Everyone is talking at mobile today, but few people know where to start, or where to turn for help in talking about how to take key business processes to a mobile device. We have been working in and around mobile technology for over four years and have always focused on how cloud and mobility intersect to meet a client needs.
We have made Cross-platform mobile development a core focus so it is possible to have a single code base and have the same application run across multiple form factors on multiple mobile operating systems built by multiple manufacturers. Why is this important? Many companies do not have the luxury of rolling out an application for only one mobile device, they usually need to support multiple devices which can make mobile application development more costly and to increase project risk exponentially.
Before we get into the details of what is supported and how this is possible, here is a brief video that outlines what the 2GO Platform is at the highest level.
True Cross-Platform Customizable Applications
When the iPad was introduced many people labeled it as a device looking for a need. Today it is clearly leading the tablet charge in the Enterprise and has been so successful for Apple it is even taking some marketshare from Apple's laptop sales. However as more tablets come to market, many companies are also looking at Android options to lower costs or at the RIM Playbook.
The platform is optimized for tablets and is designed from the ground up to be used with a touch interface. We now have tablet support for the following customizalbe applications:
Account and Contact Management
Call Planning/Call Reporting
Order Entry
Digital Sales Aid
Route Planning
Field Service
Inventory Management
Bar Code Scanning
Signature Capture
Social Enterprise (Salesforce.com Chatter)
Cloud access even when you can't access the Cloud
What I'm really proud of is the fact that 2GO provides access to back-end cloud data whether or not you have internet connectivity. Even in this day and age there are many places where we don't have connectivity (basements, office buildings, remote customer sites) and still need access to critical business information. Offline synchronization is core to the platform and all information is stored locally in an encrypted database to provide safe and secure access to key information regardless of internet connectivity.
Simplifies Maintenance
Applications rarely are static, business processes evolve and it is a struggle for most mobile applications to keep up with the speed of business. The 2GO Platform helps applications to easily grow and change without any code changes. It leverages something called meta-data (data about data) to make this magic happen. What this means to a business user is when they add a field to a back-end Cloud application, that field is immediately accessible in their 2GO mobile application.
Cross-platform Tablet2GO running on multiple tablets
Here is a brief video that shows the Accounts, Contacts and Social Enterprise modules running on an Apple iPad, a Motorola Xoom and a RIM Playbook.
One of the most popular applications we have delivered is using a tablet as a Digital Sales Aid. Essentially using a tablet as a replacement for a paper brochure, or one-sheet and presenting content about products and services in a very engaging way.
Cross-Platform Digital Sales Aid
Here is an example of the Digital Sales Aid application configured for the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) vertical that shows products on a virtual store shelf.
Cross-Platform Tablet2GO on an iPad
Here is a brief video showing how Tablet2GO looks and feels on an iPad
Cross-Platform Tablet2GO on an RIM Playbook (running QNX)
Here is a brief video showing how Tablet2GO looks and feels on a Playbook
Cross-Platform Tablet2GO on a Motorola Xoom (running Honeycomb)
Here is a brief video showing how Tablet2GO looks and feels on a Xoom
The above videos showed 2GO running on a variety of tablets with the same codebase. However we haven't forgotten about the original mobile form-factor, the smartphone. The same codebase is smart enough to know whether or not it is running on a tablet or a smartphone and the user interface is adjusted accordingly.
Here is an example of 2GO running on a Motorola Droid. This is the same application that was shown in the tablet videos, however the interface is optimized for the smartphone (one column of data instead of two, and more of a wizard like interface).
The mobile team is still hard at work and there is more to come. I will keep you posted on our progress as we make a few more announcements in the coming weeks that will make it even easier for you to access these and other 2GO applications and easily roll them out to your organization.
Today we released the results of an independent survey that shed interesting light on how enterprises are using tablets.
The results may surprise you. We hear a lot about how mobile is the next big thing. And from the conversations we have with enterprises, it most often is. But what we’re hearing, and this survey validates, is that we are still in the very early days of using tablets to deliver actual business value.
