June 05, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Mobile CRM: Beyond the BlackBerry
Mobile CRM has been a marginal technology for years. Once a user developed an appetite for more than the basic calendaring and address book functions of the RIM BlackBerry, additional sustenance was in short supply. But now, a Silicon Valley startup and a burst of innovation from more established players, including SAP, are moving us closer to truly mobile customer management.
It's about time. Salespeople have always lived on the road, and it makes no end of sense to be able to connect wirelessly with the rich information stored in CRM systems back in the office. Sure, the BlackBerry and its handheld competitors have long offered the basics of calendaring and contact management, but e-mail aside, when you think about the cost and back-office complexity, the ROI isn't great.
Meanwhile, cellular coverage has improved dramatically, handheld devices are extremely powerful, and a new generation of tools allows developers to write small, but robust applications and tailor them to a variety of hardware platforms. "Perfect storm" is an awfully tired metaphor, but a lot of factors have come together to enable CRM vendors to push deeper into mobility.
Rethinking the mobile app
Sheryl Kingstone, an analyst who follows CRM and other applications for the Yankee Group, says that her company’s surveys show strong demand for mobile CRM in the enterprise, but only if vendors get it right. Mobile applications, including CRM, have to be rethought and not just dropped onto a mobile device, she says.
Ribbit, one of InfoWorld’s startups of the year, built a software platform that enables developers to create voice and telephony applications in a familiar Web application development environment. Once built, those applications can be linked to other Web apps, including SaaS-based CRM from Salesforce.com and other companies.
A Salesforce.com developer, for example, used Ribbit's API to build a mashup that converts voice messages to text, then drops the data into the Salesforce CRM. Users can also call into the application remotely to add information or view data.
Analyst Denis Pombriant of Beagle Research was impressed with Ribbit's Salesforce application because "it doesn’t treat the handheld device as if it were just a small computer. It tailors the application to the small screen."
SugarCRM, the largest open source CRM vendor, has added a lot of mobile features to its latest release, due at the end of the month. Sugar 5.1 will allow users to run all 20-plus modules of the CRM app on their BlackBerrys and iPhones. It's a big improvement over earlier versions that only ran eight or so modules on mobile devices.
Sugar 5.1 comes with the first set of enhancements to Module Builder, a tool to let nontechnical users create new modules based on Sugar core logic. Users can now build up a history of customizations and establish one-to-many links between modules, including ones running on mobile devices.
Chris Harrick, a SugarCRM vice president, says the software now supports devices running Windows Mobile, the iPhone, and other cell phones equipped with a Web browser in addition to the BlackBerry, which remains "the most solid, enterprise-ready platform."
SAP steps up
SAP, meanwhile, has become deeply entrenched in the BlackBerry via its alliance with RIM. The German software giant is making some its core CRM applications native to the BlackBerry. It started with the usual basic apps on the BlackBerry (calendaring and more) and will add functions such as forecasting, sales pipeline, and lead sheets before too long, says Vinay Iyer, SAP's vice president of CRM marketing. Data, like e-mail on the BlackBerry, can be updated via the usual "push" from the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, instead of by manual synchronization.
Making the apps native to the BlackBerry is a very smart move since there's so much overlap between the customer bases of both companies. SAP shops that already support the BlackBerry won't have to spend much on additional training or hardware to take advantage of the mobile capabilities. Apple and the iPhone will have to scramble to get a toehold in this market.
For now, SAP is concentrating on its alliance with RIM. But the agreement announced in May between the two companies is not exclusive, and SAP is open to collaborating with vendors of other devices in the future, says Iyer.
It's likely that there are still bugs and broader technical issues standing between a truly mobile CRM and the mobile sales force, but progress is finally being made by some big players -- and a few noteworthy little guys.
I welcome your comments, tips and suggestions. Reach me at bill_snyder@infoworld.com.
Posted by Bill Snyder on June 5, 2008 03:00 AM
February 14, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Buying Danger won't make Microsoft competitive with Apple and RIM in the phone zone
By the standards of its $45 billion offer for Yahoo, Microsoft could have found the $500 million it is rumored to have paid Danger in Steve Ballmer's couch.
With no disrespect to the smart folks at the innovative Danger, a decade-old developer of a Java-based "hiptop" operating environment used in the T-Mobile Sidekick and other devices, Microsoft's return on the investment will probably be commensurate with what it spent: not much.
By that, I mean Danger isn't likely to help Microsoft gain much traction in the mobile phone market against the likes of Apple and Research in Motion. "What they are doing, what the advantage is, is just not obvious," Ken Dulaney, vice president of mobile computing at Gartner, told me.
In the enterprise software world, big players such as Oracle acquire companies that have a large installed base and a fast-flowing stream of revenue. In this world, intellectual property is everything, and to a large extent, that means the developers and other brainy folks. Given that everyone expected Danger to go public, those employees had lots of reason to stick around. Now they don't.
Dulaney wonders how many key employees will stay with the new owner. He notes the Danger culture is one of opposition to Microsoft. Some of its developers have roots at the old General Magic, a mid-1990s Apple spin-off that lived to fight the Redmond giant. At this point, why not join Danger co-founder Andy Rubin at Google?
