CRM Expert Advisor White Paper
Business at the Speed of Mobility: Business Drivers
and Best Practices for Mobile CRM
Business today certainly doesn’t stand still. Neither do the people in your organisation – whether they
are field sales and service staff who are on the move every hour of every day, frequent-flying mobile
professionals, or occasionally traveling executives and managers.
Mobile devices have become an
important tool for leading-edge
companies looking for an advantage in a
competitive global business environment.
improvements in devices and networks,
more and more professionals are able to
rely on the always-on, always-accessible
features of mobile CRM.
Today’s technology in mobile devices,
applications, and network speeds enables
field and mobile professionals to keep
business moving no matter where they
are, with instant access to their key
people, processes, information and
products.
A mobile strategy is a must-have for
today’s businesses. Companies with field
or mobile staff need to take mobility
seriously and integrate it into their
corporate and IT infrastructure. Whether
or not your organisation is considering
mobility, employees who have grown up
with cell phones and mobile devices will
demand them, or move on to companies
that support mobile technology and value
the significant advantages it provides
to its employees and its bottom line. A
carefully considered mobile CRM strategy
can help your company move to the head
of the pack in business productivity, and
employee and customer satisfaction.
Levels of Mobile Maturity
As the chart below shows, 84% of 324
companies polled have equipped key
personnel with handheld devices that
can receive voice and data. This is the first
step in the three levels of mobile maturity.
While manyy small and medium-sized
Mobile email has proven to be an enabler
of increased productivity, real-time
response, and reduced downtime –
regardless of location or time. Now, “At what stage is your company in the adoption of these mobile applications?”
companies are able to take mobility
to the next level - harnessing the
same devices to see further business
gains in productivity, customer
satisfaction, and real-time updates
– all linked to corporate information
systems. After seeing personal
productivity and accessibility
skyrocket with early mobile email
usage, leading companies are
now turning to real-time mobile
CRM (Customer Relationship
Management) to provide access
to corporate business applications
and data stores with invaluable
information that helps employees
work at the pace that customers and
business demand. With ongoing
Source: Forrester Research: Business Technographics® March 2006 North American and European
Enterprise Network and Telecommunications Survey
“The software just makes it easy in a fast
moving environment for everyone in the
organisation to know what is going on and
who is doing it”
Graham Inskip, Managing Director, Graham Lloyd Ltc
organisations are currently at Level 1 and
seeing personal productivity gains with
access to email and calendars, in order
to see full corporate benefit, companies
need to ramp up their processes and
teams to progress to Level 2 and 3, as
described below. When implementing
mobile CRM, it is important to recognise
the progressive levels and prepare your
people and technology to align with
corporate goals.
time, as they no longer have to wait to
get back to the office to get caught up
on the week’s communications. At this
stage, also look at corporate wireless
plans with a local or national carrier to
provide standardised devices and reduced
maintenance costs. If your organisation
has not considered this step, make it a
baseline for mobile productivity.
Level 1: Personal Productivity
The next level addresses a large subset
or team of mobile workers – for example
field sales representatives – by giving
them access to corporate information
systems such as customer databases and
tasks. Personal productivity is enhanced
with access to corporate information,
and companies start to see benefits for
all mobile workers. This level begins
to take a policy-driven approach to
mobility, where IT enables, administers,
and controls how mobile workers access
corporate infrastructure and information
through wireless networks. At this level,
companies standardise on a mobile
platform with central administration and
management tools that enhance security,
and provide appropriate information and
access, based on user role. At this level,
you may have a server to manage basic
email synchronisation, and use wired
USB updates for synchronisation of larger
sets of customer data from CRM systems.
By introducing synchronisation with
corporate applications, companies have
seen an increase in CRM system usage
overall, since this access method fits with
how sales people work and schedule their
time. With mobile staff equipped with
the tools to review customer information
before stepping into a client meeting or
service call, better customer relationships
and satisfaction are the result. With
capabilities to update phone notes,
lead status, and sales forecasts that get
synchronised to the corporate system,
more accurate sales forecasts are
produced.
Equipped with synchronised access to
personal productivity tools like email,
contacts and their calendar, provides
mobile professionals with access to
essential information that can help them
keep up with customers and colleagues
and stay on track with their personal
schedule. With prices for devices and
voice/data plans trending down, today’s
smartphones – whether BlackBerry®,
Windows Mobile® or other platform – are
not only designed for large enterprises
but entrepreneurs, home office
professionals, and small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) as well. At this
stage, companies should work toward
traction and buy-in from staff on the
biggest drivers at this level – push email,
customer information, maps, schedules,
and tasks. Always-on, seamless access to
corporate email in your pocket, alone, has
driven the rapid growth of this industry
due to the radical productivity gains and
ability for mobile professionals to respond
immediately. Being able to keep up-todate saves mobile and field professionals’
on their mobile strategy is when corporate
information pushed to devices dictates
the behavior of people in the field. In
addition to reducing downtime for staff
waiting in traffic or sitting in airports,
this level of maturity actually creates and
increases productivity by pushing out
details of the next field service call, or new
customer meeting updates to employees
in real-time.
Level 2: Corporate Application Access
Level 3: Comprehensive Mobility
Where companies see the greatest return
Comprehensive mobility means that
mobile professionals have real-time,
always-on access to comprehensive
corporate applications and business
processes – not just email and calendars,
but information such as sales forecasts,
leads, and customer service cases. With
access to real-time customer information
and the freedom to make updates directly
from a device, field sales people are
now empowered to spend much more
valuable time meeting with clients in the
field. No longer do they have to cut the
day an hour short to return to the office
to complete administrative work like
updating meeting or phone notes and
sales forecasts in the CRM system. The
access and collaboration using corporate
information systems allows the mobile
professional to fully participate and be
productive and collaborative while in the
field. This level of mobile maturity is so
comprehensive that it enables a field staff
person to be fully functional with only a
mobile device, and doesn’t require a
laptop for most of the day, or in many
cases, at all.
Capitalising on Mobile Maturity for Field
Sales
Many field sales forces in a small or
medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) are
seeing the benefits of Level 1 Mobile
Maturity with gains in personal
productivity and reductions in downtime.
Sales people are equipped with email as
they hit the road, so they can rely on realtime communications from the office and
customers.
By progressing to Level 2, the field sales
person can use the mobile device to
access more of the information they Top Pressures Driving Organisations to Adopt Mobile CRM
need while they’re on the road,
including important customer history.
With information synchronised from
the corporate CRM system to the
device, field staff can look up detailed
history which may include past
orders, outstanding quotes, recent
communications, customer service
cases, and the details about people in
the company. Plus, the client phone
numbers and maps with directions
are available at a glance on the
mobile device, helping to prepare
for an important meeting with a
Source: Aberdeen Group. March 2008
client. After the meeting, the sales
have back
the offi
h
b k att th
ffice. FFor many people
l
person can synchronise back to the
in the field a laptop is not a realistic
corporate CRM system to update it with
option for quick access to information, as
The Benefits and Drivers Behind Mobile
notes fresh from the meeting.
it doesn’t provide the same real-time or
CRM
At Level 3, field sales staff can perform
virtually all of their work as if they’re on a
laptop or in the office using their mobile
device. They receive real-time wireless
updates about the clients and prospects
in their territory directly through their
mobile CRM system. So if an important
client spoke with someone at the office
to complain about a broken product or
incorrect shipment, the field sales person
is aware of that interaction and will not be
caught off guard when they walk into a
meeting with the same client later that
day. After the meeting, the sales person
can not only update the client record with
meeting notes, but also update their
sales forecast so their manager will see
progress. The representative can also
retrieve details about a new lead assigned
to them in order to place a follow-up call.
With the 3rd level of Mobility Maturity
that SMBs are moving towards, this
ultimately provides sales people with
much more freedom and balance in their
lives than ever before. Less time spent
on administrative tasks or synchronising
data – more time spent with clients, and
more minutes of the day made valuable
with the small updates that can be made
while standing in line for a coffee or ATM,
or waiting in an airport lounge.
Before you implement a mobile strategy,
outline the specific benefits you want and
project to achieve and share that with
executives in order to get corporate
buy-in to your plan. You may also
put some tangible figures behind
your projected return on investment.
Whether you’re entering the mobile
world by standardising at Level 1, or
your organisation has already seen some
benefits of Level 1 and ready to move to
Level 2, consider the following benefits of
further mobilising your staff with a mobile
CRM solution, and then add metrics,
depending on the size of your teams.
Today, people have greater expectations
for near real-time access and response.
Cutting off people in the field from the
flow of corporate information reduces
their ability to perform their job effectively
and in a timely manner. In a survey of 175
companies, Aberdeen Group found that
the number one driver for mobile CRM
was sales force productivity. Field and
traveling professionals have traditionally
spent countless hours “down” – whether in
an airport, on a train, or waiting around for
their next appointment. Downtime costs
organisations far more than simply the
lost productivity of one person. When one
person is down, it means that many others
will not be performing tasks they could
convenience level as a small device. Keep
your mobile professionals connected
to reduce downtime and keep them
productive by providing them with a
mobile device capable of connecting
to and interacting with key corporate
applications.