Most enterprises have tablets purchased by employees who are just “testing them out.” Perhaps using them for work email. Only 22% of companies have “officially” deployed them for business use in some fashion. This may even have occurred in a small department, not necessarily across the company. At the same time 72% know they are used by employees within their companies.
Along the same lines, 78% plan to have tablets officially deployed by the end of 2013, yet only 51% report having an adoption strategy in place.
This means there is a huge opportunity for enterprises to drive innovation with these new devices. The enterprises we talk to with the right mindset may not yet know exactly how to leverage them for business, but they see the potential to differentiate and do things differently. We’ve done some really interesting mobile projects for clients in the consumer goods, insurance and life science industries in particular that are really exciting.
Check out the results for yourself. Does your business have a plan in place to leverage the next generation of mobile devices?
Nearly 80 Percent of businesses will deploy tablets by the end of 2013; yet half do not have a strategy in place to drive business value
iPads are expected to be the most widely deployed at 83 percent; Android-based tablets are another favorite at 34 percent
CHICAGO – May 17, 2011 –Model Metrics, the leader in cloud computing services for the enterprise, today announced the results of an independent survey that illuminates how enterprises are incorporating tablets into their businesses. Conducted by Dimensional Research, the survey of nearly 450 business and IT executives sheds light on the reality of enterprise adoption of tablets including Apple’s iPad and Android-based tablets like the BlackBerry PlayBook, among others.
Top findings
Big tablet deployment plans but business strategy lags: 78 percent of respondents plan to have tablets officially deployed by the end of 2013, yet only 51 percent report having an adoption strategy in place.
Enterprise tablet adoption is still in its infancy: While 22 percent of respondents report having officially deployed tablets, a total of 72 percent of participants do have iPads or other tablets in use at their enterprises today. The majority of iPads that are in the enterprise are being used by individuals who are “trying them out” (41 percent).
Businesses unclear on IT development requirements to drive business value from tablets: 42 percent of IT respondents say business stakeholders do not understand the need for additional development to successfully enable enterprise applications on iPads and tablets. A further 32 percent cited issues due to lack of expertise available to do the development.
The tablet of business choice is the iPad: 83 percent plan to deploy iPads, with more than half choosing iPads for the availability of productivity tools for business use; Android-based tablets were a second favorite with 34 percent planning to deploy them.
Comments on the News:
“This survey illuminates the reality of whether tablets offer enough compelling functionality to make them suitable for enterprise adoption,” said Diane Hagglund, founder and principal researcher, Dimensional Research. “There is certainly a strong appetite among enterprises to fit iPads and Android-based tablets into their business environments, but they’re still at the early stages of understanding how they can contribute broad business value.”
“Empowering mobile workers with tablets to maximize productivity and gain competitive advantage is the wave of the future,” said Adam Caplan, CEO of Model Metrics. “These survey findings align with what we’re hearing from our enterprise customers – they see the opportunity, but are looking for guidance on how to do more than just mobilize existing functionality. With the majority of tablet use in enterprises today being employee-driven, many enterprises are missing an opportunity to drive business advantage.”
Additional information on the survey
A total of 448 respondents completed the online survey sponsored by Model Metrics in April 2011.
Participants included business executives, business managers, IT executives, IT managers and IT professionals representing a wide range of company size and industry verticals.
About Dimensional Research
Dimensional Research® provides practical marketing research to help technology companies make their customers more successful. Our researchers are experts in the people, processes, and technology of corporate IT and understand how corporate IT organizations operate. We partner with our clients to deliver actionable information that reduces risks, increases customer satisfaction, and grows the business. For more information visit www.dimensionalresearch.com
About Model Metrics
Model Metrics, enabler of the Model Enterprise, delivers solutions and services at the cutting edge of the cloud computing industry. Since its founding in 2003, Model Metrics has become one of the most diversified and respected partners of salesforce.com, Amazon Web Services, Adobe and Google. Headquartered in Chicago with offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Detroit, Minneapolis and Dallas, Model Metrics’ customer base spans all industries and includes enterprises such as Abbott, Allstate, Aon, Cars.com, CME Group, Honeywell, InfoUSA, MasterCard, Medtronic and Orbitz.
With a focus on mobile and call center technology, business process and change management innovation, and custom development, Model Metrics has completed 1,500+ salesforce.com implementations for mid-sized and Fortune 1000 companies. Its world-class application development skills using Force.com, Adobe Flex and AIR, Amazon Web Services, Google and the Apple iPhone enable the creation of custom applications featuring multimedia-rich user experiences. To learn more, visit http://www.modelmetrics.com/ or follow us on Twitter at @modelmetricsinc.
###
Contact:
Kelly Indrieri
Kulesa Faul for Model Metrics
(650) 340-1983
kelly@kulesafaul.com
So I decided to make the switch to Android from my iPhone, and started the process of switching carriers and trying to actually start using it. The most surprising part of the journey involved the reactions of those around me. Several friends or co-workers were literally shocked that I would give up my iPhone. Has Steve Jobs done such a good job of convincing us the iPhone can do anything short of solving world peace? I think he has based on the shocked looks of those around me.
Once I jumped through the carrier switching hoops and activated my phone at a nearby Verizon store I received my first call, it was my wife. I told her it was my first call on the new phone and her reaction? “Wow, I can actually hear you!” She didn’t realize how bad the voice quality was on the iPhone until she talked to me on the Droid 2. I can’t say how much of the credit goes to the Droid 2 and how much goes to Verizon, but it was a step in the right direction and helped reassure me that my switch was going to work out. So how about everything else? Here is a breakdown:
Positive Changes
Call Quality
Verizon is one of the main reasons you would even consider a switch right? Believe me, it is worth it. Call quality is much better than the iPhone. Of course with Verizon the network is much better as well, so that’s almost a reason to switch right there. Time will tell if rumors are true of the iPhone going to Verizon in 2011
Paradigm Shift
The biggest change to the migration is the paradigm shift away from iTunes. Everything is synchronized over the air. Contacts, software updates, even music can be synchronized wirelessly. Even as a software developer I was surprised (for some reason) that I could actually install other music players (such as WinAmp). It is a big world outside of the Apple walled garden.
Email
Our company uses corporate Gmail, so the Google integration was a prime draw for me. I like how easily it fit in to my email routine, has threaded messages, and understands labels and other Google paradigms. The physical keyboard on the Droid2 helps as well, but I’m still using the onscreen one about 50% of the time (probably because of my 2+ years with the iPhone)
Calendar
The calendar is great on the Droid2 and is again tightly integrated with our corporate Google Calendar. It is much easier to create an event and invite people to it than on the iPhone.
Free Turn-by-Turn Nav!
I along with millions of others relied on Google Maps on my iPhone as a navigation aid when I was travelling and didn’t bring my Garmin. But the Droid2 has a great turn-by-turn Nav and seems to work really well. The best feature is that it is free and has no monthly charges. The phone also came with a Verizon branded version that has a monthly fee, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to pay for that when the base version seems great.
Voice Control/Speech to Text
The Droid2 (and Android 2.2 “Froyo”) has a great speech-to-text feature that actually works. I love being able to send a text by speech (and it is usually fairly accurate), or do a search by voice. I’m not sure if this will stop people from texting and driving, but it should make it much safer if you chose to ignore Oprah’s advice and do so.
Apps
Literally every one of the iPhone applications I actually use was available on the Android Market. Pandora, Shazam, Evernote, Facebook, Weather Channel and yes even a free full version of Angry Birds.
Adobe Friendly
Now I can actually see a menu at those restaurants that have Flash only sites. Even better I can easily run a mobile version of the same AIR code base that runs on a laptop or a desktop. To install a development version of an application I just need to install a file from an email. I don’t have to worry about my iPhone UDID (Unique Device Identifier), Ad Hoc Builds, Provisioning Profiles, etc…
Neutral Changes
Learning Curve
It does take a little while to get used to the idea of using the hardware buttons. There is a “back” button, a “menu” button, a “home” button and a “search” button. Once you get used to the idea it is great, but it takes a bit of getting used to. I’ve really learned to appreciate the back button and really noticed it when playing around with my old iPhone 3GS (which is basically now an iPod touch) when I kept trying to use it. The Settings menu isn’t quite as intuitive as the iOS design.
Contacts
I had a tough time figuring out how to just get the contacts I cared about to my Droid2. Since everything, and I mean everything comes over to the phone I paid for Gmail’s tendency to create a contact for everyone I ever emailed. I had hundreds of contacts I didn’t care about and others that I did were just listed as the phone number and all the details (name, email, company) were just listed out as text in the Notes field. After some Google searching I found a way to export my iPhone contacts as Address Book vcards (I use a Mac) and import them into Google as a new Contact Group. Then I could weed out the old junk Contacts and just use those I cared about.
Drawbacks
Fit and Finish
The fit and polish of the OS and the hardware isn’t quite up to Apple standards. It is very usable but doesn’t have the same “wow” factor as an iPhone. I think with the widgets and other features it is getting closer, but it isn’t as intuitive and has taken me awhile to figure out which apps to move to the home screen, how to have multiple home screens, etc… I think it will get there, but still lags behind Apple a little in this category.
Music and Video
The iPhone has its heritage from an iPod, and the Android phone is definitely weaker in this area. It ships with the Amazon MP3 store installed, which is good, but there is not a straightforward way to get your music library on it from iTunes, and then even if you do the music player isn’t the greatest. The same can be said for Video/Movies. There are some good 3rd party players out there to consider which can definitely help. I’m in the process of setting up some Open Source application (iTuneMyWalkman) on my Mac in an attempt to make the iTunes connection tighter.
Notifications
This might seem small, but is my biggest pet peeve about Android at this point. With an iPhone you get a pop-up type window front and center even if your phone is locked when a text message comes in, or an appointment reminder goes off. With Android everything is housed within the Notifications bar that you pull down from the top of the screen. It does place a little icon up there if you get a new text or have a calendar reminder, but it is very easy to miss the fact that you have a new message or are about to miss an important call. I haven’t been able to find a way to turn off email notifications (which I don’t care about) so something is always in my notification bar.
There may be some 3rd party applications out there that help mitigate this issue but I haven’t taken the time to look too closely to find out. Hopefully this gets more robust with future Android releases.
Summary
All in all I made the transition fairly unscathed. I’m loving the Verizon network and call quality. I’m able to send email, update twitter and facebook and do everything I need to on my phone with ease. I’m still enjoying the turn-by-turn Nav and getting to know the voice commands, but I love sending texts by voice. The minimal nature of the notifications leaves a lot to be desired and I often miss text messages and I need to pay closer attention to my calendar to make sure I don’t miss a meeting. I don’t regret the switch and it has been fun to get to know a new platform more closely. I still have a few barriers to conquer and smooth out (such as iTunes sync), but overall I’m a happy camper.
I’ve had an iPhone for quite awhile. Not from the very beginning. I wasn’t in line they day they first went on sale to pay what was it? Something like $600 for it? No, but I had one fairly early on was excited to get early access to the developer program. It was exciting to create one of the first business applications for the AppStore and to be on it the day it launched. The first generation iPhone was a huge step forward from my current Smartphone at the time, an HTC something or other from T-mobile that ran Windows Mobile 5.
Looking back I’ve always been an early Smartphone fan. I had my first one, a Palm Treo 180 almost 10 years ago. It was basically a monochrome Palm Pilot with a phone app on it and a very delicate hinged earpiece that did eventually die. I upgraded to the newer Treo, this one was in COLOR! But it had the same hinge issue and despite my best efforts, it eventually quit working too. I think I then tried an early version of the Sidekick. I liked that it was unique, but didn’t appreciate how closed the platform was. I couldn’t just install other Palm apps like I could on my Treo’s. I got a Sidekick 2 and liked the new features, but it still fell short and at some point I moved over to Windows Mobile. With Windows Mobile I liked the openness, but the interface was terrible, going into the Task Manager to kill runaway processes, etc… So I was excited when Model Metrics got into the iPhone fray early on and I was able to expense an iPhone.
Looking back it was the first time I had a Smartphone without a physical keyboard. I think in my mind that is why I gravitated towards the Smartphone was because I wanted to use them for email and liked the idea of a full keyboard. I grumbled along with everyone else saying, “It’s not as fast for email as a Blackberry, but you get used to it”. I didn’t upgrade to the 3G model when it later launched, but did get a 3GS when they hit the street as my first gen was getting long in the tooth and I liked the idea of a faster processor.
Now we are doing development of mobile applications across several platforms and one of those is Android. We have some test Nexus 1 phones in the office that are used for development and testing. I liked a few things about them, but found the trackball and general approach fairly primitive when compared to the iPhone I was used to. I appreciated the idea of Android (open source, multiple manufacturers, runs Flash, supports Adobe AIR), but I kept wondering in the back of my mind how it would really feel to try using it as a primary phone?
Gradually other phones have made their way into our company. Some had the first generation Droid, others some of the newer Android models from HTC or Samsung. It wasn’t until I was at the Adobe MAX conference in October and was given a Droid2 along with thousands of other developers that I truly thought about leaving the iPhone fold. I played with the Droid, connected my Google account and tried downloading a few applications. Everyone asked what I thought about it and I realized I couldn’t really say unless I tried it as my primary phone. So I just made the switch (which was surprisingly painful), not because of Android, but involved the procedures of moving off the company AT&T plan, to a personal plan, to a personal Verizon plan and then back to the company Verizon plan just to keep my number. Tune in for my next blog where I’ll break out my thoughts after going Android and how it compared to my iPhone.
Everything seems to be going mobile, and IT is scrambling. Yesterday’s policies aren’t cutting it when company executives buy the latest-whiz-bang-mobile-gadget-bling and then want to read their company email on it, and other employees soon follow.
Traditionally companies had one supported device, the RIM Blackberry. We all know it still has the dominant business market share, but Apple has made huge gains over the last couple of years and now Android devices are coming on strong and overtaking Apple. The waters are further muddied by tablets (iPad today, Android tablets tomorrow) and how IT will support, condone and manage them.
Some companies have moved towards a “employee liable” approach allowing individuals to bring their own device in an attempt to save $300-$400 a device. However this can become a support nightmare and most companies find it cheaper in the long run to provide a few devices that they can more easily manage and support. Saving a few hundred bucks can cause more support headaches than it’s worth.
So where do we go from here? Several companies are emerging to provide device management support. But what is the inflection point to move towards a solution like this?
Security – For regulated industries such as Life Sciences, Pharma and Financial Services security is a must
Pain – Once you move above 200 devices the support pain can get too much
Cost Management – To contain roaming charges and data overages
Application Management – Apps are proliferating and need management
There are options from vendors such as Zenprise, AirWatch, Mobile Iron and iPass to help with some or many of these needs.
At a recent conference I heard stories of people seeing a $1,500 iPad bill for data overages (most likely due to Netflix), or surprised by roaming charges when travelling.
I’d recommend that IT departments get in front of this quickly and create and update their device policies and management systems to get ready for the continued tsunami of mobile devices and tablets headed their way.
You may recall back in March we wrote a post on the rapidly dwindling need for desktop machines. That trend has continued, except now it's changing directions yet again. Not only are laptops and netbooks increasing sales, but now tablets are all the rage just 6 months later.
Apple has once again defined a new segment with their iPad, in an arena where tablet PC's had historically failed miserably. With a large, beautiful touch screen, fast processor, and light weight, it was a huge home run.
Recognizing a big market opportunity, competitors are lining up and salivating over what could be huge sales. A quick search on Engadget's website shows a fairly large list of upcoming tablet devices. Companies like Samsung, Toshiba, Archos, Texas Instruments, Dell, Acer and HP are building their own tablets to compete and hopefully take some market share from Apple.
Will they succeed? Tough question – but given the publics' acceptance of Android based devices I suspect we will see several tablets from Apple competitors doing well.
So why do we care about this at Model Metrics? Because we develop applications that grant mobile access to cloud-based data. And our 2GO platform runs on all of these devices whether they're IOS-based or Android. Stay tuned, this is an exciting place to be.
