CRM 2009 Forecast

Paul Greenberg, well-known CRM analyst and author of the best-selling book "CRM at the Speed of Light" did his yearly CRM forecast a few weeks ago. First he looked back at his forecast for 2008 and then he does a three-part (well 2.1 part) forecast for 2009 (part 1, part 2 and part 2.1).

I was happy to see that Mobile CRM is his number one forecast for 2009. I quote:

Mobile CRM will be in increasing demand by sales organizations in particular -
and vendors will continue to invest in it, downturn or not.

And I was happily surprised to see that the following sentence in his article linked to our website :)

the commitment of Microsoft partners
to build Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Windows Mobile solutions.

In addition to Paul Greenberg, Inside CRM also has a Top 5 CRM predictions for 2009, and guess what? Mobile CRM is again number 1!

Mobile is the New Hosted – Mobile CRM will rise beyond a “useful”
technology for sophisticated users to a pervasive application that transcends
throughout field and service workers, and even into the trades and labor
workforce.

Reading these predictions sets some high expectations for 2009 :).

Indeed, 2008 has been a great year and 2009 will be an even more exciting year for us! With a new release 4.1 of our CWR Mobile CRM solution coming soon that will set the bar even higher for Windows Mobile CRM solutions!

Talking about Mobile being the new Hosted, we recently released CWR Mobile CRM for CRM Online as a beta and you can still sign up for free during this beta period.

But there's more to come in 2009...

That being said, on behalf of CWR Mobility I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and all the best for 2009!

New CWR Mobile CRM license types and pricing

With the introduction of CWR Mobile CRM 4.0 we've introduced a new licensing model and new pricing.

Next to the already existing on-premise version, we've added Partner hosted and CWR hosted. CWR hosted basically means that we host the Mobile Server for you and we connect to your CRM environment or your CRM Online (formerly Live) organization.

Furthermore, instead of one version-one price we now have a Standard and a Professional version with different prices. In short, the difference is that the Standard version has all the capabilities of the Professional, except for the SDK. So you cannot extend the mobile client with client-side callouts and custom controls in the Standard version.

When you don't need the advanced stuff like signature capturing, barcode scanning, route navigation etc. then the Standard version will be an attractively priced option for your organization.

The new Standard and Professional license types are available for the existing CWR Mobile CRM 1.2 (for CRM 3.0) and the new CWR Mobile CRM 4.0 release.

See here for the different versions and pricing details.

Convergence and we're in the book!

Our friends from Webfortis wrote the book Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Unleashed and we're mentioned in chapter 26 (Microsoft Dynamics Add-Ons) on pages 789-790 (be sure to also read the rest of the book ;)!

Convergence was a blast, and I refer to both the expo as the space shuttle launch. We did visit the launch at 2:30 AM together with our Dutch colleagues from BusinessBase and we have the pictures to prove it!

This was taken from across the lake at Titusville, I think approximately 10 miles from the launching site.

Furthermore we had the opportunity to talk with a lot of partners, customers, MVP's and Microsoft representatives, we brought Menno his stroopwafels :), and we were able to demo our CWR Mobile CRM 4.0 client which will be released coming week! Watch this blog for the announcement.

CWR Mobile CRM 4.0 launched at the Convergence in Orlando

CWR Mobility will launch their new CWR Mobile CRM 4.0 product at the Convergence 2008 in Orlando, Florida.

CWR Mobile CRM is a rich PDA client for Dynamics CRM 4.0 running on Windows Mobile powered devices.

"We are really excited about this new release." says Erik van Hoof, CEO of CWR Mobility BV, "We have implemented the major features of CRM 4.0 in our new release to enable full support of the powerful customization options. We have added the multi-lingual screens, multi-currency and the possibility to install the mobile application on a multi-tenant partner hosted environment."

"Another exciting new feature is the integration into Pocket Outlook. You can now access CRM directly from your Outlook Contacts, Appointments and Tasks." added Erik van Hoof.

The full version will be available for download at the end of March by Partners of CWR Mobility BV.

More information can be found at: www.cwrmobility.com -> products -> CWR Mobile CRM

Microsoft Mobility Partner Update

While Erik is busy with the Dynamics goes Spiritual (spiritual as in liquor...) tour in Belgium (two more days left, November 21 and 23), Jeffry will be showcasing the CWR Mobile CRM solution at the Dutch Microsoft Mobility Partner Update on November 21 at the Microsoft Innovation Center in Barneveld.

In the mean time we're working hard on the CRM 4.0 version. I'll try to show some screenshots soon!

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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 :).

CWR Mobile CRM at Microsoft Norway Partner Community Day

Microsoft Norway is having a Partner Community Day in Oslo on November 19th.

A few selected partners will be presenting their Dynamics CRM add-ons to all attending CRM partners. CWR Mobility will be presenting its CWR Mobile CRM solution.

Norway is one of the leading countries when it comes to mobility. According to a survey conducted by Radar Group International 77 % of all Norwegian customers have the intention to implement mobile CRM over the next 12-24 months.

So, if you're a Norwegian Dynamics CRM partner and haven't registered yet, contact your local Microsoft representative and we'll see you there!

Microsoft launches System Centre Mobile Device Manager 2008 (SCMDM)

Now that's an acronym. Repeat this quickly 5 times: Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008.....Let's just call it Mobile Device Manager.

