Pieter Rijlaarsdam
Read all my blogsVersion 2.0 of Mobile Sales for SAP CRM has been released in the AppStore today, so a great time to look at the new features.
I will compare the functionality to the 1.x versions of the app. For more information on the 1.x version, check also this blog.
Account & Contact managementAccount & Contact management allows you to search, create and update accounts and contacts. As to be expected from a CRM system, the account and contact overview also allows you to create activities, leads, opportunities, quotes and orders directly.
New in version 2.0 is the availability of the Account Factsheet, which is expected to be a quick overview of all relevant information of the account at hand.
As of version 2.0, also marketing attributes as maintained on the account and will be synchronised to the mobile device.
Lead & Opportunity management
Leads and Opportunities can be found on the account overview, and can also be searched directly.Lead and opportunity functionality has not changed much, except for the fact that it will become easier to create follow-up transactions such as activities, quotes and orders.
Activity management
Activity management enables the user to plan phonecalls, visits etcetera, and to create visit reports while on the road.
New in version 2.0 is the ability to work with surveys that are attached to the activity.
Quotes & Orders (NEW)
Quotes & Sales Orders is a whole new function in the Mobile Sales app.
Obvious difficulty with this functionality is that SAP supports very complex pricing in the backend system, so, in an environment with many products and complex pricing procedures, how would this be captured in a mobile (offline) app?
My expectation is that pricing will remain in the backend system, and thus the app will need an active connection with the backend system to calculate a proper price.
Maps
Beside the maps functionality that was available in version 1.x of the mobile sales app, where the app was able to translate the address of a customer to the native maps app, the 2.0 version also has the ‘Customers Near Me’ function, where you can project yourself on the map, and see all the customers near your current location. A very nice new feature if you ask me.
Analytics
Analytics does not seem to get new information in the new version of the app, just some cosmetical changes.
Attachments
All objects in the application will also contain the attachments (for instance word documents) that have been attached to the object in the backend system. This feature has been applied to Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Opportunities, Activities, Quotes and Orders.
Calendar
The Calendar is a great new feature in version 2.0. This missing feature in the 1.x app has now been added and looks really great. It enables you to see your appointments in a glance.Search
The new version of the mobile sales app also has a great feature where you can search over all objects in the application. Search results can be accounts, contacts, opportunities etc. Very user friendly.
Auto logging
While in the previous version of the app, when you had done a phonecall to a customer, you had to restart the app to make add your comments in an activity, the app now automatically navigates to the ‘outbound phonecall activity’, where you can do your notes on the phonecall.
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