CRM for Road Warriors - Has the time come?
During the past decade, the usage of cell phones has taken an interesting turn. From the fashionable statement of the rich and famous, it has become a necessity for communication for common man, engine for economic growth, tool of productivity and a necessary medium for the ever-shrinking world. The past decade saw the amalgamation of two most important revolutions of the business world - Email and Cell Phones - creating a very potent mix for productivity.
Throughout the 90s, companies such as IBM and Nokia had been trying to optimize Email connectivity to the cell phones. In 2001, RIM released its first Blackberry version, which optimized email for wireless use. This was followed by Microsoft's PocketPC, Apple's IPhone, Google's Android and various other Smartphones and PDAs.
Throughout these interesting times, the impact on organizations had been limited. However, RIM's Blackberry changed the viewpoint and organizations started looking Email over Cell Phone as the 'real' productivity tool. They started adapting positively to the Smart Phones and Wireless connectivity, empowering their employees to access their data while on move. The road warriors of the organizations, typically the sales and Field services workforce, immediately saw the benefit of having more relevant data to their jobs other than just Email, while on move. This created the business case for Mobile CRM from the user perspective.
However, I still feel that this is a very nascent area for CRM, which has a huge potential for growth with few established players. This arena has been mostly been fuelled by the Third Party Product vendors of COTS packages as there are multiple factors which require re-thinking when it comes to Mobile CRM. Some of these areas that I can think on the top of my head are:
- User Interface (Navigation)
- Data Integrity (Integration to Back-Office with other systems)
- Offline/Online capability (Ability to cache data when networks are not available)
- Security considerations - Is my data on wireless networks secure?
- User Adoption (how would the sales/Field service people adopt the application)
- Roll-Out of Applications for the Sales/Service People
- Is the internal IT department geared to support Mobile CRM app?
The key factor for slow uptake and longer sales cycle of Mobile CRM is the inability to articulate the ROI of implementation to the stakeholders. I usually advocate the measurement of ROI for Mobile CRM on the following factors:
- How much of the business is done 'on-move' for Sales and Field Services?
- How much time do your Sales and Field Services spend out of office - unable to access your key Apps (ERP/CRM or Customized app) ?
- What is the impact of availability of right data on the Sales / Field Services on Top-Line and Bottom-Line of the organization?
- How much customization of Mobile App is required for successful End User Adoption?
- What is Organization's 'Technological Adoption Maturity' (i.e. propensity to adopt to new technologies) ?
- How portable the App is for other devices (i.e. Does the vendor support Pocket-PC, iPhones, Androids and Blackberry and other PDA devices as well)?
In my next blog, I shall try and evaluate some of the factors which Vendors/Third Party service providers might want to re-think when they are making a CRM Mobile App for the End-User and Organizations.
Till then, Happy Surfing on your Mobile :)
Comments
I'd like to add that more than the User Interface, it's the entire experience - the interface, the interaction, the help that the user gets, that can fuel growth of Mobile CRM.
Posted by: Sita Bhatt | February 26, 2009 3:55 AM