IT Departments Are Under Mobile Attack

IT Departments are under siege – from the proliferation of mobile platforms and devices – and what are they supposed to do about it?

We can probably track the initial mobile “assault” back to the launch of the Apple iPhone in June of 2007. Senior executives in many organizations were early adopters. These key decision makers completely ignored corporate policies requiring a single mobile device standard. They purchased mobile devices on their own and then marched into IT departments and demanded product support. Companies were soon well on their way to device proliferation.

Hard to believe, but having just two mobile platforms is starting to look like the good old days. Today, users are not just buying BlackBerrys, iPhones, Androids and Windows Phones; they’re also acquiring iPads, Galaxy Tabs, Xooms and, soon, PC-based Slates. I work with enterprise IT departments every day and I haven’t run across a single CIO that thinks they can put the mobility genie back in the bottle. No longer can IT departments lock on a common standard and force users to conform. When it comes to your mobile users, it’s time to recognize that if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Beleaguered IT departments may wonder if Mobile is worth all the effort. The proof is in the data. In a recent study on sales mobility called “Sales Mobility: Quotas Untethered,” Aberdeen Research Group reported that companies adopting mobile CRM have an 11 percent advantage in quota attainment, a 6 percent advantage in customer retention rates and a 3.5 percent advantage in lead conversion rates over the average for all companies. Mobility is king, and IT departments are king-makers. (Note: Download this report for free at www.cwrmobility.com).

The good news is that solutions like Dynamics CRM and those from CWR Mobility enable IT departments to meet the conflicting demands of internal customers clamoring for various platforms. With CWR Mobile CRM, IT configures CWR just once, using the common Dynamics CRM point-and-click configuration tools, and then deploys CRM across all the major phone platforms. Users get the mobile device of their choice, management gets the visibility into sales and service it seeks, and IT gets to simplify its rollout of CRM technology.

By hiding the complexity caused by the explosion of mobile platforms, CWR Mobile CRM enables IT to serve internal customers the way they want to be served. IT can now go out to users proactively and show them how they can use the latest mobile devices, devices of their own choosing, to achieve their sales or service goals.

IT no longer needs to be under siege by mobile devices. Rather, in a judo move using the power and appeal of mobile devices, IT can now use mobility to improve user adoption, quota attainment, customer retention, lead conversion rates, AND management visibility and insight.

Instead of feeling attacked by mobility, IT can now employ it as a tool during rollout to drive user adoption. Promote mobility as a productivity tool for users. Start the CRM rollout by first distributing leads to reps, making marketing literature available, providing account and contact access, and providing insight into order status and cases. When the initial CRM rollout focuses on delivering value to users first, companies secure high CRM adoption. Management visibility into sales will follow naturally, and the mobile explosion will no longer be a threat. It will be an opportunity…and IT will be the hero.

Microsoft Partner of the Year for Mobility Business Solutions

CWR Mobility recently got awarded as Partner of the Year for Mobility Business Solutions by Microsoft.

Erik van Hoof had the honors of getting the on stage recognition and shook hands with Allison Watson and Jon Roskill.

You can watch the ceremony video here.

CWR Mobility First to Extend the Power of Microsoft Dynamics CRM to BlackBerry, iPhone and Windows Mobile

NIJMEGEN, The Netherlands, January 20 - CWR Mobility has released version 4.2 of its flagship product CWR Mobile CRM, the leading mobile solution for Dynamics CRM which is used by organizations worldwide including Danone, Nestlé, Hitachi and Sanofi Pasteur. Amongst the most important improvements is a native mobile CRM client for BlackBerry and iPhone. CWR Mobile CRM 4.2 is available immediately via a global network of certified partners, and Online in the USA and Canada.

"CWR Mobile CRM was already the most advanced mobile Dynamics CRM solution on Windows Mobile devices," said Erik van Hoof, CEO of CWR Mobility. "But we want to give our customers the freedom of choice, so we built mobile CRM clients for BlackBerry and iPhone as well as an Express version which supports mobile web browsers. Today, CWR Mobile CRM is the only solution worldwide that brings the power of Dynamics CRM to Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and iPhone. All clients have full Dynamics CRM capabilities while having the look and feel of the device it runs on. Our new Express version also runs on Android, Palm Pre and any other internet enabled Smartphone."

CWR Mobility is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, BlackBerry Alliance Member and member of the iPhone Enterprise Developer Program. The CWR Mobile CRM clients are available on the Apple App Store, BlackBerry App World and Windows Mobile Marketplace.

In addition to support for BlackBerry and iPhone, the release includes further improvements on security, software development kit, power management and remote application management. A full overview of the new and improved features can be found on http://www.cwrmobility.com.

