How important is security for Mobile CRM?

Posted on by • Posted in Resco Mobile CRM • Leave a comment

Corporate CRM data about customers, contacts, orders, invoices, etc., is one of the main assets of every company. Abuse of this data can cause a huge damage to the company. That’s why the security plays an important role; especially when employees have the permission to access the corporate CRM from mobile devices.

Mobile devices as Smartphones and Tablets are truly great tools. We cannot imagine our lives without them anymore. They are very helpful for our personal, as well as business lives and many people use the same mobile device for both of these purposes. This scenario is already quite common at present time and I believe it will become a standard one in the future; when mobile phones or tablets completely replace current laptop and desktop PCs.

Nonetheless, mobile access to corporate data brings new risks companies have to deal with. A device can get easily lost or stolen. So a company must have a tool to protect it from an unauthorized usage.

We at Resco take this issue very seriously and have therefore just released a brand new module for Resco Mobile CRM – Enterprise Security. It is a combination of mobile app features and remote device management tool allowing admins to protect lost, or stolen, devices so that corporate CRM data will not end up in wrong hands. And a lot of the security measures can be applied even if the device has been disconnected from the internet.

Enterprise Security contains great functionality that is already available for our existing customers. But this topic has become one of our main challenges for the future of Resco Mobile CRM. So you can expect lot of improvements and new features. Our aim is to have top level Mobile Device Management (MDM), properly integrated with Mobile CRM application, so that the risk of CRM data misuse will be as minimal as possible.

To learn more about Resco Mobile CRM Enterprise Security go to

http://www.resco.net/mobilecrm/security.aspx

 

HTML5 Extensions in Resco Mobile CRM and Woodford 6.2 – A Proof of Concept

Posted on by • Posted in Mobile news, Resco Mobile CRM • Tagged , , , , , , , , • Leave a comment

As a true Resco enthusiast, I was excited when they released the spring upgrade for their Mobile CRM in early April. The new HTML5 Extension feature accessible through its standard design and configuration tool Woodford challenged me in particular. I could hardly wait to get back to work from my Easter vacation and start doing a proof of concept of this new functionality.

What I did was duplicating a matrix report I programmed earlier for CRM 2011. This report, available in online as well as Outlook offline mode, presents sales information for a particular customer. It shows monthly sales over the past 4 years grouped by product family with a total column for each year. To realize this, I used an HTML page, jQuery, jqGrid, images and some CSS.

I started the project copying the CRM 2011 web resources and I assumed I would need to substitute just the data access portion of the code, nothing else – and that actually was it!

Neither CRM 2011 nor Resco Mobile CRM’s Java Script Bridge (JSBridge.js) contain a functionality that would allow me to get a Matrix Report result directly through the Fetch Query. Therefore, I need to execute two read cycles, the first for the columns and the second for the report rows. Once the data is available, I just build up the result array and then initialize the jqGrid. The JSON data type returned by the Fetch functionality of JSBridge was of great help here.

Well, a lot of computing cycles to run through, but the result was very satisfying from a performance and the look and feel perspective. To elaborate about 2000 rows of data and present it in the Grid takes 3 seconds on an iPad 2 device, less than 2 seconds using the Windows 7 Tablet Edition of Resco Mobile CRM, remarkable, isn’t it?

Matrix report elaborated on the client using local data

Fig. 1. Matrix report elaborated on the client (iPad 2) using local data.

Note that the right pane with the result can be magnified to full screen, the grid is scrollable with frozen headers and columns and allows column sorting, cute, right? And don’t forget: it works on iPad/iPhone, Android Phone and Tablet, Windows Phone 7, Windows 8 and Tablet Edition without changing a line of code, amazing!

My proof of concept was a big success. I am convinced that now we can build whatever customization needed to complete the functionalities of Resco Mobile CRM using this HTML5 Extension tool. I imagine use cases like process driven tasks, reporting based on local data and complex data entry like quotes, orders or configurators.

