4 Critical Factors....

With a a high number of the workforce on the road or working from home, the ability to extend applications and Web content to mobile phones has become essential to business. So what's the key to making mobile CRM pay off for your business?

The following are four critical factors for a successful and effective mobile CRM solution that I have compiled from my research:

1. Off-line functionality. Sales professionals will use a mobile application only if they can reliably depend on it -- and that means every time. To ensure that the mobile application and CRM data is always available when they need it, mobile applications must support off-line functionality.

2. A platform with open standards. Field professionals don't just need access to customer information in the field; they also need information on promotions, products, competitors, service requests or order status. Therefore, a platform with open standards is highly important.

3. Ease-of-use. Mobile application performance and ease of use are vital for field professional effectiveness. To be effective, mobile CRM systems must be instant-on, easy to navigate and require little or no training.

4. Timely information. Features such as alerts and schedules should accelerate communication, decision-making and customer responsiveness by keeping users in touch.

Using mobile technology, companies are now getting more out of existing systems by delivering these applications and content directly into the hands of users whenever and wherever they do business.

Now, the question lies....are the customers getting more out of the systems??

Australian Chris