Resco Mobile CRM Roadmap for 2016 This document outlines the priorities for next development of Resco Mobile CRM
Contents Mission Statement.... 3 Our Promise.... 4 Main Areas... 4 Mobile Application.... 4 Configuration.....................................................................4 Server.... 4 Integration.... 4 Scenarios... 5 Product.... 6 Mobile Application... 6 Communication.... 6 Planning.... 7 Documents.... 8 Business Intelligence... 8 Platforms... 9 Configuration.... 10 Project Management.... 10 Dedicated Editors.... 11 Server.... 11 Integration.... 13 Microsoft Dynamics CRM.... 13 Features.... 13 Synchronization.... 13 Oracle CX.... 13 Features.... 13 Synchronization.... 13 Azure.... 14 Integration API.... 14
Scenarios.... 15 Sales.... 15 Service.... 15 Consumer Applications.... 15 Inspections.... 15 Afterword.... 16
Mission Statement Last year, Resco announced a goal for Resco Mobile CRM to become the ultimate tool for mobile business. The idea was to move beyond just viewing CRM data and provide an excellent, easy to use, visually appealing and full-featured tool for salespeople, service technicians, or anyone on the go. Simply, one app that will satisfy all the mobility needs of a business. This mission still holds. In fact, in the following years, the plan is to expand it even further. One of the biggest improvements will be the extension beyond Microsoft Dynamics CRM. In the following months, we will focus on making our mobile solution available for other types of backend systems, most notably Oracle CX. This will probably be one of our most important moves since the dawn of Resco Mobile CRM. Of course, that is not the only area we are going to invest in. We see more and more partners entering our ecosystem and we want to make their life easier by creating add-ons, which will eventually be offered via the central market place. More and more managers are working with and making decisions on a mobile device and, therefore, the area of business intelligence grows in importance. There are many use cases and scenarios that would benefit from broadening like field service, marketing, and inspections. And the list goes on... Even though we firmly believe in our goal, please note that this roadmap might be subject to change. There are two main reasons why this might happen. The first is the ever-changing and fast evolving mobile landscape. This forces Resco to constantly reconsider the plans, to adjust and adapt to new technologies, operating systems and challenges of the mobile ecosystem. The second and even more important one is Resco s close cooperation with partners and customers, who submit their requests, suggest new features, and hence affect the prioritization of tasks. We listen to and value our customers they push us forward and for that, we are very grateful. Since we want every single implementation of Resco to become a success, these are important impulses for our plans. Resco Mobile CRM Vision / 3
Our Promise One of the most important aspects of Resco Mobile CRM is the ability to provide the same feature set across all major mobile platforms. This way you can focus on the business needs and not on the platform specifics and mobile development. Therefore, we are always on the lookout for the newest technologies, operating systems, and mobile devices. We want and need to have these covered before you even realize you need them. So, be it the latest ipad, a new Android phone, or an entirely new mobile platform or a wearable, we will be working hard to have Mobile CRM available there as soon as possible, so you can count on Resco that whatever new and latest technology you adopt, we will be there. That is our promise. Main Areas Mobile Application There are several areas of our mobile application that will get most attention in the following months. Within communication, we will focus on email (templates, data mining) and instant messaging (audio/video chat ). On the planning side, we ll enhance the Calendar (Google, MS Exchange support) and Route Planner (plan for other users, optimize routes). As documents are gaining on importance, we ll make sure you can easily edit them (open in MS Word and save back), write rich notes (HTML editor), or find the document you are looking for (in a special directory for files, or via a dialog windows for opening and saving files). A big investment will be made into mobile reporting (generating reports offline, create PDFs, MS Word files) and exports (export records as MS Excel file). Business intelligence grows in importance so we ll bring more charts (stacked, map) and look at data predictions. On the platform side, we ll look at security (fingerprint scanner on Android, Hello on Windows 10) and voice control (voice commands, voice data entry). Configuration Woodford is ready for a new round of updates. On the Project Management side, we are enhancing the project hierarchy (multiple parent projects, granularity), we are also thinking about creating a marketplace for our partners (to offer their customized solutions) and first-level support (synchronization error console in Woodford). We want to create more editors beyond Woodford (Consumer Apps Creator and Inspection App Creator) and expand the API (more form rules operations). Server As Resco Mobile CRM got enriched with a server, we are enhancing its modules (service, marketing). We are looking closely at extensibility (workflows & plugins, synchronization, OData) and security (ADFS, OAuth2 and Azure AD authentication). Integration Integration plans are on multiple levels. For Microsoft Dynamics CRM, we want to tighten the integration (support for Calculated Fields, Product Hierarchy) and synchronization (use 2016 web services). For Oracle 4 / Resco Mobile CRM Vision
