test_IT

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
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