The ultimate mobile business app revealed in IFS study

A global IDC study, sponsored by IFS, the global enterprise applications company, reveals the top-three mobile business apps on company wish lists. Having polled more than 450 C-level executives worldwide, there is no doubt the most wanted mobile functionality is: CRM.

The study shows that the top-three business apps companies would like on their smartphones are:

1. Customer relationship management (CRM) — 31 per cent of companies indicate CRM (e.g. management of sales, contracts, activities, and opportunities) is the mobile business app that would most significantly impact their business.

2. Business Intelligence (BI) — 13 per cent of the respondents favored BI capabilities, for example KPIs and reporting.

3. Approvals and Authorisations — 10 per cent chose functionality such as approval of requisitions, purchase orders, and supplier invoices as the most wanted business app.

“It is interesting to note the level of unanimity among the companies in the survey,” said Martin Gunnarsson, director of IFS’s Research & Strategy team. “In other words, customers know exactly what they want when it comes to mobile functionality. At IFS, we use customer feedback and this type of market research as the basis for development, which has resulted in a number of apps such as the IFS Sales Companion, IFS Quick Reports, and IFS Notify Me.”

Furthermore, the survey reveals that mobile customer care/sales, integrated with the company’s CRM system, are the key focus for investments in the future.

Commenting on the survey result, IDC Program Director Jason Andersson said: “Ensuring a competitive advantage and enabling an even more productive workforce that gets access to correct data, even when they are on the move, is a critical success factor in the future and a major focus for mobility solutions. Mobility and mobile data solutions are part of the core foundation for ICT industry growth up to 2020.”

Find out more about IFS and mobility at http://mobility.ifsworld.com.

IFS is a public company  founded in 1983 that develops, supplies, and implements IFS Applications, a component-based extended ERP suite built on SOA technology.