Rating: Mapping and presence improve
its attraction
Crazy as it may seem, 58 per cent of
respondents to a study commissioned by RIM from Forrester reported
that putting CRM apps onto mobile phones was a key part of their IT
strategy for 2009.
There appears to be an interesting mix of factors driving this motivation. Fear of losing a competitive edge is certainly one of them. However, I detect other influences. For example, built-in GPS is one of them.
It's one thing providing a field engineer or salesperson with the name, address and number for the next assignment. Now, they can use the phone to get there, too.
Plus – despite an apparent reluctance to stress this fact – higher data throughput speeds are helping. It improves browser refresh times and helps to speed up data synchronisation.
These findings were discussed with attending journalists by the report's author, Bill Band; RIM's own Rory O'Neil; and Kris McKenzie fro SAP.
You'd expect SAP to say that the majority of its customers are looking at or have already implemented mobile CRM, but Kris actually admitted it had improved SAP employees own performance by ten per cent, too.
RIM was naturally singing the praises of its own Crackberries as the obvious device for mobile CRM. The key message here was that its got security sussed completely – not just data being held on the device by over the network as well.
The three also had an excellent slant on the inherent ability to 'push' information to a Crackberry. This can be done automatically at key times. So, the mobile worker doesn't get bothered over the weekend and the accusation of creating 'Crackberry Dads' is diminished.
Obviously, RIM would love IT departments to standardise on the Crackberry as the supplied mobile device. However, the panel admitted – if end users prefer to keep their existing devices (say their iPhones), then the whole point of mobilising CRM will fail due to consumer resistance.
For those who love to browse the key figures and key finding, the report is actually entitled 'Empowering the Workforce: Mobile CRM in Europe.' Have a look on the Forrester site http://www.forrester.com.
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