test_IT

Special cRM iSSue
++
poweRed by oRacle
Mobile CRM
Managers
ignoring
a Trend’s
Significance ++
Prof. Peter Winkelmann,
Landshut University of
Applied Sciences
poweRed by oRacle

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mobile Customer management
Keeping
Information
moving
With CRM applied in social networks, companies are relying more
and more on mobile CRM. Equipped with smartphones and tablet
PCs, their sales representatives and service technicians are fanning
out to give their customers faster and more flexible support.
illustrations: cover, pages 2, 3, 5: © fotolia / dmitry Skvorcov
by their very nature, sales and service at
the customer’s location are mobile activities.
and for customer relationship management
(Crm), therein lie the challenges and the
prospects. “regardless whether we’re referring
to field staff, customer service reps, or
managers, anyone dealing with customers on
site should use the Crm system for ad hoc
queries pertaining to customer-relevant information
and be able to pass it on to the customer,”
says ralf Korb, project manager of
the Crm expo (a leading trade fair for this
segment), identifying one of the challenges
facing companies. Companies that rely on
mobile Crm activate additional and as yet
untapped productivity and motivation potential,
claims Korb. “at the same time, employees
working at the customer’s location become
more effective and more informed. as a
result, customers benefit from more overall
expertise at any given time,” he adds, describing
the strategic potential for companies.
IT costs are a critical implementation
factor
even though Korb is seeing a very strong
demand for information pertaining to mobile
Crm on the market, according to a
current study conducted by the landshut
university of applied sciences, 42 percent of
the surveyed companies are still not using any
mobile end devices for their sales management.
the implementation of mobile Crm
systems is lagging especially among small
and medium-sized enterprises (smes). Peter
Winkelmann, a professor for sales and marketing
at the landshut university of applied
sciences and a co-author of the study, has a
warning for these enterprises, saying, “if a
company gets too far behind in terms of
Crm, it will have difficulty catching up in
the area of mobile Crm.”
as a Crm expert, Korb anticipated this
issue among smes, but believes dealing with
it is a budget-related matter. in addition to
the procurement costs for mobile end devices,
the required it expertise is a decisive cost
factor. besides configuring smartphones and
other such accessories, the it departments
must also ensure data security and provide
user support – and these are areas that “mobile”
strategies must first clear up and take
into account. they also include
the question as to whether one
should choose a browser-based
or “native,” operating systemdependent
solution.
Almost all CRM
providers offer a
mobile solution
a browser-based application
has the advantage that the
Crm version, much like
on-demand software, will
always be kept up-to-date,
thereby decreasing the support
costs. in a native solution,
such as for iPhones or
blackberrys, it would have to
be distributed over all end
devices and kept updated
accordingly. Korb believes
that over the long term the

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browser-based approach is going to catch on.
“the ease of operation is somewhat limited,
but it works on every device,” he says.
in the meantime, Korb thinks it’s a must
for Crm providers to offer at least one solution
for mobile end devices. except for a few
small suppliers, almost all manufacturers also
provide a corresponding application whose
slimmed-down functionalities keep the
information flowing between sales / service
employees and the company. one of the three
biggest Crm providers is a pioneer. “since
2001 – 2002, oracle has been active in this
field and thus has the most experience with
enterprise-related solutions in the mobile
realm,” says Korb. based on their own individual
analyses of user behavior, each company
needs to decide what functions and
inputs are offered.
there are currently five operating systems
on the market: symbian, android, Windows
mobile, apples ios and blackberry by
research in motion (rim). as a result, all
software manufacturers are trying to figure
out how they can best meet the market’s needs.
