Hot Topics In The Mobile Computing Industry
Wireless
CRM
CRM (Customer Resource Management) relates to the IT
discipline that deals with keeping track of customers' purchases,
preferences, ability to respond to their queries quickly and provide a
high level of service using modern technology tools, including a web-
interface, e-commerce, data mining, and business intelligence.
Wireless CRM is an enhancement to core CRM applications and
systems so that you can interact with customers anywhere, any time.
Issues
-
Bandwidth network
bandwidth limitations. MobileInfo advises careful design of user
interface, dialogue and application data flow.
-
Support for multiple
devices. You can not control the type of devices that customers
will buy. MobileInfo recommends that vendors should support most
common devices and utilize handheld data transformation software that
will support multiple devices.
-
Transaction recovery is
important
-
Security is extremely
important
-
Support for modern payment
systems besides conventional credit cards. Do a search for payment
systems on our web site.
Vendors
-
Siebel
has
wireless-enabled their software to some extent.
-
PeopleSoft
Inc.,
announced in March 2001 upgrade of its Mobile Sales CRM Application
for WAP devices (smart phones and pDAs) in March 2001). In the past, PeopleSoft had
supported RIM's Blackberry for field service dispatch application.
-
OracleMobile has announced
enhancements to Oracle's CRM application suite for mobile and wireless
features.
-
Interact Commerce released
SalesLogix.net - for WAP-enabled support
-
InvenSys
plc has a wireless
version of eConfiguration - a sales configuration software.
Invensys is a global automation and controls company with headquarters
in U.K.
Customer Case
Study
Every morning, Dan Rauscher
sales professionals have an investment call with their global sales
personnel to discuss stock market performance. After the meeting, they
call their high-net worth customers and pitch their investments. Quite
often, the customer wants to speak to research analysts but these
analysts are on the road pften. They do not check their e-mail
immediately. It is important to respond to these customer queries in
seconds or minutes. Now these queries are sent by e-mail to their
Blackberry pagers. The company attributres 29% increase in sales due to
this responsiveness. Dan Rauscher thinks that they recovered their costs
in months. (Source -Information week -April 30 issue)
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