If you have a mobile workforce, chances are it is a vital part of your business. Now that the vast majority of mobile devices can access the internet, it's no surprise that a growing number of companies are looking to mobile customer relationship management to increase the productivity of their mobile workers, streamline business operations and boost customer satisfaction. Simply put, mobile CRM means workers have access to company CRM, enterprise resource planning, salesforce automation or other back-office software such as order management and accounts receivable through their browser-based mobile devices (BlackBerry, Palm, iPhone, etc.).
This marriage of CRM software and the mobile network is possible through the advent of high-speed mobile internet access and hosted software, or software-as-a-service (SaaS). Though only a small percentage of companies are using mobile CRM (and many of those only on a limited basis), the ones that are using it have reported great success, and it appears to be a market segment poised for rapid growth, in part because it's now within reach of the profitable small to medium-sized business market segment. Recent research from Compass Intelligence suggests that businesses in the U.S. will spend roughly $9bn on mobile applications, including mobile CRM, by 2011, up from an estimated $3.8bn this year.
Source: CRM Daily, http://www.crm-daily.com