“they orient themselves to the market distribution
of the end devices,” says Korb. according
to gartner, android posted the highest
growth in end devices. Compared to 2009,
the operating system grew by 888.8 percent
worldwide by 2010, earning the number two
position in the worldwide smartphone market.
nokia’s symbian was able to increase the
total number of its end devices and hold on
to first place, but it did lose almost a 10-
percent market share. rim gave up market
share, too, and slid down to third place despite
selling 38.2 percent more smartphones.
the winners include apple’s ios that with
an 87.2-percent growth in end devices grew
faster than rim and now almost has the
same market share.
Attractive end devices increase
CRM’s acceptance
based on a Cisco study, mobile data traffic
is expected to increase 30-fold by 2015 compared
to 2010 – a growth of 97 percent annually.
tablets in particular are responsible
for the tremendous expansion. according
to Cisco, the number of mobile PCs will
increase by a factor of 32 to 5.1 million in four
years, while smartphones and notebooks can
expect a more moderate increase by a factor
of three or four. this is an assessment that
Dieter greipl, co-author of the landshut university
study, shares in regard to usage in the
business sector, saying, “tablets are going
to give other devices a run for their money!”
the activity among almost all end device
manufacturers underscores this trend. this
spring, rim introduced the mediatablet
Playbook, while acer’s slider, samsung’s
galaxy tab, and motorola’s Zoom gave the
iPad some competition. advantages over the
smartphones include bigger screens that make
it easier for two people to see, and greater
computing power for complex applications.
Korb mentions another factor, “in some
industries, the age of the sellers plays a role.
especially employees over 50 years old can be
motivated to use mobile Crm systems via a
corresponding end device like the iPad.” an
attractive end device also increases a Crm
system’s appeal overall. elke Senger-wiechers
The most import mobile CRM functionalities
Route planning GpS
appointment calendar
Manage contacts
external / internal news
Manage corporate customers
Manage tasks
Manage visit reports
Monitor sales results
Manage top bids
Manage complaints
Result from customer forums: 54 companies; Source: landshut univ., 2011 1 not relevant
2 unimportant 3 not really important 4 somewhat important 5 very important 6 extremely important
in the “significance” assessment, the more administrative
functions of traditional sales management prevail. The question
of how quickly mobile cRM will catch on will also depend on
the extent to which functionalities are developed for process
management, planning and controlling. Here, the respondents
rated the significance as only moderate.
prof. peter winkelmann, co-author of the study,
landshut university of applied Sciences
Comparison of native and web-based applications
Native Apps Web-based Apps
Access an app required for each
operating system
Security data on the end device,
synchronization required
Interfaces Fully utilize the device-specific
functions (camera, GpS,
microphone, etc.)
Usability /
User-Experience
adapted to the respective device
and operating system
Support costs High (installation for each end
device; update monitoring required)
3.5
3.5
3.8
3.9
4.7
4.8
5.0
5.2
5.3
Via the browser, thereby
independent of operating system
No data on the end device,
data stored in the cloud
Few device-specific functions
possible
Generally limited to display
possibilities in the browser
low (no installation required;
periodic, automatic updates)
6.0

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Crm at stryKer euroPe
Sales Force
on the road
with CRM
illustration: © iStockphoto / studioaraminta
As one of the leaders in medical technology market,
Stryker Europe sees CRM as a strategic solution that enables
the Sales force efficiency processes.
When Firas almahamid looks out of his
office window, he can see a narrow blanket of
spring green grass surrounded by magnificent
houses in the city of montreux. to one side,
a magnolia tree gently pushes fresh shoots
holding fist-sized buds toward the sun.
it’s hard to believe we are on the second floor
of a modern office block constructed of glass
and steel. opposite almahamid’s office, at
the other end of the corridor, a glass facade
offers a panoramic view across the surface
of lake leman.
last year, michigan-based stryker Corporation
recorded annual revenues of 5.2 billion
euros in 89 countries around the world.
35 percent of this was generated in countries
outside the us, europe, is stryker’s secondlargest
market after the united states.
This specialist company’s portfolio includes
orthopaedic and medical technology products,
such as artificial joints, spinal implants,
emergency cots, and or equipment. stryker
employs around 20,000 people worldwide.
The most recent Crm project was launched
in march 2010.
“management had already identified the
need for a customer relationship management
solution at that point,” explains Firas
almahamid, senior Director global enter-
prise systems. “We urgently needed to offer
it support to the ongoing sales Force excellence
initiative.”
management at stryker opted for an on-
demand solution to ensure that the new
Crm system would be available as quickly as
Stryker Europe´s CRM strategy
Stryker’s Firas Almahamid, Senior Director
Global Enterprise Systems and responsible
for CRM opted for oracle’s cRM on
demand. The sales force will soon be using
tablets to access the medical com pany’s
cRM systems, which will let them run the
sales processes in an efficient way while
on the go.

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possible. after a market analysis comparing
various products and providers, the final preference
was for oracle’s siebel software.
“according to our analyses, oracle’s siebel
Crm solution is the best fit for all our requirements
as defined by our cross functional
project team,” almahamid adds. “This product
has a proven track record in other companies
in the medical technology sector, could
be integrated into our back-end systems, and
seemed to us to be incredibly user-friendly.”
The designs of the application started early
July 2010, and a pilot project with 15 users
went live in France in november. The pilot
confirmed the initial project plan and led
to a rollout across France, which ended in
late march 2011 and gave almost one hundred
users in sales access to decision-relevant
data and analyses via the customer management
system. What’s more, all this is avai-
lable via a single user interface and a single
mobile device thanks to full and complete
integration of the Crm solution into reporting
at stryker France.
No longer any acceptance
problems
From the start, the Crm project focused on
the ease of use of the system. The fact that
stryker sales reps travel extensively should
not stop them being able to use the full range
of key data in real time. “The ability to use
the Crm system on the road was a priority
for us,” says almahamid. “in some past
Crm projects the acceptance for these
applications was low with our field service
reps because there were some limitations
compared to the desktop application. so in
this current project we are focusing on
usability of the mobile application.”
it was not all plain sailing for almahamid
and his project team as they tried to implement
Crm. not all Crm on demand
functionality designed and available for
some specific smartphones. almahamid
clarifies: “The only things you could do
with the smart phones was to make calls and
read data. you couldn’t input data, which was
not acceptable for us.”
stryker took appropriate action and resolved
to continue using blackberrys as a
means of communication. They decided to
deploy a high-end device for using the Crm
software and exchanging data, and eventually
settled on apple’s iPad. “by giving them
iPads, we’ve made sure that our sales team
have high-performance devices that cover all
the mobile functions they need, which guarantees
immediate acceptance,” says almahamid.
“These tablets also allow us to show
clients high-end presentations for stryker
products, reinforcing our company’s image
as an innovator”.
once the Crm solution has been rolled
out to all local offices across europe by the
end of 2011, the members of the sales team
can access and use the Crm via their iPad.
“This will give our team a more comprehensive
overview of their field of activity and help
them work more efficiently,” says almahamid
looking ahead to when the pro-ject ends. “The
new sales efficiency processes enabled by
the Crm solution will make us more
competitive and puts us in a position to gain
additional market share.” ima buxton
SpoT, a cRM magazine –
now also an iPad app
New issue due out in early May
a production of Strategic marketing Services, idG business Media GmbH, Munich

10 11
Outdoor CRM
“A lot of managers aren’t
doing their job.”
Even though many companies are benefitting from improved customer-
and cost-focused sales processes, 50 percent of the companies
still have not recognized the benefits of mobile CRM, according to
the initial findings of a study conducted by the Landshut University of
Applied Sciences.
Why are so few companies using mobile CRM?
peter winkelmann: Managers in Germany are
repeating the mistake they’ve made once be-
fore when the topic of cRM came up. They are
ignoring the significance of a trend. Many sales
managers and managing directors aren’t doing
their job and not getting enough information
from modern sales management tools. in a re-
cent study, we asked 54 companies how impor-
tant mobile cRM was for them. The preliminary
results are unsettling: 17 percent believe that
mobile cRM is unimportant, and 25 percent
have no opinion yet. in other words, 42 percent
aren’t assigning it the importance we think it
should have. another finding was that slightly
more than half of them had not instituted any
initiatives.
