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Core Functionality

E-mail and simple text messaging: Real-time e-mail access is critical for any
salesperson. Whether on the road, leaving a meeting, at lunch or in the office,
salespeople must have access to e-mail. In some cases, responding to an e-mail
quickly may be the difference in winning or losing a deal or retaining a customer by
being notified of a development involving field service or operations. Salespeople
need to access, review, transmit and archive e-mail communications quickly.
Archived e-mail should be associated and synched to the relevant sales opportunity
in the sales force automation system. Text messaging is valid in geographies or in
organizations where it doesn't make sense to pay for or support a mobile e-mail
client.

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Analysis
Smartphones are fast becoming standard equipment for salespeople offering mobile email,
thin-client access to corporate intranets, instant messaging and thick line-of-business
applications. These devices provide a salesperson with access to enterprise information in
environments and settings that would have been impossible just five years ago. However,
smartphones have limits to their ergonomics that prohibit them from being used as
primary interfaces with an organization's sales force automation application involving
more-complex tasks. Gartner has classified sales force automation functionality for
smartphones into three categories:

Core functionality — encompasses capabilities that enable more than 90% of
salespeople to receive value from their smartphones

Value-add — highly dependent on the sales process of the salesperson

Not practical — device does not support the ergonomics sufficiently enough to
effectively deliver the capability the salesperson desires

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What You Need to Know
When developing a sales force automation strategy, consider mobile devices such as
smartphones as a key way to drive end-user adoption. Smartphones are more accessible,
popular and used more frequently throughout a day than laptops, especially for
salespeople who spend more time traveling than in the office. Salespeople who are "on the
go" find their mobile devices are lifelines to the company. Focus on smartphone
capabilities that are conducive to quick data entry or automated "process capture" that
relieves rather than increases the reporting burden placed on sales forces.

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Recommendations

Focus on core sales force capabilities, such as opportunity data viewing and
manipulation, e-mail, contact and calendar integration, for initial smartphone
deployment.

Avoid functional overload — too much functionality will make the application
unusable due to ergonomic constraints.

Focus on simple, but essential, tasks that can be quickly accomplished with minimal
browsing, scrolling, entering data or clicking on icons, and avoid complicated
routines requiring extensive sequences of actions.