Be Productive Beyond Nine to Five
Most field reps are doers. By keeping them
up to date and connected, 24/7, they can
move out of the old nine to five mentality
and let business carry on outside of
normal hours. With mobile CRM, they
can do this without being confined to
the office. By giving them the means to
juggle many requests at once and still stay
on top of each customer, they present
as knowledgeable business partners to
their customers. When reps can answer
questions and find information more
quickly than competitors, they gain a
significant competitive edge. Shorter
cycle times in areas such as quote
generation, incident resolution, and order
fulfillment can lead to increased revenue
and improved customer satisfaction.
Build Customer Intimacy
By providing more information and
collaboration on smartphone devices,
sales people no longer have to be tied
to the head office, centered around your
“It is difficult to imagine how we would function
without this invaluable tool to our business.”
Peter Hunt, Director, Multipix Imaging
data and processes; they can start moving
their center to where the customer
resides. Moreover, the information
available to them helps build customer
intimacy. Nobody likes to have to repeat
details about their relationship with
your company. They expect that you
already know – and you should. Sales
and service people in the field equipped
with mobile CRM are able to find out
what has happened with a customer
account anytime, on-the-fly. With mobile
CRM, a sales rep can look up and update
a customer record in real-time, and get
updates from colleagues about that
account in real-time as well. Similarly,
a service rep in the field can see all the
details of the customer – not just the
details of that ticket or incident report,
and then close or escalate an incident
while they’re on-site, providing better
service to customers.
Increase Adoption Rates
People in the field don’t have time to
open their laptop, hook up to the Internet
and then fill in a lengthy form to start an
account, update a sales forecast, retrieve
newly assigned leads or file a service
request. While this is virtually impossible
right after a site visit with a prospect,
most sales people are often too tired to
take care of it back at the hotel, and often
forget all about it when they get back to
the office. Yet for CRM to be the successful
collaborative system for sales people,
and a forecasting and intelligence tool to
provide executive insight, the information
it contains must be accurate and up to
date. So the lighter-weight, always-on
nature of the mobile application allows
people to work then and there, with
minimal effort. As you can see from the
results of a CRM implementation for a
company using BlackBerry® smartphones,
the launch of the mobile CRM application,
as an addition to the traditional CRM
system – immediately resulted in a
spike in usage of the system. If sales and
other traveling people like using their
BlackBerry, capitalise on that behavior
by adding CRM to the mobile device. The
field people will be like quarterbacks,
calling a play and when a new customer
action should take place back at the office.
Entering it into the CRM directly assures
the team is backing them.
voice and data device rather than having
both a laptop and cell phone. Combining
the communications costs - eliminating
Internet connection charges for those
with laptops and cell phones - can help to
Get Real-Time Forecasts & Business
Intelligence
The basis for business intelligence and
performance management is that the
underlying data in corporate systems
such as CRM and ERP are up-to-date. If
the information in those systems suffers
from incomplete data then all the reports,
dashboards and gadgets in the world
won’t provide meaningful business
performance insight. When sales people
don’t take the time to enter forecast
and account updates from the field, or
regularly synchronise their laptops to
the corporate databases, large chunks of
information can be out of date or simply
missing. Real-time updates from mobile
devices with always-on connectivity or
seamless synchronisation, ensures that
management receives better
information for decision making.
Reduce IT & Telecommunications Costs
If your organisation is not yet at Level 1
Mobile Maturity, and multiple individuals
are using personal cell phones or devices
for corporate purposes – with no central IT
strategy around mobility – the first step is
to reign in rogue users and get control for
cost, efficiency, and security purposes.
Although adding a mobile tier to your IT
infrastructure may increase complexity,
the maintenance requirements for mobile
devices are far less onerous than for
laptops. They cost less, crash less, and
require fewer updates as well.
By moving some field sales or service staff
over to mobile devices from laptops, your
capital IT expenditures may even be
reduced. IT directors should recommend
a tiered approach in which they identify
roles and apply the right device to that
role in order to improve usage and reduce
equipment costs. Your company and
field staff can also benefit from a single
reduce connectivity costs as well.
If your staff is currently on individual or
personal cell phone plans that are being
expensed back to the company – you
further reduce administrative and
telecommunications costs by signing onto
a corporate plan with your local carrier.
This will enable you to share voice and
data minutes amongst your mobile users,
centralise billing, reduce staff time spent
on administrative tasks like consolidating
phone bills for expenses, and receive
centralised support for standardised
devices.
Ask. Plan. Mobilise
To realise the full benefits of mobile CRM,
start with the end-users in mind, carefully
plan, then mobilise.
