I don’t recall when I arrived at this conclusion, but over the course my twenty-five years serving the CRM industry across all horizontal practices, and within many industries, I have come to a realization about the enterprise disciplines and their attitude towards CRM.  Every department has a completely different attitude towards CRM – while customer service loves CRM, the sales teams only tolerate it and the marketing team hates it.  The three entirely different attitudes dictate three approaches to CRM from inside your business.  And all three of these business-driving stakeholder groups must be at the table in support of your CRM strategy and execution. Let’s take a look at each of these attitudes in detail:

We’re nearing the end of the year 2016, which has seen the introduction of many significant technological trends. 2017 is all set to herald even further trend-setting innovations in the technology space.

According to Gartner, one of the top strategic technological trends which the digital world is going to witness in the near future is “device mesh”, making a widespread impact in the way humans and organizations make decisions.

As a manufacturer, managing your logistics and supply chain brings new challenges every day. From meeting customer demands for efficiency and improved margins, to effectively managing your routes and carriers – transportation requires accuracy, speed, and flexibility in order to improve compliance, minimize costs, and maximize resources.

Depending on your industry, you likely have a specialized set of applications for different lines of business (LOB). Engineering systems, an SQL database for a certain division, a clinical health record application – all are LOB applications which power business operations. The sum of the parts of LOB systems creates a unique technology environment which makes your business tick differently (and hopefully more competitively) than others.

Mobile technology has revolutionized how businesses operate and interact with customers. It influences every stage of the manufacturing process as well as the customer’s buying journey. With the proliferation of mobile devices and apps, billions of bytes of data are created each day that include countless videos and images, business transactions, geo-positioning information, and updates on social media. This data increasingly originates from and is consumed through mobile devices, leading to a year-over-year increase in mobile data traffic.

Globalization has led to a surge in the number of remote workers across a variety of industries. As more employees work from field locations, around-the-clock connectivity and access to business critical information is becoming all the more essential to carry out tasks to make crucial, data-driven decisions. While mobile solutions help enterprises stay connected with their on-site sales teams, there is always the problem of low or no connectivity in extremely remote locations. Such a situation impedes business processes, restricting remote employees from efficiently doing their jobs and completing tasks.

While many businesses struggle to keep up with frequent technology changes, concepts like bring your own device (BYOD) policies have flourished, encouraging employees to work on devices of their choice. Gartner says 40 percent of US employees in large enterprises use personally owned devices for work. The driving force behind BYOD is IT self-sufficiency among employees who already own and use personal laptops, tablets, and smartphones. These mobile devices are often newer and more advanced than the equipment provided by IT departments. It's not surprising that the rapid adoption of lightweight Ultrabooks, iPads, and large-screened smartphones are changing the way people want to work. The goal for your organization? Increased productivity and reduced costs.

In today’s highly mobile world, using a mobile-first design approach is critical for businesses. Each time a user downloads a new app, the expectations are to make life simpler, solve problems efficiently and make your day a bit easier. In order to reach a large audience and to ensure substantial growth of your business, offering a delightful user experience across a wide range of devices is critical. Taking the effort to first sketch out your mobile strategy will go a long way in ensuring satisfied customers.

With sensors embedded everywhere, the world is becoming far more connected than ever before. From smartwatches and thermostats, to security systems, home appliances, and other evolving connected devices, the IoT world is moving past computers, tablets, and smartphones to just about every device you can imagine. The demand for connected devices is rising in unthought-of numbers, transforming the way we see, hear, and feel the world.

The advent of innovative technologies and the exponential growth of mobility is compelling businesses to offer seamless experiences across form factors. ERP vendors are making major strides in facilitating new scenarios for users to work with hand-held devices by offering mobile capabilities that focus on improving employee productivity while on-the-go thus enabling them to stay connected to processes round-the-clock. In addition, you benefit from improved quality of service, stronger business relationships, and more precise data capture. Let’s look at a few scenarios and see how mobile ERP capabilities are providing immersive, engaging and action-oriented experiences in the workplace: