Going mobile with your CRM solution

							                                   Mobile CRM
                           Benefits and Considerations

Mobile CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is about harnessing the
advantages offered by mobile technologies to help support customers (meeting
your business objectives) whilst on the move.

Gone are the days of laptops – a small handheld ‘Smartphone’ is all you need,
providing CRM users (your team) with all the information that they need, when
the need it – all in a neat, palm-size package.

Benefits

      Improves quality and timeliness of customer data added to the CRM
       system

      Speeds up sales and service processes as quotations, prices lists, service
       agreements etc… can be immediately retrieved/requested.

      Enhanced customer satisfaction through greater responsiveness

      Increased efficiency (leading to potential increased profitability) as
       opportunities can move through the sales pipeline quicker

Considerations

The mobile environment can be complex. Here are some things to think about if
you are contemplating mobile CRM for your business:

   1) Familiar User Experience – make sure that the CRM experience for the
      user maintains the look and feel of the desktop version. This will help to
      shorten the learning curve and assist adoption/productivity

   2) Data retrieval – CRM information should be available locally (on the
      device) so that users have immediate access to key information, despite
      the availability of mobile bandwidth.

   3) Customisation – Ongoing customisation of the central or ‘office based’ CRM
      system means that the mobile CRM should be fully customisable also.

   4) Security – Mobile CRM means that your company information will now be
      stored on mobile devices so security is essential for both data on the
      phone and in transit (during the synchronisation process) – a security
      channel needs to be provided. Additionally, ensure that you can remotely
      delete data should an employee leave the business.

   5) Incremental Updating – synchronising remotely can be time consuming
      (for the user) and costly (for the business) so ensure that incremental
      updates form part of your Mobile CRM plan for both CRM data and
      application updates.

   6) Broad device support – because 1 device (or Smartphone) won’t
      necessarily appeal/support different roles or departments within your
      business, it’s important that a Mobile CRM solution offers broad support for
      the leading mobile devices (Blackberry, Windows Mobile Smartphone and
      Pocket PC)

  Source: Sage SalesLogix – White Paper – Mobile CRM Harness the Competitive Advantage of Your
                                       Mobile Workforce…