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Forrester: Enterprise concerned about cost of mobile CRM

July 8, 2009 — 12:56am ET | By Lynnette Luna

A new Forrester Research survey of more than 1,000 global IT and business leaders that are part of customer relationship management (CRM) purchase decisions found that many enterprises have yet to deploy mobile CRM strategies, primarily because of cost.

The survey found that 22 percent of respondents had deployed a CRM, while 52 percent had plans to roll one out in the next 12 to 18 months. Forrester analyst William Band said many companies are waiting for the economy to recover before launching a CRM strategy. The firm also revealed that 51 percent that have already deployed a mobile CRM solution were concerned about the costs.  

Of particular concern is the price involved in supporting various devices. "What firms are really struggling with is user choice," said Band. "Some do not mind using a BlackBerry, while others want their CRM system on their Android."

Band advises that businesses coalesce around one platform despite the pressure their workforce will put on them to be flexible.

Forrester's research also revealed that 73 percent of those surveyed said mobilizing CRM had made their businesses more productive, while 27 percent the strategy wasn't successful. In addition, the survey revealed that companies spend about $13 billion a year on mobile CRM globally, primarily with SAP, Oracle and Salesforce.com.

For more:
- take a look at this V3.co.uk article

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Comments

By Mark @ Maximizer | Posted 3:50am | July 9, 2009

This really seems to be taking a glass half empty view of the Forrester Reasearch. Stats not mentioned from the study also include:

51% say that sales and service opportunities are being lost due to a lack of critical customer information when workers are “away from the office.”

58% report that mobilizing CRM is a key priority this year.

33% of small businesses already have deployed mobile CRM solutions.

60% say that increasing sales is the primary motive for adopting mobile CRM.

75% agree that mobile CRM makes frontline personnel more effective in their jobs.

Accepted wisdom is that when times are tough organisations that pay more attention to their established customers, whilst boosting marketing activity to bring in new name business, will be in better shape during an upturn than competitors who just batten down the hatches.

Cutting back on marketing is a short-term solution that does long-term damage through loss of hard-earned brand recognition, which may have taken years to establish.

At Maximizer I have personally seen an organisation that deployed Maximizer Mobile CRM on Blackberry’s to managers and this enabled them to reduce their admin head count by 20. This not only funded the deployment AND provided massive savings, but is boosting the long term productivity of the entire company. In addition, some or even all of the costs of mobilising CRM can be offset by getting a better deal from the very competitive communications market that are available at the moment.

Nearly three quarters of respondents said that mobilising CRM had made their businesses more productive. Perhaps those who are waiting for the economy to recover should look at how savings in associated costs could be put towards funding deployment of a mobile CRM system. Otherwise they could well miss the boat.

Mark Carter - Maximizer CRM
www.max.co.uk

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