Whether or not the employees jump ship -- or especially if they do -- it's not clear what Microsoft is actually buying from Danger.
What would Microsoft do with the Danger OS?
Maybe Microsoft wants to use the Danger OS as part of the next iteration of the not-so-great Windows Mobile. Given that the Danger OS is Java-based, it doesn't seem likely that Microsoft would take the huge leap required to make it a foundation for a new Windows Mobile.
Perhaps Microsoft would want to move some of the good features of the OS (such as parts of the UI) to the next version of Windows Mobile, which Dulaney thinks is due in 2009. Given the wide differences in the environments, it would not happen quickly or easily. "It might have been cheaper just to hire the developers," he said.
Microsoft is "not going to throw away" Danger's UI expertise, Microsoft Mobile group product manager John Starkweather said during a press conference. But he wasn't more specific than that.
Does Microsoft see something we don't?
His boss Robbie Bach made some references to Danger as a "services" company. "When you actually dig into what they [Danger] do, the vast majority is actually about the social networking and communications services they provide on top of those devices. That's where we'll expand what they do," Bach said.
I have no idea what Bach means. I thought Danger was in the business of developing software for mobile phones and the like. That's what it's done to date, after all.
Does Microsoft want to expand into phone hardware?
Or maybe Microsoft wants to sell the hardware in the same way it sells mice and keyboards. Bad idea, and Microsoft probably knows better than to compete with its Windows Mobile device partners.
I have trouble seeing the advantage here -- and so does Dulaney, who has been around the mobile world a long time.
Microsoft's incentive: Windows Mobile isn't doing well
Despite the lack of clarity on what Microsoft is hoping to get from Danger, it's obvious why Microsoft is looking for help with its mobile business. After six iterations, Windows Mobile is not at all a success.
Research firm Canalys reported last week that Apple took a 28 percent share of the U.S. converged-device market (smartphones and connected PDAs) in the last quarter of 2007. RIM was in first place with a 41 percent share. Adding up the share of all Windows Mobile device vendors gives Microsoft 21 percent, with Palm at 9 percent.
At first blush, that 21 percent sales figure sounds decent. But it turns out that those consumers who do buy a Microsoft-based smartphone are returning them in droves, never a good sign. David DeJean, who blogs at our sister site Computerworld.com, saw a press release from Opinion Research Corporation, which said (and I'll quote directly, because as DeJean points out, the wording is interesting),"Smartphones [excluding iPhone and RIM BlackBerry] were the most returned electronic technology products of the holiday season, with slightly more than one-fifth (21 percent) of smartphone buyers returning their purchase to the retailer." Right. We know who that leaves.
There you have it. Microsoft is way behind Apple and RIM, so it makes a not-too-expensive buy of an innovative company. But how do these players fit together? What value does Danger really add to Microsoft, since even retaining the programmers is not certain?
The more I think about it, the more it irks me, both as a commentator and a (very small) Microsoft shareholder. We all know that Microsoft is racing to catch up with a raft of nimbler competitors as the desktop becomes less significant to the computing world. It's probably not a lot of money, but it could be a distraction -- and even chump change should be spent well.
I welcome your comments, tips, and suggestions. Reach me at bill_snyder@infoworld.com.
Posted by Bill Snyder on February 14, 2008 03:00 AM
December 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Time to Wash Your Hands of Palm?
Palm is one of those companies I always root for because I’ve happily used its products for years and I admire its pioneering spirit and history. But that’s not reason enough to like the stock, and the developments of the last few days paint a dismal picture.
UBS analyst Maynard Um on Monday dropped his rating to sell and chopped his price target nearly in half to $5 a share. That follows Thursday’s announcement by the company that it has blown its second-quarter. Read, ‘em, as they, say and weep, if you own Palm, that is: Palm will post a net loss of 8 cents to 10 cents a share, compared to the 4 cent-profit expected by Wall Street. Sales will come in at $345 million to $350 million, compared to the guidance of $380 million issued when the company announced first-quarter results in early October.
Palm also said it was disappointed that it didn’t get certification on a new product, probably a handset for Verizon, although that’s not confirmed. What else could go wrong? Oh yeah, warranty repairs are up. And in one of those twists that sometimes baffle people who don’t follow the industry closely, the company said sales of the Centro are better than expected; but that’s bad news because the low-priced smart phone hurts the margin mix.
Longer term, Palm is getting its butt kicked by Apples’s iPhone and RIM’s Blackberry. It's not at all clear what it can do to regain some momentum in the marketplace. If I were an IT pro, I’d worry that the company is going to be taken out, making enterprise support that much more difficult.
As you’d imagine the stock is really getting hit. It’s off another 2.5% today to $5.60 a share, and has now lost 15% of its value since Thursday. Indeed, the stock has been this low since 2004.
My heart says, “Go, Palm,” but my investor’s brain says it may be time to wash your hands of Palm.
I welcome your comments, tips and suggestions. Reach me at bill.snyder@sbcglobal.net.
Posted by Bill Snyder on December 10, 2007 12:10 PM
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