CRM & me: mobility

Its Sunday, I’m talking to my sister on the phone. Being far from your family - I’m from Colombia - it’s not always easy but a phone call helps to make the distance shorter. I just wanted to check how she and her family were doing.  Suddenly, she asked if I could call her later because she was really busy preparing her work for the next day and updating her files of the past week. At that point I asked her why she was working on a Sunday instead of doing some activities with her family. Colombia is a beautiful country with a lot of places to visit, offering a lot of activities to do with the family. She sighed and started to explain that it is not easy for a sales representative to get everything done during working hours. She has to visit customers, sell products or promote new ones, enter orders and follow up on the orders of her customers. I had no idea this was so much work and I asked how come these tasks took so much of her time.

She sighed once again and started explaining me the routine and preparation she needs to follow every day. She has a file containing all information of her customers. This file contains all the customers’ orders, information collected during each visit, the interests of the customers and also surveys that she submits to customers from time to time. The next thing she needs to do is to organize her visit planning, which she enters in a diary. For every visit she needs to review the information captured on the last visit to that customer, and check the status of the outgoing orders. When all this work is done, she is ready for the next day. When all her visits are done, she needs to update customer files by entering all the information of the past visit and the necessary orders on her company system, note in her diary a reminder of the order delivery (she needs to be sure that everything is delivered on time) and when a survey takes place, enter the survey feedback in her files.

At that time I could not stop thinking that my sister’s work would be easier if her company could use a Mobile SAP CRM application.  Just the thought that mobility and its many possible applications and uses represents the greatest revolution since the introduction of the internet, I could not imagine a reason why a company should not use it.

For the last month I have been developing mobile applications for companies with similar scenarios for their sales personnel. By using a Mobile SAP CRM Application, a salesperson can now easily retrieve all customer data and keep it up-to-date in one place and in an easy way.  

By introducing the mobile tool for sales representatives, salespersons can get more work done at the customer site and access information at all times. E.g. they can enter new orders while they are at the customers’. After an order has been placed, a reminder will be set in their diaries to follow-up on the outgoing order. Furthermore, it gives the possibility to enter surveys in real-time, saving a lot of time. The improvement in time management will permit the sales people to fulfill their duties in a more performant way, allowing them to enhance their lifestyle. 

The most beautiful part about mobility is that it offers countless possibilities. We can think and design all kinds of applications for all sectors that use a SAP System or any other backend. I believe that in almost all possible scenarios, the new application will provide a good result. As a teacher once said, one of the most important requirements of a mobile application is USER FRIENDLINESS and it’s this requirement which makes a mobile application so interesting and easy to use for all people. It is the power of mobility!

After realizing this much, I suggested to my sister to make a proposal to her boss for a mobile application. At the beginning, she didn’t understand how this could help her, but after I explained her, she was eager to make the proposal. She was happy that there were new ways to make her life and work easier. Now, let’s just hope that her boss gets the big picture and realizes that a mobile application should be introduced within the company. 

-Andres Gutierrez, CONSULTANT 

Customer experience on related subject: Mobile SAP CRM solution on iPad