Mobile CRMs
How Can The Most Effective Mobile CRM Solutions for Samsung, iPhone, Tablet, PDA & Other Handheld Devices Help You? Think you're a rep “on the ground”? It's possible to have real-time, business-critical company data at your fingertips while you're with a client, or while getting ready to deal with a prospect in the car park? You know that the client will ask you about the status of his order, or about his customer service request, or about the specs for the newest gadget you're selling. The ability to access up-to-date data gives you a competitive advantage over your rivals: you no longer have to say “I'm sorry, I'll have to get back to you on that”.
Gartner predicts a continued and exceptional growth rate of 500% by 2014 for Mobile CRM, presenting a gold mine of opportunities from the CRM vendor’s perspective. To capitalize, vendors will have to pay more attention to usability and user experience and less to lip service, after looking at some of the CRM-to-Mobile integrations currently out there.
What are the features to consider in a mobile CRM solution?
Businesses seeking a truly mobile workforce must provide its workers the right mobile CRM, a set of extensive tools that is flexible and provide seamless integration. While today’s mobile CRM solutions work on smartphones and tablets powered by Android, BlackBerry, iOS and Windows, one can’t assume that what works well on computers will work equally well on mobile devices. Mobile devices also offer unique capabilities that may not be available in a standard computer, for example GPS data. It is imperative that the user experience be optimized for the specific use case scenarios.
Almost every leading CRM is now accessible over mobile devices, however the levels of integration varies between products, and differences sometimes lie even in the apps from the same vendor when they target device-specific features.
10 important points which will help in making informed decision.
- Device support. The mobile CRM should be fully functional and be able to deliver significant productivity benefits to help manage business anytime from anywhere, across the range of devices your company uses.
- Ease of deployment and use. From a technological viewpoint, some mobile CRM applications require no installation at all. Based on newer techniques of responsive design and HTML5, they can be accessed from any device on any browser. However, there are others that have native apps for various platforms, providing device specific features. Important to note Gartner’s prediction on increased adoption of HTML5.
- Boost productivity. It goes without saying the mobile CRM should offer features that enhance personal and sales productivity, capable of allowing you to manage customer details, notes, opportunities, tasks and appointment scheduling. Fast navigation inside the application is also desirable. Equally important is the automatic rather than manual logging of calls and emails.
- Social support. As social sales features are becoming increasingly important, the mobile CRM should allow reps to navigate through the customer’s social feed to gain insight and be able to determine if customer needs attention.
- Working modes. The mobile CRM should provide persistent and instant access to data even in cases of no internet connectivity. In such a feature the application may cache the data when offline and then should be able automatically synchronize with the remote CRM server when connectivity is restored.
- Security. Security is of utmost concern as your company data is at stake. Mobile devices go missing, so there’s a need for device management tools to be able to lock the mobile CRM or, if required, be able to erase the data from the application. A complete audit trail of the mobile should be maintained including location coordinates.
- Image capture. It should be possible for users can to capture, attach, share pictures, documents, video, and voice recordings to the related CRM records.
- Workflow notifications. The mobile CRM should be able to notify users of important events in such a way the notifications are never missed.
- Search and retrieval. Records should be indexed such that users can search rapidly by simply typing the first few characters of the record. Advanced searches should be able to quickly drill down into the database.
- Analytics. Users should be able filter and review charts, graphs on sales pipeline, sales cycle analytics, activity effort etc.
- Read our latest in-depth article on the Choosing the best Mobile CRM for your small business..
Care to share what mobile CRM solutions work (or don’t) for you?
Here are some of the top-rated mobile CRMs with brief description to help you choose the one that suits the needs of your business. Most of the listed ones are free, however an account is required for App usage.
To find out more about what kind of CRM best suits your business, we suggest you try our CRM Finder. Go to our CRM Needs Analysis here…
Capsule CRM
Capsule launched their mobile application in April, 2011. This powerful app runs on iPhone, ..
Capsule launched their mobile application in April, 2011. This powerful app runs on iPhone, Android phones and BlackBerry. A local database is created when you logon to your account via mobile for the first time and everything including contacts, task list, activities etc. is synchronized. The mobile version has some very useful features, one of them being that when you type the name of a contact in Notes/Description, the application automatically suggests a link to the contact. You can also use Water, a powerful 3rd party iPhone app, to access your Capsule contacts, opportunities, cases, and tasks. A recent feature added to Capsule mobile gives you the ability to manage your calendar and tasks from the app itself, rather than just view them.
Less Annoying CRM
There are two ways to access this mobile CRM. While there are no dedicated apps, tablets will be able …
There are two ways to access this mobile CRM. While there are no dedicated apps, tablets will be able to run the full version of the web based CRM which is touch optimized. Users on mobile devices with smaller screens should be able to do so by accessing a special web URL, which is essentially a simpler version. Smartphone users can add contacts and companies, search for existing contacts and companies, review agenda for the current data and have a look at the lead’s report which is essentially a list of leads that have been sorted on the basis of priority. If required smartphone users can still access the full site through the mobile phones, however this should only be done in case of utmost urgency. The mobile site requires Internet connection and there’s no offline mode for Less Annoying mobile CRM.
OnePageCRM
A beta version of the mobile CRM that works on iPhone, Android …
A beta version of the mobile CRM that works on iPhone, Android and compatible with most mobile devices is available. With the help of this mobile CRM, reps who are on the move can quickly check the last few notes saved about that their client, they may even check client details. It is even possible to update tasks and executing sales action, however, while doing it would be required to create the next action as soon as the current action has been marked complete. The mobile version allows adding contacts, also accessible is the list of contacts and the action stream listing all actions to be taken. The mobile version has a very limited feature set. As this is the mobile version of the web based application, Internet connectivity is essential and there is no offline mode. There is no feature to access reports or charts or metrics of any kind.
EngageBay
Never miss out on a moment of work with EngabeBay’s Mobile CRM app …
Never miss out on a moment of work with EngabeBay’s Mobile CRM app. Access it from anywhere, anytime! Both iOS and Android versions available! This mobile CRM allows you to access contact data and information at any time and any place directly from the mobile CRM app. Manage your contacts and prospects better by viewing and responding to their queries in real-time, checking past interactions and purchase history and all other contact level-information right from EngageBay’s mobile CRM app.
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