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ACT! Business Partner of the year for 6 consecutive years
What are the differences between the ACT! Premium for Workgroups EX Edition and ACT! Premium for Workgroups ST Edition?
The features and functionality within both SKUs (stock keeping unit) of ACT! Premium for Workgroups (EX and ST Edition) and both SKUs of ACT! Premium for Web (EX and ST Edition) are identical. The difference lies with the database engine and scalability. With a different database comes a different recommendation for networked user counts: Sage Software offers a recommendation of up to 30 users for ACT! Premium for Workgroups and ACT! Premium for Web (EX Editions) and up to 50 users for ACT! Premium for Workgroups and ACT! Premium for Web (ST Editions). Actual scalability and number of users supported really will vary based on hardware and size and usage of your database. Sage Software scalability recommendations are based on in-house performance tests. However, DMC Software has several clients who have over 75 users and large databases. DMC Software minimum hardware requirements can be found here. In some cases our specification may exceed the manufacturers. This knowledge has been gained over one hundred ACT! Workgroup installation.
How do I know when to purchase Premium EX or ACT! Premium for Workgroups Premium ST?
As a very basic rule, if there are more than 30 users in your workgroup, it is recommended to purchase ST Edition. If there are less than 30 users, purchasing ST Edition might be a choice if server machine is running dual processors or a Server OS. SQL Express is not designed to leverage dual processors so this benefit will be noticeable when using SQL Standard. Also, if users plan to connect to any database hosted by SQL Standard, including ACT! for Web, they must purchase ST Edition. If you are not sure, don't worry, as one of technical team will advise you on the best solution for your needs.
Can a Premium EX user synchronise with a Premium ST user?
No you must have the same database and the same version of SQL. Premium EX users can only sync or share databases with other Premium EX users. To connect to any SQL Standard database, users must purchase ST Edition.
For the More Technical
What database does each product ship with?
ACT! will ship with Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005 Express Edition, ACT! Premium for Workgroups 2007 (EX Edition) and ACT! Premium for Web 2007 (EX Edition) ship with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, and ACT! Premium for Workgroups (ST Edition) and ACT! Premium for Web (ST Edition) ships with BOTH Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition.
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