Erik van Hoof: "We have built CWR Mobile CRM on the same pillars as Microsoft CRM: it fits your people, fits your business and fits your environment. Users want their information at their fingertips with a familiar user experience on every device. The business needs tools that support business processes in a flexible way and produce a short term ROI. And IT needs solutions that snap in easily with the existing Dynamics CRM infrastructure. In CWR Mobile CRM, we've got it all covered."

About CWR Mobility

CWR Mobility is the frontrunner in the mobile CRM market. By providing the most advanced, multi-platform mobile CRM solution based on the Microsoft Dynamics platform, the company sets the market standard. In addition to increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of sales and service teams, CWR Mobility and its partners, uniquely empower customers to drive business results through rapidly-deployed mobile applications.

Merry Christmas – Santa’s Story

Dear All,

It has been some time since our previous blog. Reason for that is that we have been extremely busy; our 4.2 release, a new version for BlackBerry and iPhone, execution of our new partner program and partner certifications, and last but not least, implementation of several large customers.

One of our latest successes has allowed us to produce a nice reference story; The implementation of Mobile CRM at Santa Clause Corporation. The full press release can be found at our website

Everybody at CWR Mobility wishes you a very Merry Christmas and a healthy, successful and HAPPY NEWYEAR!

First Certified Partner training was a success!

Last Friday (November 6th, 2009) we had our first Certified Partner training in the World Port Office Center in Rotterdam.

The setting was a 31 story high building in the middle of the city, with a big round glass window, overviewing the river and the Erasmus bridge. The view was astonishing!

The training was set as a full day, starting with a keynote, then splitting the group in a technical and a sales track and finally bringing the group back together to do a final presentation.

The initial key note, given by Erik van Hoof, covered a little history of CWR, the new release and the reason for the partners to become certified.

The Technical track was covered by Jeffry van de Vuurst and covered the architecture, installation, configuration and SDK features of CWR Mobile CRM. It was a very interactive and hands-on training with each aspect to be performed in a VPC (included on external haddrives, given to the technical attendees as a present).

The Sales track was covered by Mark Corley (with some interference from David Savage) and covered the Nice to have and Must have scenarios of CWR Mobile CRM, including some details and examples of deals that CWR Mobility have already deployed and implemented. After that the participants got trained in writing and performing a 30-second ‘elevator’-pitch. Each participant had to write their own pitch on CWR Mobile CRM and present their pitch to the audience. The last session included the anatomy of a deal and covered each aspect of the deal, from the initial lead to closing the deal.

At the end of the day the technical and the sales team were brought back together and setup in groups of two. each group had to prepare a small demo scenario, including some customizations and a small presentation and present that to the group.

All participants were very interactive within the group, which resulted in an informal training event with a lot of mind sharing and great creative use cases of CWR Mobile CRM.

We are happy to announce the first CWR Mobility Certified Consultants/Partners:

Trained professional	Certified Partner
Nico Verhagen	Avanade Netherlands BV
Wouter de Nooij	Avanade Netherlands BV
Dennis Schut	CRM Partners
Rik Dubbink	CRM Partners
Hans Veldman	friendlyITsolutions
Sandor Schellenberg	friendlyITsolutions
Geerten Peek	Logica
Merijn van Mourik	Logica
Remco de Haan	Logica
Sanne Groenhof	Logica
Kwinten Volckaert	Mobile Access
Tom Janssens	Mobile Access
Jones Aktan	Traviata
Kim Asselman	Traviata

CWR Mobility Certified Partners 6 Nov 2009

More information and a special Certified Partners area will be available on our website soon.

CWR Mobile CRM Express on the ZuneHD

While I was at the CRM User Group Summit in Chicago, I got my hands on the new ZuneHD from Microsoft. This is probably their best created piece of hardware EVER!

While playing with it, I connected it to Wifi and started browsing the internet. It then struck me that it should be able to run CWR Mobile CRM as well, as our new 4.2 version comes with a web based client as well (CWR Mobile CRM Express).

John O’donnel from the ISV Evangelism team caught me playing with the Zune and asked me if he was able to shoot a little video on the Zune running our CRM app.

He posted it on Channel9 last week and thus far we already have over 1750 views! Looks like either the Zune or CWR is pretty hot on Channel9 :)

Happy viewing!

A lot of attention at WPC09

The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 has come to an end. It was an exciting week for us! We met a lot of interesting people and discussed even more interesting topics.

Of course we had our ‘Partner Appreciation Party’ together with our friends at Experlogix and Scribe Software. The party was a big hit with over 125 people attending! For pictures, visit the Scribe Weblog).

We demonstrated our alpha version of our iPhone client to some of our partners and we had some great feedback regarding the UI and the usability.

The most surprising moment was when we saw our own app being demonstrated at the Mobility Keynote without us knowing :) (at 27:40 in the below video of the keynote):

[MOB0VK] Mobility Solutions - Value Keynote

We want to thank everybody that we met, that were at our party, or that was actively promoting us during the WPC09. I really hope we meet again soon!!