Salesforce goes all out for the mobile user

Against a background of research indicating that mobile devices are now close to becoming the dominant tool with which individuals choose to use for work, Salesforce.com has pitched in with a new Salesforce1 Mobile App. The target is to give anyone the tools needed to run their business from their phone.

According to the company, the new App will deliver the most complete and customisable mobile experience in a single app for business users. This includes more than 30 new features that will allow users to sell, service, market and engage from any mobile device.

The company’s research shows that mobile apps can boost UK worker productivity by more than 34 percent. In addition, 60 percent of British employees now use apps on mobile devices for work-related activity, and of those that use dedicated department-specific Apps, more than 60 percent have seen an increase in their personal productivity as a direct result.

Almost 9 in 10 app users say that apps for work have changed their behaviour as a business professional, but 59 percent of respondents think that their organisation has been too slow at delivering apps for the workforce.

In the company’s view this demonstrates that UK Plc has the opportunity to unlock value from their workforce by simply deploying apps widely. The report shows that apps are now firmly entrenched in the way British people work, with 60 percent of employees in SMEs and large companies now using apps for work related activity.

“Apps give employees real-time access to business-critical information no matter where they are, making them more productive and effective,” said Miguel Milano, president, EMEA, at Salesforce. “The Salesforce1 Mobile App is changing how businesses are harnessing the power of mobile, now anyone can run their business from a phone.”

The arrival of the Mobile App ties in with the growing trend for staff to be `always on’ and able to work wherever they happen to be, a point noted by Richard Absalom, senior analyst at Ovum. “The emergence of mobile enterprise applications, which will drive enterprise mobility, create new ways of working and transform existing business processes. For organisations that already have a mobility strategy in place, the next phase will be to start mobilising as many internal processes as possible to allow workers to perform their core tasks (beyond email) from whichever device they have on hand, from wherever they are.”

There is, of course, plenty of evidence that people readily use Apps for personal use and are ready to use them for business as well. The trouble is there are not too many such Apps available. This is the target Salesforce is now pitching at.

The Salesforce1 Mobile App aims to deliver the most complete and customisable mobile experience in a single App, giving users access to their complete business directly from their phone. It will, for example, give every salesperson direct access to their Reports and Dashboards, easy navigation with Accounts, and provide access to data offline, enabling them to sell to customers anytime, from anywhere.

It will also provide new features such as Knowledge, Questions & Answers, and Email and Social Case Actions in the Salesforce1 Mobile App, allowing service agents to provide unparalleled customer service from their mobile devices. The new App will also give marketers access to their Contacts’ Social Information, Campaign Members, and Marketing Collateral right from their phone to allow them to market 1:1 to customers on every channel.

With new mobile access to Salesforce1 Communities, companies and their employees will be able to sell, service, market and engage directly with customers and partners in multiple custom, branded communities, while they will also be able to connect with their back office by integrating third-party apps through new Canvas API’s and tools.

In addition, new SAP connectors from Informatica and Mulesoft will also allow enterprises to quickly build mobile workflows that integrate mission-critical back office data, and companies can also easily build and deploy custom mobile apps for any business process to help employees get work done directly from their phone.

In today’s workplace, where employees bring their device of choice to the office, companies need to be prepared to support all devices and browsers around the globe, all while meeting compliance requirements. In addition to Apple and Android operating systems, users will be able to access the Salesforce1 Mobile App from any mobile browser, including Blackberry Z10 mobile browser, Good Access Secure mobile browser and Windows 8 browser. It will also delivers notifications on Samsung wearables. 

“With solutions such as Informatica Cloud Salesforce1 QuickStart for SAP Solutions, customers can harness the power of Salesforce1 to run their businesses on their phones,” said Ron Huddleston, SVP, Global ISV & Channel Alliances at Salesforce. “Informatica is unlocking mission-critical data from SAP with the new Salesforce1 Mobile App, allowing Salesforce users instant access to an SAP Back Office through Salesforce1 to sell, service, market and manage any business process from any mobile device.”