Define End-User Needs
The number one failing point for any
business application implementation is
not taking into account how an employee
will actually use the system, or how it will
benefit their role, in terms of productivity
through ease of access to information - or
for sales people, help them make more
money. Mobile CRM is no different. Do not
try to simply replicate the entire desktop
†
Forrester Research, November 30, 2006, How Mature Is B2B
Lead Management?
CRM application on the handheld device.
Start by creating a Mobility Team
comprised of representative users from
sales, service, management, and other
professionals in the field. Watch how they
perform their job, find out how much
time they spend on administrative tasks
inside the CRM system (whether during
work hours, evenings, or weekends) –
when they could be spending more time
meeting with clients. Ask what they need
to access on their mobile device – in
terms of core information from the CRM
system. Based on watching and asking,
identify the critical information that would
benefit them – accounts, leads, schedule,
opportunities, phone logging, emails, etc.
During this stage of planning, also identify
a number of key performance indicators
(KPIs) that will help you to monitor
the success or failure of the mobility
initiative. Some of the sales KPI’s to
consider measuring before and after the
implementation include:





Lead follow-up response time
Customer-facing time spent per week
Time to quotation
Deal close cycle time
Data completeness and accuracy
(phone, email, meeting notes) in CRM
system
 Sales forecast accuracy.
applications on different devices. Make
sure the device you choose has an existing
corresponding application version
from your CRM vendor. Take a look at
the features and functionality of the
application and map it to the processes
that the Mobility Team has identified.
The Device
There are many different devices that
can support mobile applications. To
narrow the field, the first thing to check
is whether or not your CRM solution of
choice comes with a mobile application
and which devices it supports. Find out
which devices provide the additional
functionality that your staff requires. There
are many hardware vendors, but the most
common operating systems today are
iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile
Pocket PC, Windows Mobile Smartphone,
Palm and Symbian.
Another consideration is whether your
sales reps travel the world. If so, choose a
device that supports global networks and
roaming.
Standardise on a Mobile Technology
Platform
For small to medium-sized businesses, a
mobile CRM implementation should be
based on a standard platform to minimise
device and data costs, administration
resources, and reduce the need for
application development redundancy.
There are three key components that
make up the technology platform for any
mobile CRM solution.
The Application
Many software vendors produce mobile
applications for their enterprise class
To stop rogue use of other devices, open a
dialogue with those mobile professionals
in your company that may already be
using devices (you may be surprised at
how many are out there being used for
personal productivity!). Involve them
in the discussion of what devices they
have purchased, why they like them or
dislike them, what the best combination
of device and application will be and set
that as a corporate standard. Employees
will be more inclined to use the corporate
standard if they are part of the discussion
process.
The Network
Data and voice packages from different
telecommunications providers differ
dramatically. The decision about which
provider to go with must take into
consideration the devices supported,
voice and data usage patterns, and
geographical coverage requirements for
staff nationwide or even worldwide.
Determine Connectivity & Synchronisation
Needs
The biggest benefit and change with
today’s smartphones and mobile
applications, compared to the previous
generation, is that they are always on and
always up to date. This means that people
equipped with devices should not have
to worry about data synchronisation.
However, there are still times when cell
signal strength is low or nonexistent.
For these times, the best practice is to
have offline storage of CRM information
allowing information look-up, updates
and new record creation. Then, when back
in signal range, either the application
will automatically synchronise the
changes, or the user would initiate the
synchronisation manually.
To minimize synchronisation time and
data transfer charges, the user should
only load a subset of the CRM database
onto their device – related specifically
to their role and territory. The system
should be configurable so that staff can
set up filters and rules to set what specific
range of data will be synchronised for
their accounts, leads, opportunities,
appointments, notes, etc.
Regardless of how much time is
spent selecting the sub-set of data to
synchronise, there will be times when
a field staff person finds themselves
needing information that is not preloaded onto their device. For these
instances, there should be a means of
going online to query the CRM system in
real-time, and if appropriate, marking the
record(s) for synchronisation in the next
data transfer.
“Maximizer does not have the limitations I know other
software packages have. The program is also very
flexible because you can add and change parts... We
cannot live without this anymore”
Gerwin Eersen, Managing Director, Gflex
Security
As customer data is invaluable to your
company, security of that data – whether
internally, over the web, or on devices –
should be part of your mobile strategy.
Basic security methods such as login
protocols can prevent people from
logging on to the CRM from a mobile
device if they are not an authorised user.
When a device is lost, corporate IT can
set the device to delete any information
that may be critical, by altering the
synchronisation list.
