Survey Says PDA's Drive Adoption of CRM

AvantGo has unveiled the results of the AvantGo 2002 Sales Management and Field Sales Representative Study. The study surveyed sales management executives and sales representatives to gauge their opinions on the level of success their current customer relationship management (CRM) and sales force automation (SFA) system implementations enjoy and identify how handheld personal digital assistant (PDA) solutions might impact the use of these systems. Overall, the study found that these systems suffer from low adoption in the field, and that PDA access could dramatically drive usage.

Sixty-five percent of sales representatives surveyed estimated that less than 50% of their company's sales force is using its CRM/SFA system the way management would like. The top three obstacles cited by sales representatives for not using the CRM/SFA system more often were that the systems were too time-consuming, difficult to access and provided limited value to them in the field. Over 40% of sales managers surveyed said that, as a result, they were not getting effective forecasting or opportunity management data from their SFA systems today.

Sales management and field-based representatives both felt strongly that providing PDA access to CRM/SFA and other sales force systems would drive adoption and increase productivity of the sales force. Eighty-three percent of sales representatives felt that a PDA sales solution would make them more productive in the field and 90% said they would use their CRM/SFA system more if they had handheld mobile access. Sales management agreed: 82% believe PDA access for sales representatives would drive field usage of CRM/SFA and 91% believe mobile enterprise software on PDAs will become an important sales tool for their organization.

According to Ojas Rege, AvantGo's vice president of product marketing: "Companies have invested millions of dollars in their CRM deployments, but most have not been able to drive enough adoption among their field sales forces to deliver on the promise of a single, shared view of the customer. Quality of data drives CRM value. Low user adoption in the field results in incomplete or inconsistent data and limits the ability of most organizations to realize this value."

Rege added, "It's significant to note that field sales representatives often complain that their CRM/SFA deployments are too complex, hard to access and often don't provide direct value to field reps in their sales process. These are exactly the benefits handheld solutions like AvantGo Mobile Sales(TM) provide and this is reflected in the enthusiasm both sales representatives and sales managers surveyed displayed for PDA solutions."

Sales Professionals Chime in on Usage Behavior of CRM/SFA The 2002 Sales Management and Field Sales Representative Study surveyed 89 sales management executives, and 186 field sales representatives. Other notable findings from the study include:

From sales management:

• On average less than 50% of sales representatives are using their CRM/SFA system the way sales management would like;
• More than half of management felt that PDA access to their CRM/SFA system would improve the quality of data captured as well as improve customer satisfaction;
• Fifty-one percent of sales management opined that a PDA sales solution would accelerate the sales process, 46% felt it would provide better forecasting, and 43% foresaw a direct increase in revenues; and
• Seventy-five percent said they themselves would use their CRM/SFA system more frequently if they had PDA access.
• Ninety percent felt that PDA access would provide them with better quality data, while 91% offered that PDAs would become an important sales tool.

From field sales representatives:

• Seventy-two percent said they spend more than 50% of their time away from their home or work office;
• There is close alignment in opinion and percentages with management in the belief that PDA access would accelerate the sales process and provide better forecasting;
• Fifty percent or more said they would like to use their PDAs to access product information, track customer histories, review marketing and competitive intelligence, and update SFA customer information;

Study Availability The results of the 2002 Sales Management and Field Sales Representative Study is available today at www.avantgo.com.

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