Which Off-Line CRM Solution for Field Force?

Applies to:
SAP CRM 6.0 and above. For more information, visit the Customer Relationship Management homepage.

Summary
E very decision maker wants to have multiple choices when making a decision but at the same time he has to deal with the challenges of finding the best choice. First one needs to find all credible options and gather all the relevant information about those options. And then evaluat e pros and cons of each option and make a selection which is suitable for the current as well as future needs. This paper does that job for a decision maker, who is dealing with the task of selecting best off-line CRM solution using SAP platform. This paper explores four different choices available for offline CRM solution based on SAP plat form.

Author:

Kripa Tiwari, Shaik Shavali

Company: Wipro Technologies Created on: 7 September 2009

Author Bio
Kripa is Program Manager with Wipro Technologies. Shaik is working as SAP CRM Consultant wit h Wipro Technologies.

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Which Off-Line CRM Solution for Field Force?

Table of Contents
Summary: ............................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction: ............................................................................................................................................ 3 Solution Options: ..................................................................................................................................... 4 SAP CRM Mobile Solution .................................................................................................................... 5 Access to SAP CRM via internet ........................................................................................................... 5 Off-line access using SAP Interactive forms by Adobe ............................................................................ 6 SAP CRM on Blackberry ...................................................................................................................... 6 Comparison of Various Off-line solutions:.................................................................................................. 7 In various Life cycle Stages .................................................................................................................. 7 Important functionality/capability comparison: ........................................................................................ 8 Overall Comparison ............................................................................................................................. 9 Conclusion: ........................................................................................................................................... 10 Relat ed Content .................................................................................................................................... 11 Disclaimer and Liability Notice................................................................................................................ 12

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Which Off-Line CRM Solution for Field Force?

Summary:
Its a fact of life that every decision maker wants to have multiple choices when making a decision but at the same time he has to deal with the challenges of finding the best choice. First one needs to find all credible options and gather all the relevant information about those options. And then evaluate pros and cons of each option and make a selection which is suitable for the current as well as future needs. This paper does that job for a decision maker, who is dealing with the task of selecting best off -line CRM solution using SAP platform.

This paper explores four different choices available for offline CRM solution based on SAP platform, namely SAP CRM Mobile Solutions for Laptop users, SAP CRM on Blackberry on other PDAs , CRM Online solution accessed over internet, Offline recording of information using SAP Interactive forms by Adobe. E very solution has inherent advantages and disadvantages depending on the kind of information needed in the field. For example, you need a solution wit h complete information about products, customer and order book etc. then SAP CRM mobile solution will be suitable but it is costly to implement and maintain whereas a solution based on Adobe form will be easier to implement but has limited capability. Licensing cost for adobe forms is another point to ponder. In this paper, eac h solution option has been explored for its pros & cons plus what you can and can not do with a particular solution. It also covers challenges in maintaining a particular solution aft er you have implemented. Paper ends with a recommendation on practical solution options.

Introduction:
Recently someone asked me a question that if there is so much of online connectivity/Wi-Fi/Data Cards available now a days then why do we need off-line solution and for s ome strange reason(we will talk bit later on those reasons) we do need to have that solution, then what is the best off-line solution for my field force. Well, that made us think because each industry has different requirement and similarly on the technology front we have many options wit h different cost to pay for development, support and changes.

In this white paper, we will highlight important basic rules, pros and cons, and cost/benefit for each options. Some aspects of this paper are general and apply to almost all CRM solutions and some are very specific to SAP CRM solution. We have looked at four possible solutions in this white paper and they are: SAP CRM Mobile Solution Access to SAP CRM via internet Off-line access using SAP Interactive forms by Adobe SAP CRM on Blackberry

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Which Off-Line CRM Solution for Field Force?

Solution Options:
In this section, we will explore the various CRM Mobile Solutions available in the market. The analysis has been done considering the utility of such solutions for wide variety of Industries.

SAP CRM on Blackberry

A brand new

SAP CRM offering and still under development

Use of SA P CRM application on

blackberry devices

Use of Adobe for m by field w hen offline Can be uploaded or mailed later to
pass on the information

Offline access usi ng SAP Adobe Interactive Forms

Anyw here SAP CRM realized Performance might be an issue w ith

dependence on var ious factors

For ms are transaction specific Separ ate for ms for different

applications required

Simple to use

CRM Mobile Solutions

SAP CRM via internet SAP CRM Mobile Solution

An option w here field force

SA P CRM via internet penetration of internet

accesses

Standard Mobile CRM Solution

covering sales, service & mar keting

Can be an option w ith increasing Security might be a concer n w ith data

flow ing over internet

Highly customized solution especially

for mobile needs

Pr oblems encountered in areas of skill

requirement, UI development and configuration

Same solution for all the stakeholders and

thus reduction of cost

Figure 1: CRM Mobile Solutions Summary

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Which Off-Line CRM Solution for Field Force?

SAP CRM Mobile Solution SAP offers functionally rich Mobile CRM solution (For Laptops and Handhelds) which covers sales, service and marketing business processes. It comes wit h a different user interface (compared to Webclient user interface (UI)) and dat abase, which resides on mobile workstation, for offline access. SAP CRM comes with standard tools for synchronizing mobile workstation with CRM server. This solution s o far has got mixed response with some implement ations being quite successful and some being not so successful the main issue cited by many customers being management of data synchronization and high costs in application maintenance . Below is brief on pros and cons of this particular solution.

