by their broker as being extremely valuable or somewhat valuable, and 65 percent responded yes when asked if they wanted their broker to expand the amount of technology offered. Sixty-four percent also said they communicate with past clients quarterly or more often.

"ACT! for Real Estate equips real estate professionals with the tools needed to manage client communications and become more successful in an increasingly competitive market," explained David van Toor, senior vice president and general manager for Sage CRM Solutions. "Cultivating quality referrals is a catalyst for selling more homes, or more of anything, and with ACT! -- regardless of what industry you use it in -- productively managing valuable sales relationships is the means to that end."

ACT! For Real Estate 2008 -- For Individuals And Teams

ACT! for Real Estate centralizes an agent's, broker's, or team's information for easy organization and reference. Users access detailed contact information using an interface designed specifically for residential real estate professionals, can keep detailed notes and information on listed properties, track appointments and to-dos, and can attach critical documents like inspection reports, house photos, and MLS listings. MLS home pages(1) can be launched from within ACT! for Real Estate for quick access to searches performed and property listings sent.

ACT! for Real Estate is ideal for individual real estate professionals, small teams of up to ten networked users(2), or large disparate workforces that do not require data sharing. ACT! Premium for Real Estate meets the needs of larger workgroups and teams of real estate professionals(3) and provides additional team features including group scheduling and automatic Outlook® calendar sync, advanced opportunity tracking and customization capabilities, and team reporting.

New interactive ACT! for Real Estate dashboards provide users with a comprehensive, graphical view of key information including activities, property listings, and sales opportunities, and allow users to drill down into the information to take further action. ACT! for Real Estate dashboards display individual user information, while ACT! Premium for Real Estate dashboards display team information to help managers set company sales targets and gauge individual and group performance status.

ACT! for Real Estate solutions integrate with everyday applications including Microsoft® Office applications like Outlook for easy e-mail communications, Word to write letters, and Excel® for importing or exporting contact and sales opportunity lists for analysis.

Additional ACT! for Real Estate features help agents, brokers, and teams:

--  Schedule calls, meetings, and to-dos quickly and easily using one of
    more than 20 activities including prospecting and marketing, showing
    properties, listing properties, closing tasks, and more, for better
    tracking and analysis of time spent.
    
--  Track property listings with three new real estate-specific sales
    processes to better understand progress toward property closings, property
    purchases, and property sales.
    
--  Collect more complete information about a property out-of-the-box for
    both interested buyers and sellers using expanded real estate-specific data
    fields. Users can track details including MLS numbers, closing information,
    property specs buyers are interested in, and complete specs on properties
    listed.
    
--  Use real estate-specific flyers to effectively advertise properties.
    Populate flyers with a photo, detailed property description, list price,
    and more using data from ACT! for Real Estate fields. For Sale, Open House,
    and Home Feature Sheet flyers are included.
    
--  Use 30 letter templates customized for real estate, such as letters to
    buyers, for-sale-by-owner, lead follow-up, open house follow-up, referral
    letters, letters to sellers, and public relations campaigns for the
    holidays.
    
--  Run one of 40 standard reports, 20 focused on sales opportunities, or
    one of six custom real estate reports including Buyer Completed Activities
    (summary and detailed), Seller Completed Activities (summary and detailed),
    Activities by Type, and Activities by Contact, to make educated business
    decisions.
    
--  Synchronize ACT! for Real Estate contact, calendar, and activity
    information with mobile devices via Palm OS® and Pocket PC links, or
    BlackBerry®.(4)
    
--  Assign up to five security levels, including manager and restricted,
    to team members, allowing access to data and features depending on user
    levels.
    

Pricing & Availability

ACT! for Real Estate is available for $299.99 MSRP per user at www.act.com/estore and by phoning 866-873-2006. ACT! Premium for Real Estate, recommended for organizations with five or more users, is available for $469.99 MSRP per user by contacting ACT! Corporate Licensing at 888-855-5222, or from one of the more than 700 ACT! Certified Consultants located at www.act.com/certifiedconsultants.

About ACT!

ACT! established the Contact Management software category in 1987 and, today, is the number-one selling contact and customer management solution and preferred choice of over 2.7 million registered users and over 41,000 additional corporate customers to organize, access and manage their customer information. ACT! delivers powerful capabilities that support a full range of desktop, laptop, Web browser and handheld device access methods that can work seamlessly with a centralized database to help individuals, selling teams and corporate workgroups improve productivity and increase sales. For more ACT! information, visit www.act.com.

About Sage Software

Sage Software supports the needs, challenges and dreams of nearly 2.8 million small and mid-sized business customers in North America through easy-to-use, scalable and customizable software and services. Our products support accounting, operations, customer relationship management, human resources, time tracking, merchant services and the specialized needs of the construction, distribution, healthcare, manufacturing, nonprofit and real estate industries. Sage Software is a subsidiary of The Sage Group plc, a leading international supplier of accounting and business management software solutions and related products and services for small and mid-sized businesses. Formed in 1981, Sage was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and the Group now has 5.4 million customers and employs over 13,000 people worldwide. For more information, please visit the Web site at www.sagesoftware.com/moreinfo or call (866) 308-2378.

© 2007 Sage Software, Inc. All rights reserved. The Sage Software logo and ACT! are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sage Software, Inc., or its affiliated entities. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

(1) Use of this feature requires an Internet connection, Internet Explorer® 6.0 or 7.0, and an online MLS account.

(2) You must purchase one license of ACT! per user.

(3) Published minimum system requirements are based on single user environments. Actual scalability and number of networked users supported will vary based on hardware and size and usage of your database. Sage Software scalability recommendations are based on in-house performance tests using the recommended server system requirements found at: www.act.com/2008systreq to ensure your system meets these requirements. You must purchase one license of ACT! per user.

(4) Requires additional purchase.

Contact Information: Contact: Ryan Zuk Sage Software 480-368-3818 ryan.zuk@sage.com Shana Keith Porter Novelli 404-995-4557 shana.keith@porternovelli.com