Crm: Pocket Computing's Killer Application
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday June 5, 2001
Marketing strategy is driving business towards handhelds, writes Bill Bennett.
Could customer relationship management (CRM) be the killer application driving the corporate take-up of mobile wireless computing devices and smart phones? Marc Phillips of APT Strategies, a Sydney-based research outfit that examines mobile wireless trends, certainly thinks so.
Phillips says the combination of mobile connectivity and CRM software is rapidly moving onto the radar screens of Australia's corporate decision makers.
``It's all about having sales people moving about," he says, ``getting to know their customers better, making face-to-face contact rather than sitting at their desks."
Phillips says that by equipping sales teams with pocketable hardware providing wireless links into CRM systems, companies will be able to maintain or even increase customer satisfaction. At the same time they will reduce the sales team's downtime.
``The key is greatly improved productivity," he says. ``Mobile phones are popular because they make better use of your time. You can call people while you are walking down the street or waiting for a coffee. Wireless-enabled CRM is even more productive."
Phillips says that's important because skilled salespeople are now hard to recruit. Consequently companies need to squeeze every last drop of performance from their existing staff.
However, he says today's mobile CRM technology is just the tip of the iceberg. ``Things will really take off when a salesperson can verbally quiz the CRM database and receive a full customer briefing over a wireless voice link on the in-car system as he or she drives from one appointment to another."
If Phillips is correct, and many others in the industry believe he is, then CRM applications will fuel a massive increase in the number of computing devices being used by companies. This squares with market research. For example, in a report issued in February, the US-based research company IDC predicted that sales of handheld devices would rise from 12.9 million units last year to 63.4 million units in 2004.
The report said that this was the year the technology was expected to take off mainly due to the roll-out of wireless data networks. Significantly, IDC predicts that by 2004 handheld devices will outsell desktop computers by four to one. And wireless CRM will be one of the key applications driving that growth.
Hardware innovations like mobile wireless data rarely attract more than fringe attention from business users until software developers create compelling new commercial applications to exploit the new features. In the technology business, these must-have programs are known as ``killer apps".
While the calendars, to-do lists and diaries of today's handheld computers appeal to individual users, they don't contribute directly to the bottom line. On the other hand, the new wave of CRM tools fully exploit the mobile connectivity of wireless-connected PDAs, handheld computers and smart phones.
Tony Bullen, Asia Pacific managing director of Stayinfront, a global CRM software developer, says mobile CRM tools are ``not just a diary, it's the whole enchilada". He says it works because it is an important alternative way of reaching what he calls a ``customer touch point". ``The portability gives companies the means to put a human front-end on their CRM systems."
Bullen says there's more to the portability issue than simple convenience, it's more customer friendly. As an illustration he says that a pharmaceutical sales rep walking along a hospital corridor might recognise a face in passing. Stopping, opening a PC and searching a database to check the person's name and possible requirements is clumsy and intrusive. The contact might even find it intimidating. Glancing at a handheld computer, on the other hand, is not threatening.
Stayinfront offers a wide range of mobile CRM options. Based on the New Zealand-developed Visual Elk range of CRM systems, Stayinfront's offerings include mobile CRM client software for Windows CE handheld devices, Palm Pilots and WAP-enabled phones.
However, the company's systems can take things a step further and, on request, deliver CRM information directly to an everyday mobile phone using the SMS messaging facility. This offers a very wide range of uses. For example, Bullen says, ``It might be used to tell a field service engineer where the next call is. We've already got a pharmaceutical customer who is currently using SMS messaging to remind customers when it is time for them to take their medication."
Bullen says that in addition to its portability and productivity benefits, mobile CRM offers many advantages to companies that might not be apparent at first sight. Perhaps the most significant is support.
For most organisations, the cost of supporting PCs or notebooks is far higher than the purchase price of the equipment one reason for this is that the nature of PC hardware means there are more things that can go wrong. Handheld PCs have no moving parts and are essentially simple devices with little scope for problems. However, they are also very cheap. If one should keel over in the line of duty, supplying the user with a replacement is cost effective and simple.
Bullen points out that handheld hardware offers another feature that helps with certain CRM applications. The ability to take pen input make it possible to accept customer signatures, say, when a courier delivers a package or when someone has to sign-off on a quote.
billbennett@ozemail.com.au
© 2001 Sydney Morning Herald