CX, we are preparing a Sales Module template and custom synchronization (connect from the app, Woodford-based mobile setup). We also want to develop a Resco Mobile CRM server virtual machine in the Azure Marketplace and use Azure AD Office 365 integration. Finally, we are opening up new possibilities by exposing OData web services, which can be used for all kinds of integrations and reporting services. Scenarios We are continuously enhancing the functionality for the sales scenario, as this is where Resco Mobile CRM is used the most. However, we are also looking at service (simple service modules) and consumer apps (dedicated wizards and editors). Often mentioned inspections are also on our list (non-woodford based editor). Resco Mobile CRM Vision / 5
Product Mobile Application Communication Communication was a key topic of 2015 for Resco and we have implemented a full-featured email client into Mobile CRM. There is still room for improvement, but this also opens the door for advanced features like data mining and intelligent email responses. We d like to improve the instant messaging capabilities in our app (with a server-side counterpart as well) with group chats, audio/video conversations, and much more. Besides that, the mobile app needs to communicate with other apps as well. Opening up our communication protocol for 3 rd party apps and commands is thus, on our agenda. Email Email is the workhorse of business communication these days. With an email client integrated into the mobile CRM application, you can now see all the important info in one app. And not just that you can reply to messages, forward them, attach files, or set up tracking within CRM. However, there is much more we want to offer. Starting with templates for quick email creation and better automatic signatures, continuing with server-side search and Gmail operations (Labels, Trash), up to the editor toolbar for easy text formatting and location sharing (inserting map directly into the email body). And there is, of course, the idea of intelligent data harvesting. To make email response easier and identifying important information in an email faster, we want to introduce data mining with automatic time & date detection, or any other type of typical data set required. Instant Messaging We see IM as a natural fit for mobile devices, especially when it comes to wearables. A simple notification delivered instantly can be a deciding factor between winning and losing, but might also save lives or make dramatic changes in costs and expenses. The main target of IM is user to user communication, where the messages can be delivered not only to co-workers but also as a part of customer service. Another great way to use IM is group communication, creating groups for teams, records, or just common interests. Including flexible data notifications in the IM flow enables users always to stay on top of their responsibilities. What we see as an underserved area is rich instant messaging customizable, structured QA Forms to be submitted by the recipient. Images and other attachments from CRM or cloud sources will also be supported in IM. We are also working on webrtc integration for Resco s chat, enabling audio/video communication directly via the mobile app. This should be now accessible on more platforms due to Microsoft s Edge webrtc support. 6 / Resco Mobile CRM Vision
Phone Tighter integration with the communication capabilities of phones is one of the most meaningful extension points. A simple feature such as caller identification based on CRM data, would make the day-to-day life of many users much more enjoyable. Of course, this will be only available on platforms which support call screen integration. Inter-App Communication Resco Mobile CRM does not have to be the only app in a company s mobile ecosystem. Sometimes, even the need to exchange data between our app and the other apps arises. Therefore, we are looking at expanding the possibilities to do so, using URL schemas and similar approaches. The plan is to add the option to open up the Resco app via a URL, send data to consume (probably in JavaScript), define custom actions, and even URLs to call back once finished. This should make switching to and from Resco Mobile CRM a seamless experience. Planning Being mobile means being on the road. And that requires maps. And a good plan. Scheduling, especially the Calendar, is the bread and butter feature of the mobile app. Last year, we added the long-awaited Route Planner, which has a lot of extensibility potential that we are going to explore in