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01.05.09 CRM Makes The Mobile Jump  By Jim Berkowitz Here are several excerpts from interesting article by Brendan Read, Senior Contributing Editor with Customer Interaction Solutions, Mobile CRM: Are We There Yet?: Getting the mobile channel to where enabling CRM through accessing applications or web sites a.k.a. mobile CRM is as seamless from desktops is akin to taking young children on a long ride who then inevitably ask: "are we there yet?" The answers will depend to some extent on the nature of the journey being taken. If the trip is for work, such for field sales staff and support reps the destination is in sight. "The days with a field sales rep or technician having to go back to the office to get on the desktop for updates and additional information, are over," says Angie Hirata, director of worldwide marketing and business development, at Maximizer Software. However, if the travel is for everyday business, such as banking, buying products, and obtaining service via the Internet or accessing data-rich content like videos, i.e. mobile commerce or "m-commerce" then there is a little more ways to go. Emmett Higdon is a senior analyst at Forrester Research who wrote a recently published report on financial services m-commerce. He identified a lack of commerce and- CRM-enabling mobile applications such as user authentication, payment methods for banking, or tools that leverage the GPS units in phones so that retailers can make offers if customers/prospects are in their vicinity. "Mobile banking especially is waiting for a lot of that functionality to take hold before it will be adopted in greater numbers," says Higdon. "Customers are waiting on applications that are timely, secure, location-aware, and transactional." North American wireless carriers are upgrading their networks from 2G or 2.5G to 3G. 3G which makes Internet access, downloading and uploading data and bandwidth-intensive applications like video and conferencing feasible. 3G has also proven popular in other countries that had introduced it on a large scale. In the works is 4G that offers even greater capacity at lower costs.
Danny Locklear, Vice President, Carrier Networks Marketing, Nortel, explains that 3G relies on IP packet switching as compared with circuit switching with 2G and 2.5G. IP architectures offer service providers greater flexibility and lower the cost of carrying traffic. They provide a better experience for users, as well, by making it possible to run more than one application concurrently. There are several road bumps that are inhibiting getting to a fully functional truly user-friendly desktop-equivalent mobile CRM environment, where service-enhancing and cost-saving tools like Web self-service can be fully applied and utilized. These include a lack of mobile-friendly search capabilities, long and complicated URLs that are difficult to enter from wireless devices, and a multitude of mobile browsers and a wide array of handsets requiring CRM and other applications to be specifically written for them. Chuck Dietrich, Vice President, Salesforce Mobile, sees the trend toward, simpler, more full-featured and user-friendlier mobile browsers. A majority of his firm's customers are using a more manageable set of mobile devices with a limited number of browsers. David Trice, Vice President of CRM Strategy at Oracle points out that software vendors and independent software vendors have been prevented access to some device capabilities such as tighter integration to the phone, better cross application functionality and more efficient data sharing within the devices. Martin Schneider, SugarCRM director of product marketing and a former CRM analyst says the way forward lies in Web 2.0: open source applications written in XTHML that are Internet-architected that can be integrated with other browsers and applications and which offers other functionality such as mapping the next location and click to call. One major challenge that is gradually being resolved has been screen size and usability. Small screens and tiny keypads have using wireless devices for anything more than sending or receiving SMS or short e-mails or for quick surface web browsing not practical. In their stead are touchpads like Apple's iPhone and pullout keypads. What we're now seeing is a new generation of handsets that is addressing this form factor issue," says Paul Gorman, Ciboodle's product management director. "As their use proliferates there will likely be more of them that begin to effectively and functionally merge the mobile and desktop experiences into portable usable go-anywhere devices." Comments About the Author: Jim Berkowitz is a seasoned executive with more than 30 years of professional services and project management experience related to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Financial Management (Accounting & ERP) software solutions for small, mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies. As a Sales Force Automation and CRM Consultant, Jim has assisted more then 100 companies with the design and implementation of custom CRM solutions. Mr. Berkowitz is the founder and President of CRM Mastery, Inc.; a company dedicated to serving small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) by offering affordable tools and guidance to help them plan for and succeed with their CRM initiatives. |
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