Out of the Loop? Try a Mobile Lifeline
September 22, 2008
By Peter Price
Most would agree that bad news is preferable to the absence of any news at all. Yet, many sales managers can't leave their computers without losing touch with what’s happening. Cut off from pipeline activity or updated forecasts, it's hard to make effective and timely decisions.
Whether you're away from your desk or out of Wi-Fi range in the field, sales managers—and the reps they work with—are in a dead zone of no information. You can always catch up, of course, once you’re tied in again to Salesforce.com, or any other online or installed CRM or SFA system that you use. But that lag time can often make a difference in winning or losing a sale.
However, there is one constant—your mobile phone. Whether you rely on a BlackBerry, a Treo or another brand of smartphone or PDA, you never go anywhere without it. Those mobile devices keep you in touch by phone and e-mail (which is good), but the information you get that way is limited (which is bad). Getting all the information you need about active deals, staff performance, end-of-month or end-of-quarter booking, and other key performance indicators has remained more out of reach than you are.
But that's starting to change.
As you know, companies are starting to take advantage of Software as a Service (SaaS) to create lightweight and powerful services that handle interactions between devices, users and business applications. But not every SaaS vendor plays well with the multitude of smartphones and wireless handhelds that businesspeople use.
Some vendors offer mobile-specific versions of their software or services, but they have a major limitation—they can only access their own information. If a retail manager is visiting a store and wants to compare actual versus planned revenues for that location, while simultaneously checking on inventory and the status of goods in transit, that person might need to have separate mobile versions of three different products.
With other vendors, however, it's now possible to combine the data from multiple applications to deliver a unified view of that information, doing so in a format that matches each device's user interface. This is an approach that has the potential to truly mobilize a workforce by extending the systems that companies already have. It's fast and simple to implement, quick to deploy, inexpensive and universally adaptable to any wireless device. Plus it can be personalized for each user without losing enterprise-level security.
On the technical side, these types of services let business users combine application data and determine how it’s sent to handhelds. The wizard-style browser interface lets business-side administrators, rather than IT staff, map functionality and data, without compromising enterprise-level, permission-based security.
In between the configuration step and the display on a user's device, the input is routed through a proxy server, which uses XML and other data definitions to generate the right look and feel for each device.
For real-time sales operations, this approach provides several key advantages:
"Always on" Continuity. The proxy server accepts information even when users are offline. When they’re online again, they get the most current information.
Device Independence. Mobile device users can use any brand or model of PDA or smartphone, because the correct UI is created automatically. That eliminates the need to standardize on specific devices to simplify programming, maintenance and support. No programming is necessary, and maintenance is handled by the vendor.
Instant Gratification. The availability of "enterprise on a handheld" as a service—either hosted by a third party or through an appliance that's installed behind the firewall—compresses weeks or months-long development to less than a day.
Salespeople are acutely aware that time is critical. For you—the decision-maker who manages sales operations—having handheld access to pipeline, forecast and staff activity status, as well as other key performance indicators, gives you the vital information you need to make a difference in productivity and revenues.
Peter Price is president and CEO of Webalo (www.webalo.com).
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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