Acce ss to SAP CRM via internet In this case, the Webclient UI is accessed by the Field force personnel on their Lapt ops via Internet. Increased availability of int ernet access, more countries adopting 3G technology and availability of dat a cards for immediate access to corporate network makes this option most exciting as it would not require any further investment in building an addition al CRM solution for field force as they can access the SAP CRM on the field and are assured of access to latest information.

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Which Off-Line CRM Solution for Field Force?

Off-line access using SAP Interactive form s by Adobe Off late, this solution has gained quit e a bit of interest and some ways this is cheap alternative to option 1. This approach is characterized by usage of Int eractive forms by Adobe in offline mode to process the transactions. Ty pically, a Field sales rep completes the form designed for a particular transaction by inputting various fields and then saves/ submits the form. Aft er that the dat a is submitted to backend CRM system and a corresponding transaction is creat ed. Data can also be submitted via Email o r it can be uploaded manually. Interactive forms seems a good solution for government and financial s ervice industry whic h deals wit h lot of manual forms and subsequent data transfer to enterprise applications.

SAP CRM on Blackberry This approach involves extending the SAP CRM application on t o Blackberry devices to enable the sales forc e to access info on account, contacts, leads activities etc on the fly and push critical information t o management much faster to facilitate timely decisions on iss ues impacting the sales cycle. This solution is still in the works and yet to be proved in the field. So, it is still very early and putting any bet on that solution will be risky.

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Which Off-Line CRM Solution for Field Force?

Comparison of Various Off-line solutions:

In various Life cycle Stages This section compares the four solution approaches across the lifecycle stages.

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Which Off-Line CRM Solution for Field Force?

Important functionality/capability comparison:

In this section, we will discuss the typical offline business requirements and degree of availability and achievability using the 4 alternatives.

a Blackberry Sales client for SAP CRM V 1.0 features. Road map for Blackberry sales client includes Opportunity and Sales pipeline management Unified Calendar Blackberry Maps and GPS Capability in SAP CRM

b The drop down values for fields like customer, product can be made available on Adobe forms while building the form. But these values are static and not exchanged with SAP CRM backend while offline. c- The functionality of SAP CRM accessed on Adobe forms is limited to the layout of the form designed (Limited fields)

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Which Off-Line CRM Solution for Field Force?

Overall Comparison

The following table compares the features of the four alternatives in terms of various factors to be considered before going for Implementation.

Requirement

Standard SAP Mobile CRM Solution

Online Access to CRM

SAP Interactive forms by Adobe( offline)

CRM on blackberry

Complexity of development Infrastructure setup costs to access SAP CRM offline Cost of development and change management User requirement mapping and achievability Training costs

High High High High High

Low Low Low Medium Medium

Medium Low Medium Low Low

High High High Low Low

Connectivity at offline required? PDA/ Handhelds supported? Time frame for implementation

No (Optional)

Yes No Lowa

No (Optional)

NA

Yes High

No Low

Yes Lowb

a - If the customer is using Webclient UI online already. b- The Time frame of implementation is yet to proved and we believe it should be short.

Note: The Table above highlights and compares the 4 alternatives to realize the same SAP CRM functionality. The words High, Medium and Low are used to compare the alternatives with each other and do not have units in terms of time and resources.

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Which Off-Line CRM Solution for Field Force?

Conclusion:
Based on the analysis of the various mobility options, we could infer that there is no single perfect choice of a mobile solution. The right solution will depend on the requirement of information in t he field for your organization and will be determined by various factors including infrastructure costs, application deployment and maintenance costs, security concerns etc. It is very import ant to study and get the real business requirements first. Very oft en we end capturing lot of nic e to have requirement and important requirement gets lost in the noise and you dont realize that until you are very near to goin g live with t he solution but then it is too late and it becomes too costly to make a course correction. So map the real field requirement and pick a solution which can not only meet the current requirement but also establishes a platform which would address future business needs. Below is our high level recommendation: The SAP CRM mobile solution will be most suitable if you need a solution with complete information about products, customer and book ed orders etc in the field but it is costly to implement and maintain We would recommend exploring aggressively the option of accessing SAP CRM on internet if connectivity is good and security risk mitigation plans are in plac e. Adobe interactive form has a sleek and intuitive user interface and can work very well if requirement from field force is capturing new information in the field such as sales order or new contact etc. Many customers have cited Adobe form licensing cost as an issue. SAP CRM on blackberry is still evolving so we will recommend waiting and seeing how it fares before going for this option.

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Which Off-Line CRM Solution for Field Force?

Related Content
For more information, visit the Customer Relationship Management homepage.

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Which Off-Line CRM Solution for Field Force?

Disclaimer and Liability Notice

This document may discuss sample coding or other information that does not include SAP offic ial interfaces and therefore is not supported by SAP. Changes made based on this information are not supported and can be overwritten during an upgrade. SAP w ill not be held liable for any damages caused by using or misusing the information, code or methods suggested in this document, and anyone using these methods does so at his/her own risk. SAP offers no guarantees and assumes no responsibility or liability of any type w ith respect to the content of this technical article or code sample, including any liability resulting from incompatibility betw een the content within this document and the materials and services offered by SAP. You agree that you will not hold, or seek to hold, SAP responsible or liable w ith respect to the content of this document.

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