the future. Calendar Currently, the Calendar in Resco Mobile CRM with its nice drag & drop scheduling, can be used for all activity entities, which is all good, but we ve seen some custom implementations where the calendar is required to show other types of entities like Opportunities or Orders. We ll add these and also the option to flip any list to a calendar-like view. Thus, you will be able to add it to your dashboard or see one Calendar view for a whole group of people. Besides that, since we already have support for Google and MS Exchange, we want to make these data sources available in the Calendar, with standard features like inviting attendees via an email and recurring appointments. Route Planner Route Planner has been rolled out at the end of last year with much ado, and we already got some ideas on how to enhance it. The obvious candidates were planning for other users and more options to optimize the route itself. However, we found other intriguing possibilities we d like to explore: server-side components, progress visualizations (in app and back office) as well as API for custom event handling or automatic notifications. Map We know that our users spend a lot of time on the road, thus, we want to work on assisting with the actual travel. The plan is to integrate OpenStreetMaps and deliver navigation and travel duration help right from the app itself. Local weather information will be provided in more places out of the box. We want to help you organize your travel and keep up with changing road and flight conditions. To enable this, Resco Mobile CRM Vision / 7
we are investigating integration options with services like TripIt. Tracking expenses as you move and planning for multiple users are also features we see as a natural fit for Mobile CRM. Documents Documents are first-class citizens in the mobile world and their importance only grows. We want to build on the already great support for different kinds of documents and binary data in our application with editing, better support for many data sources already available, and offline reports and exports. Editing One of the use cases we want to focus on is the document roundtrip which in simple terms means opening a document from Mobile CRM in e.g. Microsoft Word, edit it there and save it back. Another feature that s often requested is signatures with headers so the users can see what kind of data/document they are signing. We see a lot of potential in enriching the notes with HTML support, embedding images and free-hand drawing to truly enable the users to quickly capture their thoughts or meeting minutes. A next logical step would be to integrate it afterward with services like OneNote. Sources Currently, the documents are scattered throughout the application. Locating one particular document to send it, attach to a record, or simply view it, might not be the easiest task. We can solve this with a special File Directory in the home section, where all the files would be readily available. Similarly, we ll add an Open Dialog Window that will show all files from various sources (notes, emails, SharePoint ) and a Save Dialog Window, offering the possibility to save the document in the desired location with less clicks.the idea of sharing just a link for a document over email, with some access control (time, password, etc.) also makes a lot of sense. Reports Required for many mobile scenarios, mobile reports available offline are one of the top priorities for Resco. We want to provide a tool for creation of report templates that can be afterward run on a mobile device even without connectivity. The result will be a full-fledged report in one of the common file formats (PDF, MS Word, MS Excel, HTML. ) which can be viewed afterwards, printed, sent via email, or copied. The report could be available for a single record or multiple, including additional records and even signatures or pictures. Export On top of this, the idea of data export seems to be appealing to many customers. We want to bring the option to export full views or only selected records as static MS Excel files. Additionally, we want to explore export as a live MS Excel file with embedded server OData query. Business Intelligence BI is another area that opens up with the increased use and adoption of Mobile CRM and mobility in general. Simply put, since more and more work is done on mobile devices, the need to make well-informed decisions based on charts, reports, and prediction data is necessary. Charts Charts are the core of every business intelligence application. We are going to introduce more chart types for an easier overview of the underlying data like stacked bar or column charts or map charts showing the data 8 / Resco Mobile CRM Vision