You claim that management should place
greater significance on the topic. Why?
peter winkelmann: Mobile cRM has a highly
positive effect when it comes to focusing on
customers and internal costs. all customer
support tasks can be handled around the clock
every day from any place on earth – a bona fide
outdoor cRM system. Flexibility at the customer’s
location increases tremendously. That results
in a significant improvement in contact expertise
– whereby personal and business realms
can merge and grow. However, the really big deal
pertains to how the efficiency of internal processes
can be improved, which is confirmed by the
preliminary results of our study: 75.9 percent
of the 194 target figures pertain to faster processes,
57.4 percent to greater transparency,
and 48.1 percent to improved team selling.
Mobile cRM should also catch on among customers
given that 51.9 percent of the respondents
seek more customized customer support.
Does CRM have any risks?
peter winkelmann: There could be a loss of
personal mindfulness. when the devices are
lying on a table and everyone is playing with
them, there could be a lack of focus on a given
problem. but that’s something people will just
have to work on.
dieter Greipl: Naturally, security plays a major
role, too. From a technical perspective, the
problem is solved through corresponding encryption
technologies. but another question is
how mobile end device users handle the data
and devices. To that end, companies have to be
able to monitor that a smartphone goes into
auto-lock mode after two minutes and that it’s
not turned off by employees because it’s bothersome.
we’re seeing a little-known skill evolving
here, which is device management.
Here’s a big question. Can users utilize
their own devices?
dieter Greipl: There is the risk that in using
personal devices, iT could lose a lot of control.
it starts with simple things like employees
wanting to access their e-mails. if a company
isn’t careful, there could be an uncontrolled
proliferation that is then very difficult to rein in.
The authors of the CRM study:
Prof. Peter Winkelmann (at right) teaches marketing and sales at
landshut university and is head of the Master’s program in marketoriented
business management. winkelmann is considered one of
Germany’s foremost experts in cRM and sales management.
Prof. Dieter Greipl (at left) teaches business information technology
(biT) at landshut university. His area of emphasis is on business
software and mobile systems; he is also head of the biT program.
This also applies to the devices. our study shows
that users want to be free to choose their
mobile end devices. For support staff however,
it is simpler and more cost-effective to specify
the use of certain standardized devices. every
type of device requires additional iT expertise
that, depending on the applications used,
costs extra.
What do users prefer: smartphones
or tablet PCs?
dieter Greipl: we asked whether smartphones
are perceived as replacements for notebooks.
Two-thirds said no, while about one third want
to have notebooks when visiting customers.
even if the answers are not evenly balanced,
this split in opinion is an indicator that business
tablets will catch on. The 33-percent group that
wants to keep their notebooks has built up a
noticeable resistance to smartphones. These
respondents believe that smartphones are not
fast enough and cannot replace all notebook
functions. However, i think that this segment
will be working with tablets in the future.
Questions asked by elke Senger-wiechers
MASTHEAD Publisher: oRacle deutschland b. V. & co. KG., Riesstr. 25, 80992 Munich; Publishing company: idG business Media GmbH, lyonel-Feininger-Str. 26,
80807 Munich; CEO: york von Heimburg; Publishing director: Michael beilfuss; Head of advertising: Sebastian wörle, +49 89 36086-115; Head of Strategic
Marketing Services (SMS): Karl-Heinz piotrowiski; Editors: Katharina Friedmann, andreas Schmitz (responsible according to German press laws); Project
management: Stephan Hoppe; Contributors: ima buxton, Renate oettinger, Michael Klinksik, elke Senger-wiechers; Layout: Rika beisenherz.