Nearly half of all small and medium-sized companies in Europe and nearby markets that use Customer Relationship Management systems have mobile CRM platforms in place, new research from Maximizer Software reveals.
The independent survey of 1 367 SMEs in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) shows that, as of 2012, 46% of these businesses with CRM have upgraded their systems to include mobile access and functionality, as they strive to ensure that staff on the move or working from remote locations can make use of these essential tools for managing sales campaigns, customer service, marketing and other interactions with consumers.
This is up from an estimated 33% in 2009, when it was projected by global consultancy Forrester that nearly all firms would have mobile CRM capability within two to three years.
The Maxmizer study, entitled Everything, everywhere, right now, also demonstrated that the adoption of web-access CRM capability has lagged behind projections for a number of key reasons: perceptions about additional costs, concerns about information security, and doubts about the ease with which such changes could be integrated into existing systems. These concerns remain widespread despite the fact that affordable, secure and easily integrated CRM solutions aimed at SMEs are already on the market.
The research also revealed, however, 'Bring Your Own Device' - the practice of employees using their own netbook, laptop, tablet or smartphone to do work on - does not appear to be a barrier to the implementation of mobile CRM, as only 13% of SMEs discourage BYOD and just 4% ban it outright.
The report also cited other research that showed more than 80% of businesses globally now offer their employees a level of choice about when and where they work - making web-access CRM capability even more essential.
Mike Richardson, Maximizer's managing director EMEA, comments, "We have seen a steady rise in mobile CRM adoption but not the meteoric growth that was projected - nonetheless, it will continue to rise. The way people work is changing as employees become more mobile - using their iPad, or Android smartphone, or whatever to get on with their work - and business practices such as hot-desking become more prevalent.
To achieve return on investment in CRM systems and boost staff productivity, firms have to ensure that their people are able to tap into their platforms whenever and wherever they are working, using whatever device they favour. It is just another way of ensuring usability.
"For our part, we in the CRM sector have to do a better job of making sure that companies - particularly SMEs, many of which are watching their budgets and monitoring new initiatives closely in the current economic climate - understand that there are many CRM systems with mobile capability at an affordable entry point, that such solutions can be made secure, and that these can be easily integrated with existing platforms."