From my point of view, the necessity to use Resco Mobile CRM Studio for complex customizations is decreasing dramatically thanks to this new HTML5 Extension built into the standard app and Woodford.

Great job Resco Team!

What do the most curious customers ask about Mobile CRM?

Posted on by • Posted in Mobile news • Tagged , • Leave a comment

I used a rather lame headline just to grab your attention. It seems that I have succeeded. At least so far:) Throughout some time I’ve heard plenty of questions from our customers about our Mobile CRM product. Lot of them are answered already on our website but not all of them. Some of them are interesting, some of them not and some of them will make you think for a while. Here they are: Continue reading →

HTML5 and Mobile CRM

Posted on by • Posted in Mobile news, Resco Mobile CRM • Tagged , , , , , • 1 Comment

HTML5 is a quite hot topic in the current IT world, especially in a mobile, very heterogeneous environment with several mobile platforms available. And since every mobile platform provides different developer tools and technologies, native apps development causes a lot of challenges and usually means doing the same job by several different developer teams with different technologies, where only a small portion of the source code can be shared.

On the other side, HTML5 is platform independent, so the same HTML and JavaScript code can be reused across all platforms. At first sight, it looks like a great solution. But is it ready for real business scenarios such as Mobile CRM?

Resco has been dealing with HTML5 technology for some time now; and it looks like a promising choice to consider specifically for our Mobile CRM product. Currently there are three scenarios for Resco Mobile CRM& HTML5:

  1. Native app – is the current mobile application, which is being used by all our existing customers and is available in all app stores or marketplaces under the name Resco Mobile CRM. The performance of the app is very good in online as well as offline mode, and the entire UI is very responsive. The app is developed on .NET developer platform, allowing the sharing of most of the source code across supported mobile platforms. Anyway, there are also platform dependent parts that have to be solved individually. The whole development environment is quite complex and requires advanced developer skills of .NET and C# programming language.
  2. Hybrid app – is also a native app which runs some parts of its UI in an embedded browser component. From a user’s prospective, native and HTML parts of the UI can look and behave very similar. The main problem can be the performance. From our experience, we see that this solution works fine only on newer devices (iOS 5+, Android 4+). On older devices, the user can face quite slow response while working with the HTML5 UI. With Resco Mobile CRM, we have two strategies how to provide the hybrid app.
    1. HTML5 extensions – is already supported and allows extending the current native app by new HTML5 based UI. This new UI can load/save local CRM data thanks Resco JavaScript Bridge. This scenario can be used for example for building special reports or alternative views with editing capabilities. There are several cases where this technology has been already used.
    2. Full HTML5 UI – is a new native app that consists of native data layer and whole UI implemented with HTML5 and JavaScript. For this purpose, we created a new application with limited functionality, mainly for demo purposes. It is available on app stores under the name Resco Mobile CRM HTML [ZF1] . We keep improving this new app with new UI/functionality and we plan to have the full version ready by the end of 2013.

    Big advantage of both scenarios is that HTML5 parts can be developed/ customized by well-known web technologies and the same source code can be reused across all mobile platforms. You can find more info about this topic at http://www.resco.net/mobilecrm/html5.aspx

  3. HTML5 app – is a browser based app running HTML5 and JavaScript code only. Although there is a support to provide offline data capabilities, the possibilities and performance of such data layer would be questionable. Moreover this technology restricts the app from using phone features such as embedded camera, microphone, or built-in PIN data such as calendar, contacts… So there are quite significant disadvantages of this solution and I believe that we should be patient and wait at least 1-2 years until HTML5 and related technologies will be ready for real business scenarios.

What happens when we look at things from new perspectives? Extras are born!

