Mobile CRM has been a marginal technology for years. Once a user developed an appetite for more than the basic calendaring and address book functions of the RIM BlackBerry, additional sustenance was in short supply. But now, a Silicon Valley startup and a burst of innovation from more established players, including SAP, are moving us closer to truly mobile customer management.
It's about time. Salespeople have always lived on the road, and it makes no end of sense to be able to connect wirelessly with the rich information stored in CRM systems back in the office. Sure, the BlackBerry and its handheld competitors have long offered the basics of calendaring and contact management, but e-mail aside, when you think about the cost and back-office complexity, the ROI isn't great.
Meanwhile, cellular coverage has improved dramatically, handheld devices are extremely powerful, and a new generation of tools allows developers to write small, but robust applications and tailor them to a variety of hardware platforms. "Perfect storm" is an awfully tired metaphor, but a lot of factors have come together to enable CRM vendors to push deeper into mobility.
Rethinking the mobile app
Sheryl Kingstone, an analyst who follows CRM and other applications for the Yankee Group, says that her company’s surveys show strong demand for mobile CRM in the enterprise, but only if vendors get it right. Mobile applications, including CRM, have to be rethought and not just dropped onto a mobile device, she says.
Ribbit, one of InfoWorld’s startups of the year, built a software platform that enables developers to create voice and telephony applications in a familiar Web application development environment. Once built, those applications can be linked to other Web apps, including SaaS-based CRM from Salesforce.com and other companies.
A Salesforce.com developer, for example, used Ribbit's API to build a mashup that converts voice messages to text, then drops the data into the Salesforce CRM. Users can also call into the application remotely to add information or view data.
Analyst Denis Pombriant of Beagle Research was impressed with Ribbit's Salesforce application because "it doesn’t treat the handheld device as if it were just a small computer. It tailors the application to the small screen."
SugarCRM, the largest open source CRM vendor, has added a lot of mobile features to its latest release, due at the end of the month. Sugar 5.1 will allow users to run all 20-plus modules of the CRM app on their BlackBerrys and iPhones. It's a big improvement over earlier versions that only ran eight or so modules on mobile devices.
Sugar 5.1 comes with the first set of enhancements to Module Builder, a tool to let nontechnical users create new modules based on Sugar core logic. Users can now build up a history of customizations and establish one-to-many links between modules, including ones running on mobile devices.
Chris Harrick, a SugarCRM vice president, says the software now supports devices running Windows Mobile, the iPhone, and other cell phones equipped with a Web browser in addition to the BlackBerry, which remains "the most solid, enterprise-ready platform."
SAP steps up
SAP, meanwhile, has become deeply entrenched in the BlackBerry via its alliance with RIM. The German software giant is making some its core CRM applications native to the BlackBerry. It started with the usual basic apps on the BlackBerry (calendaring and more) and will add functions such as forecasting, sales pipeline, and lead sheets before too long, says Vinay Iyer, SAP's vice president of CRM marketing. Data, like e-mail on the BlackBerry, can be updated via the usual "push" from the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, instead of by manual synchronization.
Making the apps native to the BlackBerry is a very smart move since there's so much overlap between the customer bases of both companies. SAP shops that already support the BlackBerry won't have to spend much on additional training or hardware to take advantage of the mobile capabilities. Apple and the iPhone will have to scramble to get a toehold in this market.
For now, SAP is concentrating on its alliance with RIM. But the agreement announced in May between the two companies is not exclusive, and SAP is open to collaborating with vendors of other devices in the future, says Iyer.
It's likely that there are still bugs and broader technical issues standing between a truly mobile CRM and the mobile sales force, but progress is finally being made by some big players -- and a few noteworthy little guys.
I welcome your comments, tips and suggestions. Reach me at bill_snyder@infoworld.com.