Major enterprise software vendors are continuing their push into the realm of mobile customer relationship management (CRM) with the rollout of new or enhanced field service, sales and quality management applications.
Pleasanton Calif.-based business software giant PeopleSoft Inc. on March 13 announced the latest iteration of its core Web-based CRM product. Version 8.4 will allow mobile workers to rapidly download and synchronize large amounts of data on their desktop PCs or Pocket PCs.
Also coming are industry-specific hooks that allow telecommunications companies to exploit the applications’ core functions.
In the same vein, San Mateo, Calif.-based CRM software leader Siebel Systems Inc. announced Version 7 of its mobile product, claiming that it’s the company’s first consolidated, completely Web-based application for remote sales or service workers.
With PeopleSoft CRM 8.4, PeopleSoft continues to look to open its CRM applications to new constituents in its installed base, said Joshua Greenbaum, an analyst at Daly City, Calif.-based Enterprise Applications Consulting.
PeopleSoft will likely keep adding new products to its mobile portfolio as it continues to integrate technology from recent acquisitions such as e-mail technology provider Annuncio Software Inc. in Mountain View, Calif., which it purchased last January. According to Stan Swete, general manager of CRM at PeopleSoft, the latest enhancements will let customers or salespeople dynamically manipulate Web-based product information and perform side-by-side comparisons, among other operations.
Additionally, Swete said, there will be a new core quality control module that permits the tracking of product defects and increases customer support.
Siebel says that Version 7 of its Mobile Solutions package is its first fully Web-based, consolidated mobile offering geared specifically toward remote sales and service personnel. Siebel claims that Version 7 will allow multiple end users to work on the same sales and service application and centrally synchronize and update the data being added, based on the users’ business rules.
PeopleSoft CRM 8.4 will ship later this month. Siebel 7 Mobile Solutions is shipping now.