Posted on by • Posted in Mobile news, Resco Mobile CRM • Tagged , , , , , • Leave a comment

Less than a month has passed since the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona greatly inspired us to develop something new, unusual. So we looked at our Mobile CRM from different angles. Ideas bubbled up to the surface (not the tablet) and the best ones are now here as these Extra modules:

EnterpriseSecurity
Boost the security of the Mobile CRM to the maximum with Enterprise Security.
Protect the business data with a wide selection of enterprise-class safety measures:

  • Remote Wipe-Out of data from the application
  • Session Time-Out that locks the app
  • Session Time Table and GPS Fencing restricts users to work within a given time period or location only
  • Session Speed disables the app when the device moves at speed over a predefined limit
  • Kiosk Mode – enables users to use nothing but the Mobile CRM app on the mobile device

UserAudit
Want to keep an eagle eye on mobile users? Now you can.
Track when & where the mobile users:

  • view, create or update data
  • synchronize the application
  • launch and exit the software
  • actually use Mobile CRM app

CustomerInteraction
Why should companies have an application for their customers? Easy. It is a great way to interact with customers, manage loyalty programs, and, as a result, see their customer retention grow.
Companies can let customers:

  • know about their nearest locations, services or special deals
  • obtain sale vouchers or news
  • actively communicate via chat wall
  • point out things that need improvement and praise what they like

Example of CustomerInteraction app

The Extras are introduced and showcased today at Microsoft’s Convergence 2013 conference. If you’re there between March 18th and March 21st , be sure to touch base with us at booth #750 in Expo Hall.

Resco launches Mobile CRM for any CRM/ERP

Posted on by • Posted in Mobile news, Resco Mobile CRM • Tagged , , , • Leave a comment

Here at Resco, we understand that CRM/ERP market is becoming increasingly diverse. Capterra places MS Dynamics CRM on fifth position in recently published rank of most popular CRM. It was outran by Salesforce, Sage, SAP and Zoho. Not all popular systems, however, have a solid mobile client.

any crm

We have put our heads together and took the best out of the vast experience we have with Microsoft Dynamics CRM to bring you a mobile application that fits any CRM/ERP back-end. It extends the usability of our popular Mobile CRM app for Microsoft Dynamics CRM to other CRM/ERP back-ends and, this way, significantly widens our product portfolio. Mobile app remains visually unchanged. The new part of the solution is the integration server component that acts as a bridge between the mobile CRM app and any CRM/ERP system. For more information about the product, go to http://www.resco.net/mobilexrm/.

The new solution can be installed on client´s or partner´s premise and newly run also in Resco Cloud! The cloud itself can also serve as an independent Mobile CRM client.

You can already try it out for free.

For technical details on the new solution, please take a look at Mobile CRM Server Guide.

We are working hard to improve it and reflect various needs you have. We would therefore love to hear your ideas.

Microsoft is going to nail mobile Dynamics CRM!

Posted on by • Posted in Mobile news • Tagged , , , , • 1 Comment

These are the rumors that I just got from some sources. I immediately said to myself: “Here we go again”. In February 2012 Microsoft announced that they will deliver Dynamics CRM on virtually ANY mobile device in Q2 2012. These plans didn’t work out and Microsoft delayed the mobile support from Q2 2012 to Q4 2012. Unfortunately this again didn’t work out. Now Q2 2013 is approaching and Microsoft is back again with its new plans to nail the mobile Dynamics CRM.
The new mobile client should have offline capability but not in next release, probably in some day in the future. It should have support for custom entities but again probably in some day in the future. It should have support for business logic – you can guess it already – in some day in the future. And it will support only Windows 8 devices.

So this is the magic strategy of Microsoft that is going to nail the Mobile CRM. Really?

You can have:

  • offline and online capability
  • without any middleware
  • supported on iPhone, iPad, Android Smartphone, Android tablet, Windows Phone 7 and 8, Windows 7, 8 and RT and Windows Mobile
  • interactive maps with navigation
  • activity feeds
  • you can scan barcodes
  • take pictures with your device in the field and attach them to the service cases for instance
  • iframes
  • GPS tracking and audit of employees
  • integration with phone
  • wipe-out the database which is encrypted by default
  • + much more

You can have all these now with Resco, a company that helped over 3700 companies to create mobile enterprise applications for over 14 years. Or you can wait for Microsoft which might come some day in the future with offline capability and support for custom entities on Windows 8 devices.