distribution over maps of specific areas (e.g. how many customers do I have in this region ). This should bring more flexibility, but also more interactivity with the data using dedicated drill-down and filtering options. We also want to give the user the ability to create a custom chart on the go, so we ll bring down the chart design component to the mobile app. This way, there won t be any need to call the admin if the user wants to visualize the data in one way or another. Dashboard On a similar note, we want to give the user the ability to create custom dashboards directly in the mobile app. Besides private views and charts, the user will be able to create a private dashboard showing a quick overview of the CRM information that is vital in the day-to-day job. Predictions The ability to see accurate predictions might be the key feature of the future. With our approach to bringing you features you don t even know you need yet, we want to invest in this area as well. This would mean analyzing the existing data sets and coming up with predictions for the future based on different algorithms. This can mean something as simple as predicting what kind of product is a customer likely to purchase based on previous orders and can build up to something as complex as predicting the overall sales results of a company. Platforms Compliance with the latest devices and technologies is a top priority for Resco. We always want to utilize the full potential of the mobile hardware and software available on the market when it comes to areas like security, voice controls or OS integration. Security Mobile security is a crucial topic these days. The current hardware offers more options on how to keep your data secure which includes the fingerprint scanner on new Android devices, and Hello face recognition on Windows 10, both of which we plan to utilize in our app. We are also looking at MDM solutions, as we want to help our customers to simplify the process of enrollment with dedicated Resco tools. Another layer of business security can be achieved with Geo-fencing, which would enable or disable certain features or even the whole application based on a user s location. Voice Control To simplify the control of the application when hands are busy which seems to be (not surprisingly) quite common among the mobile workforce, especially in field services and similar areas we will integrate voice control over Resco Mobile CRM. This means voice commands and application navigation, as well as voice data entry and OS integration when the application is launched via a voice command ( Mobile CRM create an Appointment, (date) Today, (with Subject) Launch meeting ). Of course, utilizing and integrating with Cortana, Google Now on Tap, and Siri, is on the map. OS Integration We want our app to be an integral part of your mobile device and operating system. Since the operating systems bring more and more options on how to integrate some of the app features with the system, we are investigating options like call screen integration (recognizing the caller based on CRM data) or device search (where CRM data will be a part of the results). Also, Resco Mobile CRM Widgets (like Calendar or Chart) are on the radar. Resco Mobile CRM Vision / 9
Additionally, opening up push API to execute JavaScript Bridge actions on specific push notifications would make sense in many scenarios and has been requested a lot. Also, a global search would simplify searching for that one customer or contact you need right now. Smart Glasses & Wearables? Wearables might be the future. We keep a close eye on these technologies with the first versions of our app already available. Configuration We like to believe that configuring Resco Mobile CRM is easy. Although, we understand that there are still many challenges ahead. One of the main challenges is the size and complexity of mobile projects. Long gone are the days, when mobile apps were simple, one-task tools. Today, the projects have considerable size, long history and multiple people working on them. That is why we would like to offer more tools to administrators, IT professionals, and partners who create and configure the solution. One of the areas not mentioned below, is stepping away from Microsoft Silverlight as the underlying technology of Woodford. This is a must-do, and in the forthcoming months we will take a look at what s under the hood. Project Management The first and foremost area is project management. Here, we ll take a closer look at derived/child projects, tools for partners, expanding the API, and support. Derived Projects We have already introduced the project hierarchy which we believe can significantly reduce the time and costs associated with maintaining projects. Now, it is the highest time to do some fine tuning. For example, deriving a project from multiple parents or increasing the granularity of the changes in child projects are a good start as well as visualizing of overridden and not modified elements. Partners The idea of base projects, from which you can derive others, leads to the idea of creating a marketplace for partner-created add-ons. This way, a partner can create a base solution for their vertical or area of expertise that can be offered to customers via dedicated Resco Partner Add-on Marketplace. Then, customers can build on top of those, with the core areas of the base project will be locked, so no unwanted modification can t be performed. We would also like to offer Woodford in different languages to make the customization process more straightforward even for non-english speaking users. Expand API We know that there is always a place for more flexibility, more extensibility, more areas in which you can configure and customize in Woodford. Of course, we are going to add them gathering them from the partner and customer requests as they come but we are also going to enhance e.g. the form rules and their operations. 10 / Resco Mobile CRM Vision