Just yesterday, Engadget covered stories coming from both Gartner and IDC, two of the preeminent research and analysis firms in the country. Both agree that Android has exploded on the market, moving from a 9.6% market share last quarter to 17.2% market share currently.
Google’s grand vision of running multiple devices across multiple carriers is coming to fruition, as the Android devices have eclipsed Apple’s IOS in sales.
Mobile devices have been one of the industries that in spite of significant economic headwinds have continued explosive growth, especially smart phones. This is a big part of why Model Metrics develops so much for the mobile market – field workers in every industry are demanding remote access, and we’re more than happy to help.
Unless you live in a technology cave you have probably noticed the discussion in the industry around Flash and HTML 5 that has been started by the Apple controversy.My goal here isn’t to rehash what has been said around using Flash or HTML 5 in a browser or on a mobile device, but to share my thoughts around this debate as it applies to Enterprise Business applications.
There is valid debate occurring around the pro’s and con’s of using Flash to serve a banner ad, or a video, or if the <canvas> tag or <audio> tag are a viable alternative.However this is a minor point when you are considering which platform to use to create a business application or a consumer facing RIA (Rich Internet Application).
First, let’s look at where the HTML 5 spec currently sits.It is a much-needed refresh of the current HTML 4 spec and has some great features such as support for video, audio and offline data storage using SQL Lite.The W3C HTML 5 specification is currently in “Working Draft” status and is not expected to be finalized until 2012 or later.The other current issue with HTML 5 is that is only supported in varying degrees by the major Internet browsers and some of its features may never be supported by some browsers (such as an offline data store).
We do a lot of work for Fortune 500 clients and have used both Adobe Flex and HTML 5 on projects.Currently HTML 5 is an option if you have full control over which browsers will be used to run an application (which is frequently not the case, even in the Enterprise).In contrast, Adobe Flex is a great platform to build business applications and can run in virtually all desktop browsers.
Flex is a rich platform that has complex UI elements (data grids, tabbed navigators, menus, etc.) built directly into the Flex SDK (now called Flashbuilder).It allows you to take your application and easily run them in Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) on the desktop (outside of the browser) or on a mobile device*.
As a company we are generally technology agnostic and try to bring the best options to the table to meet client needs.Although our focus is around deploying Cloud based solutions we have found that user interface or taking the Cloud offline is important to our clients.The question of Flex vs. HTML 5 for a business application is an easy one to answer today and will likely be so for the next couple of years.The promise of HTML 5 is great, but until the specification is finalized and it is widely supported by all major browsers it can only be used in limited ways and it doesn’t have the developer productivity tools that are inherent in Flex.
Here is a real world example.One of our early iPhone products on the iTunes AppStore was Search2GO, a simple search tool for Salesforce.com.This was built in Objective C and it took approximately 8 weeks to develop.Yesterday I watched two developers create over half of this same functionality using Flex/AIR and had it running on an Android phone in a day.Granted there are still things that could be added, but this was a great illustration of why Flex/AIR is a great toolset.
So while the debate rages on about HTML 5 vs Flash in the consumer market I’d recommend taking a hard look at Flex for business applications.
I recently had a conversation with the VP of Sales at a large manufacturing company. For the purposes of this discussion, I will call him John. John and his sales organization have never had a centralized, collaborative CRM system before and they are about to begin a salesforce.com implementation. Among the goals of the project is the need to consolidate the many point solutions they have used for managing their customers over the company’s 40-year history. They recognize the need to establish consistent processes for the sales team and want to leverage workflow capabilities to improve communication. After a series of fruitful meetings, John mentioned that he is working with IT to purchase mobile devices for the sales team because he has received a lot of demand from the team, and wants them to be as productive as possible with the new CRM tool.
The scenario described above is very common. The benefits of leveraging mobile technology for a sales rep include increased productivity, more timely information, access to real-time data at the point of contact, and access to information without the overhead of lugging a clunky laptop. All of this is theoretically sound, but don’t let your mobile strategy define itself without thoughtful consideration of questions that are sure to be raised as part of your implementation. Addressing these issues proactively will allow you to separate fact from fiction and apply a mobile strategy that fits your organization and your users so that you can realize success. Who are your users?