With wireless synchronisation, the server
should be deployed using SSL to ensure
the security of the data packets being sent
through the air – making them useless to
an unauthorised packet sniffer.
Change Management
Just as involving the people who will use
the mobile CRM in its design is critical to
success, so is managing the change and
training for the rest of the mobile users.
Depending on the culture of the
workforce (are they currently heavy laptop
users or paper folder keepers), the process
for change will vary.
Individuals affected by the initiative need
to first see how the change will help them
do their job easier and faster, and help
them make more money (if they are in
sales) or better service customers (if in
service). Then they need to understand
how their work will change, what is
expected of them, how their performance
will be measured, and what success of
the implementation will mean for them
and those around them. Let people
know when changes will occur and keep
them up to date regarding changes
to business processes, the technology
implementation schedule, when they can
expect training and any other logistics
that might impact their day-to-day jobs.
Mobilise: Start with a Pilot
Before you roll out mobile CRM across
your entire organisation, test your plan
using a small set of field/mobile staff.
Choose a defined group from which
to gather feedback and identify issues
presented by the new system. The group
might be all field sales reps in London,
or service reps that take care of a certain
appliance for repair – the choice is
training should begin in advance of
launch and then delivered on an on-going
basis after initial roll-out as features are
added. The training requirements will not
be as high as with the full CRM systems, as
mobile applications are slimmer in feature
set by nature, and mobile smartphones’
native features are built to work intuitively.
yours. Provide the device and training
required and ensure they use the system
for a month, prior to evaluating and
rolling it out to the rest of the group.
In addition to an overall pilot for your
mobile initiative (if staff are new to the
devices themselves), also consider a
phased approach to the features within
the devices. There are two reasons to take
a phased approach to deploying features:
1. It gives people a chance to learn how
to work with the new system and does
not overwhelm them. Give them the
basics first to whet their appetite, get
them comfortable with the device and
application, and experience the benefits,
before adding more advanced functions.
2. The processing power and display
graphics of mobile devices is growing by
leaps and bounds. Companies can take
advantage of new functionality over time
as software vendors take advantage of
device improvements to provide a richer
user experience.
During the planning phase, your mobility
team will define what they would like
to access on their devices as a baseline
(email, contacts and calendar). Start
with that, and add more functionality
and information as required (leads, sales
opportunities, cases, documents) – as
benefits are clear and buy-in is gained.
Don’t Neglect Training
No amount of money invested in new
devices and applications alone will result
in the success of your mobility initiatives.
Ongoing training ensures organisation
adoption and user satisfaction. For your
mobile CRM system to be a success,
Perform an Evaluation
Bring the members of the pilot together
to discuss their experience, learn about
their successes and failures, so that you
can address problems and leverage
successes when you roll out to the
wider group of mobile professionals
in the company. During the planning
phase, your mobility team will define
key performance indicators to measure
the success of the project and take
benchmark measurements from each for
the people in the pilot program. After
a month, measure them again. Identify
which have improved and which have not,
and set a course to make adjustments as
necessary.
Next Steps
Today’s sales and service professionals in
the field must be equipped with the best
possible information and access to
customer-facing business processes.
Providing field representatives with a
mobile device reduces downtime and
improves their ability to rapidly resolve
customer issues or to close more deals,
with the entire organisation ready to
back them up to get the job done.
Smartphones equipped with personal
productivity and CRM applications also
help mobile professionals accomplish
more in less time – freeing up evenings
and weekends that were previously spent
on administrative tasks that could not be
achieved in the field. For management
– whether staff are mobile or not –
empowering a field force with mobile
CRM helps monitor performance through
real-time updates.
Understanding the potential value of
CRM to your company is the foundation
of a good CRM strategy. Actively involve
users from the very beginning to ensure
success.
With today’s ubiquitous nature of cell
phones and smartphones, and the
convergence of personal and business
devices, your staff will make up their own
mobile strategy if you don’t guide them
and provide the tools they require. If you
are ready to investigate a mobile CRM
strategy, talk to Maximizer Software and
its partners in the mobility ecosystem to
help you build a foundation for business
success.
About Maximizer Software
Maximizer Software delivers Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and professional services to meet the needs, budgets
and access requirements of entrepreneurs, small and medium businesses and divisions of large enterprises.
Simple, easy to use and affordable, Maximizer CRM enables companies to mobilise their workforces through all-access web, smart phone,
tablet and desktop delivery methods.
Easily configurable for organisations in any industry, Maximizer CRM optimises sales processes, enhances marketing initiatives and
improves customer service to ultimately boost productivity and revenue.
With headquarters in Canada and offices and business partners worldwide, Maximizer Software has sold over one million licenses to
more than 120,000 customers since 1987.
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