Support The support of mobile projects has also grown to be a complex matter. We understand that it is why we are going to unify and simplify error messages during synchronization and give the opportunity to provide custom texts. We want to create a new section in Woodford, where the support department would see the synchronization status of all the devices that are connecting to a specific organization, see all the errors that occurred and possibly also submit them directly as a support ticket to Resco. Dedicated Editors There are certain scenarios where a dedicated editor (rather than a general Woodford configuration tool) would be helpful. We have two in mind consumer/customer applications and inspection scenarios, where we would like to prepare a more specialized editors or creators for a quicker and fine-tuned setup. Consumer App Creator Creating consumer apps apps for customers outside the organization rather than internal employees that is is a specialized process. Usually, it consists not only of designing the application s logic, but also of heavy branding and custom images. We can simplify this process by creating an automatic tool, where artwork would be just uploaded and it would convert and scale images as needed. Also, it would offer a way to include the sample data (starting data set) and a preview of the app. Inspection App Creator Inspections are a well-known topic for Resco and our customers. We have already improved the UI elements and components to better approach this scenario, but now, we want to focus on the process of creating these kinds of applications. We will take a look at data-defined wizards for lists of questions and answers, a virtual entity (in app only) that would represent the questionnaire/inspection data and corresponding virtual form and list that can be loaded and saved from JavaScript Bridge all this to make the design of inspection-like app a piece of cake. Server As the new business strategy of Resco is to provide mobile app and a server-side solution for the price of one license, for everyone, and within one product, you can expect a lot of improvement in the area of Resco CRM server. We see three main topics of focus: modules, extensibility, and security. Modules Currently, our server comes preconfigured for sales scenarios. Even though you can customize it for any other scenario or requirement, it might be beneficial to have other scenarios preconfigured as well, as modules. We are going to create and prepare entities, projects and default operations for two other big areas Service and Marketing. And, as was already mentioned, since Business Intelligence is extremely important, we are going to invest in data-mining API. Extensibility The days were the customers had only one computer system are long gone. Today, a typical company uses a multitude of systems interconnected and integrated together. We understand this and therefore, have on our agenda workflows & plugins for dedicated business logic and easier integration. Connection setup to 3rd party servers for import/export and sync is also a necessity. Resco Mobile CRM Vision / 11
We also want to take a look at simplifying the management of multiple environments and moving the changes from Development to Test to QA to Production Environments. Security As with the mobile application, also with the server, we don t take the matters of security lightly. Two-factor authentication for the server access, additional user management and client certificates, support for ADFS, OAuth2 and Azure AD authentication, are all on our agenda. 12 / Resco Mobile CRM Vision
Integration Most likely, the main topic for the upcoming months at Resco will be the integration. The idea is to open up our mobile app not only to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, but to other types of back-end systems as well. We ve been hearing these types of requests for quite some time now and decided to do something about it. We will enrich our integration with MS Dynamics CRM, introduce our integration plans for Oracle CX, and throw in some Azure support for good measure. