The growing
popularity of mobile devices, smartphones and tablets has increased the
pressures on companies to equip their sales teams with mobile capabilities. Here at
CRMantra we've had numerous
customers asking us for an OOTB mobile solution for Siebel. This ranges
from a Telco wanting to have handheld Samsung Galaxy's in their stores to act as a
'Queue Busting' PoS, to banks, media and manufacturing companies wanting to
have key sales functions on an iPad.
Key requirements
were; minimal (if possible, zero) impact on the current CRM implementation.
Easy to administer and deploy, and above all else ease of use for the
Sales Rep or Sales Assistant.
We have searched
with them to find something suitable, and whilst there are mobile apps out
there that do these things, none of them are integrated with Siebel, or even
designed with the complexities of Siebel in mind. So that only gave us
one option - to build it ourselves.
We had the perfect
starting position, the integration groundwork was already done thanks to
InterAct Xchange and we have now developed mobile solutions for SFA and eCommerce that we are proud of.. oh and most importantly one that meets our
customers needs !
In each
case, upon further investigation, we uncovered that there are many different
flavors of "mobile offering" companies want to deploy. Each type of
mobile solution has its pros and cons. Here are some things to consider
for the various options based upon the studies we have undertaken.
Option
|
Pros
|
Cons
|
Results
|
OPTION 1 – Siebel UI via VPN
|
Fast Deployment / Lower cost Option
|
User experience is not good enough. Performance
is slow because of vagaries of the network connection. In addition,
Siebel web user interface does not lend itself with touch with fat fingers on
a mobile screen.
|
Many IT
organizations go this route to check off the requirement, only to find a
scores of disappointed users and poor adoption. In the end, they need
to select Option 2 or Option 3.
|
OPTION
2: Browser-based connected mobile application
|
Lower cost option. Features a
web page formatted for the mobile device and enabled with controls for the
touch interface. This option would be appropriate to deploy for
customer-facing applications. It offers the advantage of no locally stored
data to alleviate any security concerns, especially in customer-facing
uses.
|
Performance
is still a function of the quality of network connection. Slow or
variable performance due to network connections could be a significant
deterrent to user adoption, especially when deployed for employee access over
VPN. Need to build high-performance, mobile-optimized integrations to
the backend applications and services such as CRM, ERP, Business
Intelligence, etc., and possibly services such as credit check, payment
authorizations, tax calculations, shipping cost calculators, address
verifications, etc.
|
Appropriate for deployment in many
customer-facing scenarios. Tread carefully when deploying a mobile app
with this option for employee-facing use.
|
OPTION
3: Native Disconnected Mobile application
|
The
best user experience in terms of performance and usability. Allows for
seamless mash up of capabilities of the device apps (maps, GPS, camera,
etc.), other enterprise apps (BI, ERP, CRM) and social apps such as LinkedIn,
Facebook, Twitter, etc.
|
More
expensive to build than the other two options. Need to build
high-performance, mobile-optimized integrations to various
applications.
|
Best performance and user experience. More
costly to implement.
|
Contact us if you would like to get some advice on
your mobile initiatives - We believe we will have a solution that fits your needs!
