Advisory Paper: Giving Your Salespeople Mobile Access to Key Documents: Strategic Options
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Your enterprise salespeople are increasingly mobile. More than ever, they need access to collateral — brochures, presentations, contracts, pricing charts, and so forth — while on the move. How can you provide effective access to the latest documents for salespeople who aren’t tethered to your internal enterprise network?
It sounds like a simple question, yet from a functional standpoint, numerous key requirements emerge. Specifically, your salespeople may need to:
- Access the latest version of documents from outside the enterprise network using mobile devices
- Manage documents on the fly, including organizing folders and classifying documents
- Receive notifications when new versions become available
- Work offline, and synchronize across multiple desktop and mobile devices when connectivity becomes available
- Collaborate with others by sharing folders and files — including with customers
- Complete simple workflow tasks like document approvals
- Edit documents on suitable mobile devices
- Share sensitive documents (e.g., contracts and pricing) with prospects and customers
- Get remote access to files in ERP, document management, and digital asset management systems
- Participate in more complex workflows, such as multi-step, collaborative proposal packages
This is neither an exhaustive nor a simple list. Enterprise IT leaders face a potentially confusing set of alternatives when addressing these needs.
To be sure, salespeople are not the only employees who require these services, but their demand often proves the most acute, and as the point of your revenue spear, you’ll want to ensure that you meet their needs.
This paper evaluates four strategic options for your enterprise to address these needs.