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Since the purchase of Mobile 365 in 2006, Sybase has been providing effective mobile messaging solutions for B2C marketing and outreach. And only last week they announced they’ll be extending Sybase 36—their mobile messaging platform that includes mobile CRM support.

Sybase has a good mobile CRM portfolio, and customers even include the company everyone hopes will get hip, quick—SAP, which works with Sybase on a co-innovator basis. Sybase also recently added modules for giving customers SMS coupons, loyalty programs, and interactive campaigns.

Sybase’s director of product management, Scott Miller, stated that Sybase 365’s mobile CRM goal is to examine everything they do on the enterprise side and assign it a mobile application—allowing large enterprises to integrate the smaller pieces on a mobile platform. Sybase has reportedly spent the last year building a framework for the new server that links the hosted modules, and these modules include a toolkit and data reporting.

The ultimate objective for 2010 is to make headway on becoming more than a point solution and tie mobile CRM into mobile payments and mobile commerce. This would give Sybase a very complete mobile CRM product in comparison to some on the market, but it is also a very lofty aim.

As we mentioned earlier, SAP CRM would certainly benefit from such an extensive product. They have several Sybase mobile products in beta right now—Sybase Mobile Sales for SAP CRM, and Sybase Mobile Workflow for SAP Business Suite—that have added a purchase incentive for those that might have been questioning the advantage of an SAP investment. Those products are supposed to be generally available soon—reports say during Q1—and we’re curious to hear reviews. It would be interesting to see what Sybase’s mobile CRM expansion—when executed—means for SAP CRM, but until then we should keep our expectations realistic.

It may not be the biggest surprise to hear iPhone-related announcements while the Macworld conference is taking place, but we at BlogCRM are always interested in seeing that phone’s trajectory in becoming an enterprise staple, and the iPhone CRM functions that arise. Today’s news: IBM will demonstrate new enterprise-facing collaboration software (from the Lotus Software family) for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and all Mac computers.

IBM’s general manager of Lotus Software, Alistair Rennie, told Information Week in an interview that mobility has always been integral to a complete collaboration software package, and that the iPhone in particular has largely been a driver of that. He also made a point of telling the magazine that the introduction of Lotus to Mac wasn’t driven by the iPhone’s success, but that IBM has been focused on bringing enterprise to Apple products for quite a while. The fusion of IBM Lotus Software and the iPhone isn’t entirely iPhone CRM-related, but as collaboration software is becoming more and more integral to CRM processes, the implications of this combination could be significant.

Another possible point of interest for the future of iPhone CRM: based on the literature regarding the release, the Apple connection was at least partly forged due to the iPhone’s success as a social networking tool. Of late, both sales and marketing teams have realized there are serious benefits to be gleaned from folding social media into outreach strategies, and the iPhone’s status as a “social media phone” will certainly boost its chances of iPhone CRM becoming the preferred mobile method.

Even though Gartner’s research has shown the iPhone isn’t taking hold of enterprise the way some would like, its status in enterprise will undoubtedly change within the next couple of years. RIM’s BlackBerry reportedly has 63% of the enterprise market share, and in comparison iPhone usage pales. But IBM is not the only company investing in the iPhone and putting other smartphones on the backburner—earlier this month, CMS vendor CrownPeak announced it was offering content management capabilities for smartphones. Customers using iPhone and Android phones (including the latest Droid) will have access. Noticeably absent from CrownPeak’s list? The BlackBerry.

Things to look out for: moving forward, I’m curious to see if the iPhone usurps the BlackBerry in enterprise, or even if the iPhone and Android fight for the top spot. Also, while “Enterprise 2.0” is only slowly taking on, Social CRM is becoming a fairly sought-after segment, and I’m interested to see if the iPhone’s “It” status—often considered the iPhone’s biggest hurdle in enterprise accessibility—ultimately cements its place in enterprise.

SugarCRM released a broad upgrade today, and some of the features resemble those found in Salesforce.com’s newest offerings. SugarCRM 5.5 features a number of real-time functionalities, but their main achievements are a service called “Cloud Connects,” and Social Feeds.

Cloud Connects is a third-party web integration with LinkedIn, Jigsaw, and Hoovers, which touts social feeds with status updates, alerts, and notifications. Sugar’s Social Feeds is the dashboard that actually displays status updates and alerts; this information can be shared between users. Leveraging Cloud Connects and Social Feeds, users will also receive up-to-date account and lead information. People weighing in note that the combination of these services resembles Facebook, and therefore are compelled to draw similarities between the two and Salesforce Chatter, Salesforce’s real-time social network for enterprise. Salesforce.com announced the release of Chatter at their annual Dreamforce conference two weeks ago, and though CEO Marc Benioff insists that Chatter is a platform for collaboration, conference attendees christened it “Facebook for enterprise.”