While we were at Convergence Copenhagen Microsoft announced this at the CTIA Wireless conference in San Francisco. Not long after that, in the session that Barry Givens and Erik van Hoof presented at Convergence, they were able to give a quick overview.

In short, this product enables administrators to manage and secure mobile devices. It can be used to enforce Active Directory policies on the mobile device or to deploy applications to devices. Next to that you can setup secure connectivity over VPN with session control and quick reconnect.

You will have to wait a while before you can actually use the full benefits of it, because only new and future versions of Windows Mobile will support MSCMDM. That's Windows Mobile 6 and beyond.

We have been looking at MSCMDM and basically for us this means that instead of using our installers to install or update CWR Mobile CRM, administrators can also use MSCMDM to deploy our application to multiple devices. Next to that you can setup secure connectivity between the mobile device and you internal networks in an easy way. So, we're already fully compliant with MSCMDM :).

For more details, read here and here.

Convergence 2007 Copenhagen is over!

Wow, what an event! Convergence Copenhagen is over. Three days packed with sessions, demo's, partner exhibitions etc. It has been an intense event, but very rewarding.

Erik did 3 sessions on Mobility and Dynamics CRM. Two from the Windows Mobile point of view together with Mark Grady from the Windows Mobile team and one from the Dynamics CRM point of view together with Barry Givens from the Dynamics CRM team. In both sessions he was able to showcase the power of using CWR Mobile CRM together with Dynamics CRM to build a great mobile CRM solution.

All sessions were fully booked and in one session people even needed to stand in the back because there were no more seats available!

We also had a booth at the partner exhibition and in addition to that we were "guest host" at the Windows Mobile booth for a few hours a day. The Windows Mobile booth featured an HTC mobile device as large as a 19 inch monitor (actually a monitor in a HTC skin...), so it was great to demo the mobile solution on it. We have to try to get one of those for some other events :).

It was nice to meet with customers and partners, some CRM MVP's (Ronald Lemmen and Michael Hoehne) and people from the Microsoft teams.

We were also invited to the Windows Mobile partner dinner. We met a lot of interesting people there. After dinner the party continued at some bars. Some people made it later than others. I heared about a few people who went to bed when the sun was already rising :). No, it was not me, I had booth duty the next day...

We're just about finished packing the stand equipment and get some relaxation. We'll fly home tomorrow afternoon, so we will have some time to go and see the famous Copenhagen mermaid before we leave :).

That's it, catch us at the next Convergence next year in Orlando!

Sonoma mobility webinar ft. CWR Mobile CRM

Mike Snyder from Sonoma Partners just blogged about their mobility webinar in which they presented several CRM mobility solutions. The verdict?

If you want to use CRM data extensively (logging calls, adding notes, etc.) on
your mobile device: Buy CWR Mobile if you have a Windows device.

You can read the full post here. And view the recorded webinar here.

Disclaimer: we did not sponsor this webinar ;)

UPDATE:
Just a little update after reviewing the webinar.

1.
One of the 'cons' of our application is that you need to cradle the device to install the software. Technically this is not correct. You can install the software over-the-air (OTA) just fine. However, the software is about 2 MB so downloading it may take a while over a slow connection. You should be fine though when using something like UMTS.

2.
Another 'con' is that there's no out-of-the-box activity tracking of emails and phonecalls. E.g. that when you call someone, a phonecall is automatically created and prefilled for you. It is true that this functionality doesn't exist out-of-the-box. Erik shows in this blog post how easy it is to build this functionality using our SDK. So if you buy the product and you need this functionality, it's already there!

I hope that's a little les 'con' :).

Video: Automatically create a phonecall activity when making a phonecall

The second video on how to work with CWR Mobile CRM will demonstrate the possibility to automatically create a phonecall when dialing a phone number from within a record.

The functionality that is being demonstrated is based on our custom control extension model.

The 'phonecall' control will dial the phonenumber and open a new phonecall record, automatically filled with the sender and the receiver, the phonenumber and the duration of the call.

Whatch the video on Soapbox:


Video: Create phonecall on CWR Mobile CRM

Free license for Microsoft Dynamics CRM MVP's (Most Valuable Professionals)

Being a Microsoft Dynamics CRM MVP is already an accomplishment and an honor, but now it even got better!

We all know how much time and effort MVP's dedicate to the CRM community; sharing their knowledge in newsgroups, user groups and in many other ways. As a token of our appreciation to the community of MVP's CWR Mobility offers a free CWR Mobile CRM license to any Microsoft Dynamics CRM MVP!

How to request a license?
To request your license please send an e-mail to support@cwrmobility.com and include your name, e-mail and a proof of your MVP status. We will then contact you to setup your free license.

UPDATE: Go here to request a free MVP license.

How do I know if I qualify for a free license?
If you're a Dynamics CRM MVP then you probably know you're one :). But in case you're not sure, take a look at https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/communities/mvp.aspx?product=1&competency=Microsoft+Dynamics+CRM to see a list of Dynamics CRM MVP's.

Just our way to say thanks to all Dynamics CRM MVP's.

Video on how to create a sales order on CWR Mobile CRM

Watch this new video on SoapBox about creating a Sales Order on CWR Mobile CRM.


Video: Create Sales Order in CWR Mobile CRM