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Supporting MS Dynamics CRM is our top priority and that s not going to change anytime soon. Therefore, we know we must make our integration even tighter, focusing on the new features of new versions of MS Dynamics CRM and improving the synchronization process. Features With Dynamics CRM 2015 and 2016 we ve seen new features like Calculated Fields, Product Hierarchy, and Localizations which are waiting for their implementation in Mobile CRM. We also want to provide at least a basic service module and offer it as one of the starting project templates. Synchronization The need to make the synchronization as good as possible is obvious for our mobile app. Now, the new Web Services in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 can make the synchronization process faster and safer, and we could also update the status or owner in one step (instead of two). Finally, we want to simplify the conflict detection and resolution. Oracle CX Based on a first handful of customers, we decided to focus our attention specifically on one type of a back-end system first: Oracle CX. Here, we are only at the beginning of our path and there are certain features and intricacies of synchronization we want to tackle in the following months. Features As one of the first steps we see creating a fully functional Sales Module that will be tailored to match a Sales Cloud schema, data, terminology, and UI of Oracle CX. This will make starting a mobile sales project as simple as it is with MS Dynamics CRM the starting point would be a complete mobile sales application that just needs a bit of careful customization. Synchronization We expect that with Oracle CX it won t be that straightforward and direct as it is with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, yet, we want to make this process as simple and easy as possible. The goal is to be able to connect from the app to the Sales Cloud and, in the background, create the Resco Mobile CRM proxy server automatically. Resco Mobile CRM Vision / 13
This process should be complemented by Woodford-based, enhanced mobile setup just select Sales Cloud tables to surface within the mobile app (similarly as you do with MS Dynamics CRM now). Azure Our goal with Azure is to provide a preconfigured Azure Virtual Machine with Resco CRM server in the Azure Marketplace. This should significantly simplify the whole setup process and, when complemented with Azure AD Office 365 integration, user import, authentication and licensing, integrating Resco CRM server into the existing architecture should be notably easier. Integration API To make integration more standard and to be able to use standard integration and reporting tools like Scribe or Microsoft Excel we are going to provide OData web services. This way, there is no need to build on top of custom Resco web services, you can use existing tools (or build custom ones) that utilize this standard. 14 / Resco Mobile CRM Vision
Scenarios Resco Mobile CRM is used in many scenarios some of them are easier to achieve than others. The Mobile Sales scenario has been the core of our app for long, but it s time to take a look also at other types of use cases. Sales The sales scenario has been covered pretty well, but that doesn t mean there isn t space for improvement. Continuous enhancement is the plan here, as most of the features outlined in this document provide evidence for it. Service With services, we want to start with a simple service module that would contain Work Orders (Service Activities) which are generated out of a specified set of Work Order Templates. A template can contain one or multiple Work Order Tasks, Products or Services which can be later used for Invoice generation. Consumer Applications The option to leverage Resco s technology and build tailor-made applications for end customers, connected to MS Dynamics CRM directly, is already available. This creates the most straightforward and intermediate way for companies to inform their customers about new products, gather their feedback or simply communicate while all data is still stored and available in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. We will enhance our tools to handle this task better be it better control over the visual aspect of the application, better means to create a completely tailor-made app or even a WYSIWYG editor for certain design aspects. Also, we will focus on making the branding process creating a branded application with custom icons and splash screens on different mobile app stores as easy as possible with a dedicated tool. Finally, we want to provide sample apps, for example for a restaurant or an event. Inspections Setting up an inspection in Resco Mobile CRM was a custom work, performed by the partner using all the customization potential of Woodford, aligning with the requirements of each particular. However, since the core of the work was almost always the same, we ve seen a high demand to make this functionality easily and intuitively available. During last year, we have created the main building blocks of the necessary inspections UI like editable lists and dynamic form items. Now, we ll focus on the definition and configuration. The definition doesn t have to be necessarily in Woodford, but in an editor of its own. We also want to simplify the way how you can define UI using data (records) and create an extensible data model. Resco Mobile CRM Vision / 15
Afterword The years spent building Mobile CRM have been very busy, but also very rewarding. What started as a simple application, has grown into a powerful tool with almost unlimited customization options. In the next few years, we want to move our solution to the next level, building the ultimate mobile business tool. We hope that you will accompany us on the way. 16 / Resco Mobile CRM Vision