The diversity of the user base is a great place to start in defining a strategy. It is common to have a mix of technologist and technophobes within the same sales team. The technologists tend to demand all of the latest and greatest tools and technology as a means of making themselves more productive. Without it, they claim that their efforts are diluted and they are bogged down with administrative overhead required to access information or log calls. On the other hand, the technophobes will resist any sort of change, especially when it comes to technology, by claiming that the time spent to manage all of these new tools and gadgets will negatively impact the time they spend in front of the customer.
When it comes to mobile, you are wise to know your audience. If your team is not accustom to using mobile technology for email and basic calendar management, you may want to take steps to introduce the device before you make it a critical component of your CRM strategy. Users who have leveraged these tools in their personal lives or at a past job will be much more comfortable in adopting this technology as part of their work.
When it comes to people, it is also important to note that strong demand for a Blackberry, iPhone or other device from users who do not currently have these products, may be a red flag. The grass may seem greener on the other side of the fence for those who have bought into the idea that these tools will make them more effective. I recently worked with a sales group that insisted that they needed offline capabilities because they weren’t always “connected.” Once we provided the offline functionality, they demanded mobile devices because they found it cumbersome to “lug around heavy laptops.” Once they received the mobile device, they complained about the small screen and the difficulty of entering data with a small keyboard. This is exactly the type of situation we want to control by proactively managing a mobile strategy.
How mature are your processes?
As the saying goes “Process before technology.” Change management is a key component to any CRM implementation. The introduction to new systems represents a disruption, and optimizing or changing processes will require that users have a clear understanding of their role and expectations. The process of change must be managed deliberately to ensure that users are not left behind as they adjust to their new way of working.
If process change is part of your implementation, it is common (and a good idea) for the mobile implementation is postponed to a second phase. It is important that users are familiar with the goals they are trying to achieve before they take on learning how to manage multiple entry points.
What do users need to do to get their job done?
It may seem obvious, but it is critical to give objective consideration to what your users need to accomplish using their mobile device. A clear definition of use cases serves as the basis for streamlining key processes and maximizing efficiency for end users. When defining mobile needs, many companies make the mistake of setting an expectation that anything that can be done with a laptop should be possible with a handheld, and this is simply not realistic. Use case definition should help to separate fact from fiction when it comes to defining what functionality needs to be available.
The reality of a handheld is that the physical size, speed and ergonomics are significant challenges for some users. These factors make processes that require consuming or reading data better candidates than those that require entering data. This is especially true of complex data entry processes where there are many fields or pages to navigate. This is not to say that call logging or data entry are not candidates, but scrutiny should be applied to processes that required extensive typing or scrolling as users will become easily frustrated.
A failure to keep it simple when it comes to mobile will also likely equate to poor or incomplete data. Typing on a small keyboard can be time consuming. Moreover, navigating multiple screens can make a simple task daunting. The resulting behavior for end-users is to cut corners, enter the minimum amount of data required, or neglect to enter anything at all.
What device suits your needs?
Mobile devices are not all created equal and there is no one answer to which is the best. The strategy established must be consistent with the goals of the organization and the tools must be right for the job. A thorough analysis of the right device should include alignment with the mobile use cases, feature functionality of the device, device-specific feature support offered by your CRM software, customization capabilities, and the service network.
How will security be maintained?
Finally, the need to secure your data and protect the intellectual property of the organization must be considered. Users may demand access to ALL data through their mobile device, but the strategy must consider the risk of a lost or stolen device. For ease of use, most systems do not require that users enter a password each time they are accessing their CRM application on the mobile device. For this reason, it is important that data is evaluated by sensitivity so judgments can be made about what will and what will not be accessible. Furthermore, a password policy on the device itself should be mandatory if there is risk of a breach.
This is not an exhaustive list of mobile strategy components, but does represent some key points of consideration. The cost of implementing a mobile solution is not insignificant, so these basic questions will help to proactively plan rather than having to backtrack and repeat.
Blog
Contact Us
You may recall back in March we wrote a 
.jpg)