Mobile CRM: Six Experts Dial In

There's a interesting article discussing mobile crm on crmbuyer.com. Six experts are asked about different aspects of mobile crm. One of these experts is Michael Rich, senior product marketing manager at Microsoft.

One thing that's obvious is that mobile crm is on the rise. A few quotes from the article:

Though only a small percentage of companies are using mobile CRM (and many
of those only on a limited basis), the ones that are using it have reported
great success, and it appears to be a market segment poised for rapid growth, in
part because it's now within reach of the profitable small to medium-sized
business (SMB) market segment.

Recent research from Compass Intelligence suggests that businesses in
the U.S. will spend roughly US$9 billion on mobile applications, including
mobile CRM, by 2011, up from an estimated $3.8 billion this year.

Second is that you need to do your homework before selecting a mobile crm solution. Some other quotes:

First, you should consider whether the tool meets your most fundamental
needs: Does it provide anytime, anywhere access? Is it an integrated system?
Is it easy to use? Can you grow and scale with the tool? Can you afford it?
How much will your business benefit from this tool in terms of increased
sales/increased productivity and efficiency/reduced cost/better
decision-making ability?

The benefit of online-only access is that it's the easiest to create and
deploy if your engineers typically have mobile coverage. Offline mobile options
work well in environments where online access is intermittent. The advantages of
a blended mode offer the best of both worlds. Therefore, finding a vendor that
meets your specific requirements is key from the very beginning of a
search.

So how does CWR Mobile CRM fit? Our solution works both online and offline, changing it's mode depending on network availability or user preference.

The key to a successful deployment of any mobile application is giving the
mobile users access to the data they need in the field and not flooding them
with nonessential data. A good business process review is a great step in
identifying the correct data set.

So how does CWR Mobile CRM fit? Using two of our features, Profiles and Sync Filters, you can define exactly which and how much data you want on your mobile device.

We don't think that CRM applications should require modification to support the
mobile workforce.

Plan ahead and prepare for growth. Choose a product and vendor that will not
only allow you to tailor the CRM product to your needs, but will be flexible
and can alter specifications as your business changes.

So how does CWR Mobile CRM fit? CWR Mobile CRM is totally configurable using the mobile configuration tool. Administrators can define profiles, views and forms to suit the users' needs. However, it doesn't stop there. If your mobile workforce does need advanced functionality that's not available out of the box, you can extend it using the SDK.

So, if your company (or your customers) have a mobile workforce, go read the article, do your homework and then let us know if you have any questions :).