Naturally, that Cloud Connect’s release is two weeks after Chatter’s precludes its being Sugar’s own version of Chatter. Still, considering SugarCRM staged a relatively successful guerrilla marketing campaign outside Dreamforce, it’s easy to see how many people drew that conclusion. You can see from screen shots of Cloud Connects, the program is more fragmented than Salesforce Chatter. Cloud Connects appears to be more of modular extension of Sugar’s existing CRM platform, while Salesforce Chatter looks, well, like Facebook.

Social Feeds

Cloud Connects' LinkedIn integration

There are a few other features in this upgrade, including a more streamlined Mobile Studio (Sugar’s mobile application) that allows for more editing and creating capabilities. There’s also Dynamic Teams, which improves collaboration on the CRM platform; and My Portal Dashlet, which allows users to view information from external sites and applications from the SugarCRM platform.

It will be interesting to see what other features Sugar adds to Cloud Connects in the future. They’ve been attacking Salesforce.com pretty aggressively, and I’d like to see if they make their social networking features more streamlined (like a “Facebook for enterprise”), or if they maintain the program as it is.

Plenty of recent studies indicate that more and more large enterprises are going to move to SaaS CRM and productivity solutions, and last week, PDI, Inc. was added to that list of companies making the leap. PDI provides sales and marketing support to US pharmaceutical companies, and will implement Veeva’s VBioPharma CRM Primary Care and Special Care editions, VMobile, and VInsights, before the end of this year. All of those products are part of Veeva CRM’s suite of multi-tenant SaaS applications, helping customers deploy various sales teams nationwide, at different intervals and sizes, and for different needs.

PDI’s senior vice president of IT, Jo Ann Saitta, stated that the move to the Veeva CRM offering was largely influenced by the flexibility of their SaaS solution: “Veeva allows us to provide life sciences companies with tailored solutions without delay.” Changes to PDI’s SFA system can be made quickly, and cuts costs by providing what Saitta dubs a “hardware agnostic environment.”

Saitta said that Veeva’s solution allows SFA to be less about computer systems, and more about enabling sales force to be efficient. It is worth mentioning that PDI had been using a SaaS CRM system for several years prior to selecting the Veeva suite. It seems that we are quickly entering the age in which CRM selections won’t be made simply based on whether the solutions are on-demand or on-premise, but based on the true quality of the product.

Advances in business technology have made it much harder to stay up to date with the most up to date features and applications for your company. With the wide number of options faced when implementing these newer, more “improved” applications, it is easy to get confused and may prevent companies from implementing newer solutions that could benefit the company. The perception of these challenges faced when integrating and implementing new CRM applications is often a headache many companies try to avoid. However, as CRM companies begin to adapt and listen to the needs of its customers, instances of complicated CRM implementations are becoming less common.

Mobile CRM is a recent advancement in the CRM sector that has drawn a lot of attention. With the growing popularity of advanced cellular phones, it has become possible to create business applications tailored for these mobile devices. However, many companies may be deterred from investing in this new technology due to the headaches associated with implementation of mobile CRM applications. Preparing for implementation of mobile CRM applications is critical to having an enjoyable experience associated with this implementation period. Smart planning and effective training can make the difference in smoothing over the transition to a mobile CRM application.

Here are some simple steps you should follow in order to effectively integrate new CRM applications with your mobile devices.

1. Analyze your needs.

Understanding what features you need and the features available from different companies is critical to selecting the right product. Taking time to ensure the appropriate amount of research as well as an accurate assessment of needs will make it much easier to select the CRM solution most appropriate for your company’s needs.

2. Design your Mobile CRM screen.

Fitting the massive amounts of data onto a limited mobile phone screen is a very daunting task. The limited amount of space on the screen makes it necessary to choose what data you feel is necessary to make available in your mobile CRM application as well as the design of how that data will be accessed.

3. Testing Phase

Testing is critical to ensure a smooth transition to a mobile CRM solution. Allowing the users to test and provide feedback allows companies to tweak the system to best fit those who will be using the new applications the most. This will make it easier for employees to learn as well as make them able to work more efficiently, benefitting the company by saving time on training costs as well as employee work time.

4. Rolling Out the Final Solution

Once all feedback has been taken into consideration and the necessary adjustments have been made, it is time to present this new finalized solution to the users. Effectively training employees early on will save many headaches in the future and prevent any mistakes from jeopardizing any potential business deals in the future.

5. Review the Results

Overlooking this part is often a mistake many companies make. Gauging the effectiveness of the new solution is important to determine whether or not it fits the company’s needs as expected. Reviewing the performance and going over feedback can save the company a lot of trouble in the long run as it is much simpler to search for a new solution earlier rather than search for a new solution at a later time when business processes are built towards a solution that doesn’t fit the company.

Implementing a new CRM solution can appear to be a daunting task. However, if companies take the necessary steps and layout the appropriate strategy, implementation can be a very smooth and seamless process.