Mobile CRM

As mobile employees carry an ever-increasing arsenal of devices, supporting them is becoming more critical, and troublesome, than ever before.

IDC Mobile Enterprise Program Director Stephen Drake traces the current mobile device management (MDM) and remote support market back to the first enterprise laptop deployments.

In 2006 IDC valued the MDM market at $230 million and projects it will grow to $700 million by 2010. Drake pointed to the relatively small part that mobile applications play across the board= there are only 10 million to 12 million mobile email users worldwide, for example- to explain gradual adoption.

Phone-based technical support has never been totally efficient and the service model tends to fall apart when mobile workforce grows beyond a certain size. Remote control systems allow a technician to interact with the afflicted device over the Internet, often providing as much control as having the device in-hand.
Solutions exist targeting PC hardware as well as handheld devices such as smartphones and wireless PDAs; some, like Odyssey Software's Athena, can handle both.

Remote support can also do routine set-up and provisioning, further simplifying the IT department's job.

In the wirelessly mobile environment, remote support must often operate across low bandwidth connections, so products should be optimized for this.
Remote support can pay in many ways, but the richest is probably the reduction in problem resolution times. Dennis Nelson, a support systems analyst for Bomgar customer KODAK Dental Systems, said the solution has cut call times by about 24 percent.