Question: What is the Act! Welcome Page Customer Console?
Product Details:
Product Family: Act! Growth Suite
Tier: Professional, Premier, Ultimate
Version: v22
Answer:
A key part of the Act! V22 release is the addition of an all-new Customer Console found within the Welcome screen when you open your Act! database. This displays a hub of information to start your day with key information at your fingertips whilst allowing you to make quick decisions and navigate throughout the product more efficiently. This feature includes an out of the box dashboard, useful links to help you work with the Act! product, access to import and upload data and the ability to completely personalize the layout of this view per the user’s needs.
In this article we will begin by discussing the default dashboard available immediately when you first start to use the program, we will then discuss how you can customize this information, and finally we will consider the functionality of the icons that run along the top of the console.
NOTE: A user must have the Web API permission to view the Customer Console. This can be assigned by an administrator by going to Tools > Manage Users
Customer Console Dashboard:
The Customer Console is split into 4 default charts. These charts have been designed to provide useful information at a glance to begin your working day. Three of the charts can be filtered by clicking the 3 dot 
icon in the top right corner of the chart. The 4 charts available are:
Task List:
This list is populated by taking data from the task list for both Past Due and Upcoming tasks, allowing the logged in user to quickly access their own current tasks upon login.
Tasks can be easily accessed for further details by clicking on them to drill down into the item. Filtering is available both by Type and Priority along with the amount of tasks to be displayed in the list.
Open Opportunities:
This chart is populated by data from the Opportunities list and is displayed by value of the Opportunity. The Opportunities shown are those that belong to the logged in user. Opportunities can be easily accessed for further details by drilling down into the item.
There are a range of filters available for this chart including:
- Amount to Show
- Date Range
- Probability
- Value
- Process Stage
Pipeline:
The pipeline chart displays all Opportunities in their respective stages allowing a very useful overview of the company's current sales pipeline. This data is able to be toggled between Value and Count, allowing you to see the total combined value of your Opportunities in each stage of your pipeline, or the amount of Opportunities in each stage.
This view can be filtered by the following:
- Date Range
- Process
- Stage
- Probability
- Value
Hot Leads:
Whenever any of your contacts engage in your Marketing Automation campaigns, they will automatically populate this list by making use of the Default scoring profile. Each different type of engagement is given a default point value which populates the AMAscore field within Act!. Once this field is populated, the contact will appear in this list allowing users to quickly access contacts that are engaging with their content, as well as seeing at a glance which of their contacts is most engaged with their campaigns and therefore most likely to respond to any followup contact.
NOTE: The scoring profile will automatically update every 4 hours to show the latest score.
Recipient activities that increase engagement scores are the following:
- Clicking a link within a received email
- Opening a received email
- Submitting information on one of your Landing pages
- Visiting your cookied websites
For more information on how the default scoring profile works, please see the following article:
Custom Charts:
Whilst the previous four charts are the default displayed when you first start using Act! it is possible to add your own charts based on any part of the program that you want. For example, perhaps you would like a chart that shows you all of the various types of Contacts that you have throughout your database. You could easily add a chart to show this information which would automatically update as your database is being used.
To begin, click the cog icon 
in the top right corner of the Welcome screen to open View Options. Click the Create a Chart button to add a custom chart to your dashboard.
The following fields need to be completed to select the data that will be shown in your new chart:
- Name – Enter a name for your chart.
- Entity Type – Choose an area of the program that you would like to base your chart around.
- Field – Choose the field that your chart will be based on. This is dependent on the Entity that you have already chosen.
- Operation – Choose what function you would like the chart to perform. This will differ depending on the type of field you have chosen, but potential calculations include Count, Sum and Average.
- Chart Type – Choose the type of chart that will be created. Again this is dependent on the field type that has been chosen, but potential types include Bar, Column, Pie and KPI.
Once you have completed the form, click Save Chart. The chart will now appear at the bottom of your dashboard, but can be rearranged by clicking the cog icon and choosing Enable Editing.
In a similar way to the default charts, your custom charts can be filtered using the three dot icon in the top right corner, and clicking on any of the bars will allow you to drill down and show a list of the matching records.
Welcome Links:
The Welcome screen includes a number of helpful icons that help you both to get started in using Act! and in providing ongoing support as you expand your knowledge of the program. Their functions are as follows:
- Upload (Act! in the Cloud only) – Allows you to upload an Act! backup to create a new database, or to upload a spreadsheet to your existing database (see the article How do I upload my own data to my Act! in the Cloud account after signing up for the service? for more information).
- Import – This button is used to access the Act! Migration Wizard, typically used for importing directly from other database programs (see the article What is the Act! Migration Wizard? for more information).
- Find a Partner – Takes you to https://www.act.com/partners where you can search for one of our accredited business partners who can provide bespoke setup and training services with regards to Act!.
- How-to – This button takes you to our free online resources page found at https://www.act.com/resources/how-to. This includes information on Getting Started with using Act!, working with Integrations, Database Management, Act! marketing Automation and more.
- Knowledgebase – Takes you to our free online knowledgebase which contains thousands of articles on working with Act!, and should be your first port of call if you need any additional help.
- Act! Community – We have an online community of Act! users that are happy to discuss and share their experiences of using the program, including best practices and improvement suggestions.
- Insert Demo Data – As discussed in the Interim Task above, this allows you to insert demo data into your database that helps you to gain an understanding of how the various sections of Act! work and how they can be used.
If you would prefer to hide the Welcome Links in order to provide more real estate for the Customer Console, you can do so by clicking the cog icon in the top right corner then clicking the Show Welcome Links slidebar.