Tech Solution: Mobile Sales Tools

Sales professionals understand the value of customer information when they're on the go. Sales organizations are becoming increasingly diversified and disparate, so managers and salespeople need tools to keep them focused and educated with up-to-date sales data. Fortunately, the days of lugging binders and product catalogs across the globe are over. The advent of cell phones, laptops, and wireless handheld devices has allowed vendors to provide organizations with tools that extend and enhance their SFA capabilities beyond the office.

Avidian Prophet for Palm

Delivery Model: installed software

Price: Prophet and Prophet for Palm are offered for the bundled price of $199.95.

Business Benefits: This mobile add-on to the Avidian Stand-Alone and Server editions of Prophet lets you manage and share sales-opportunity data using both a Palm handheld device and a PC. Sales
people can use a Palm as their tool of choice for meetings and travel, and the larger-footprint PC or laptop for full-scale reports or presentations.

Functionality: Prophet for Palm, which only works when Prophet is loaded onto the system, is a sales management system built into Microsoft Outlook. By doing so, many of the headaches associated with mobile sales tools like syncing databases or switching back and forth between multiple applications are avoided, saving salespeople time. End users can view, create, or edit opportunities or sync contact, company, and opportunity data from Prophet (or a server) onto a Palm. Salespeople can add notes and tracking history and add or edit products and services associated with an opportunity.

Contact: Avidian at 1-800-860-5534; or visit www.avidian.com

iEnterprises CRM on the Go

Delivery Model: installed software

Price: Starts at $1,500 for the initialization fee

Business Benefits: Sales teams can stay on top of pipelines, quotes, and call reports while on the road, enabling them to close deals faster by having access to important sales information created by a CRM application or other wireless device. CRM on the Go works with iExtensions CRM, Salesforce.com, Siebel, or any CRM solution, including custom-built solutions, giving a sales force access to the data its company's CRM system provides.

Functionality: CRM on the Go installs wirelessly, monitors itself, and automatically notifies administrators should problems arise. User-friendly functionality is designed to mimic the host CRM system and is custom configurable. A secure Triple DES encryption system keeps data secure and salespeople can receive real-time alerts so they can be informed of urgent issues. Users can also enable real-time access to other enterprise applications, such as ERP, product inventory, and customer analytic solutions.

Contact: iEnterprises at 1-800-741-5597; email at sales@ienterprises.com; or visit www.ienterprises.com

Salesforce.com Offline PDA Edition

Delivery Model: Web-based

Price: For the Professional Edition pricing starts at $25 per user, per month; Enterprise and Unlimited editions are free.

Business Benefits: It allows views and updates to accounts, contacts, opportunities, and activities anytime, anywhere. More frequent use results in more up-to-date customer and sales data, and improved account management and sales analytics.

Functionality: Users can define "briefcase" settings to control data that is automatically placed in their Offline PDA Edition. Options include an opportunity briefcase and an all-my-accounts briefcase. Users can manually select specific accounts for the offline briefcase. For data synchronization, Offline PDA Edition provides for an automatic synchronization process, making updates immediately accessible to others within your organization. Data can be synchronized between PDA and Salesforce.com through the device cradle or over a wireless connection.

Contact: Salesforce.com at 1-800-667-6389; email at info@salesforce.com; or visit www.salesforce.com

Contact Editorial Assistant Colin Beasty at cbeasty@destinationCRM.com

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