The BlackBerry smart phone is no longer just a mobile e-mail machine. It is on its way to becoming a full-fledged productivity tool that allows anytime access to enterprise applications.
A partnership between BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) and SAP has resulted in the integration of SAP's customer relationship management (CRM) application onto the BlackBerry device. More important, the mobile CRM application is only the first step in porting the entire SAP business suite onto the BlackBerry - which will occur within months, not years, SAP said.
The duo began working together in 2004, delivering at that time the ability for mobile workers to access SAP CRM using the BlackBerry device as a browser. The recent announcement, which enables the BlackBerry to natively support SAP CRM, changes the dynamic of the data from passive to proactive. Whereas, before, users would log in to get updates and then synchronize files when back at the desktop, now CRM comes to them.
"Sales users, for example, are automatically fed their leads when they get up to check their e-mail or calendar, or to review contacts and sales activities for the day," said Bill McDermott, president and CEO, SAP America, Asia Pacific & Japan, during a press conference in New York last month. "And they are doing it all within the confines of the BlackBerry device itself."