CDC Pivotal CRM Scales Mobility Solution by Embedding Titanium

CASE STUDY: CDC SOFTWARE

CDC Pivotal CRM scales mobility solution by embedding Titanium

Rapid mobile innovation powered by Appcelerator

INTRODUCTION

CDC Software is a $220 million hybrid enterprise software provider of on-premise and cloud solutions.

To realize CDC Software’s vision of “access democracy”—to give customers access to their data anywhere on any device—CDC Pivotal CRM initiated a next generation mobile strategy in April 2011. COMPANY CDC Software is a global provider of Based on Pivotal CRM customer feedback, it was clear that the tablet industry-specific enterprise software applications for CRM, ERP, Supply Chain was the ideal form factor for in-the-field CRM productivity. To kick- Management, HR and business analytics start user adoption, Pivotal started with the iPad. solutions.

APPLICATION CHALLENGES Pivotal CRM for iPad enables users to view, modify, search, and delete CRM information From previous mobile development experience, Pivotal recognized from wherever they are. Users have access several challenges to building a sustainable mobile strategy: to native iPad capabilities—location services, in-app camera, and social media—to facilitate their customer engagements and Leveraging in-house web development team update content in the field. Application delivery hinges on Pivotal’s ability to align application development with its release schedule. In-house development OBJECTIVE Maximize CRM capabilities by providing sales personnel with mobile access to Pivotal CRM information anytime, anywhere.

BENEFITS OF APPCELERATOR TITANIUM Customization by end user: Titanium supports Pivotal CRM’s highly customizable solution

Rapid prototyping: 2 weeks to release prototype to user group

In-house control: Control delivery schedule through in-house JavaScript development

Cross-platform and cross-product code efficiency:Plans to re-use code base for Android tablet app and CDC’s alternate CRM product, Saratoga CASE STUDY: CDC SOFTWARE ensures maximum coordination and fast turnaround, however Pivotal’s “The biggest issue with development team is focused on CRM, not iPad development. CRM is to achieve user

Enabling client-level customization adoption—having a In order to service customer organizations with unique and often great-looking app that’s complex business processes, Pivotal needed an open platform so easy to use on a sleek customers could customize the application to their internal processes. They also wanted to leverage the existing Pivotal Toolkit so that device like the iPad customers would not have to learn new skillsets. means more salespeople

Scaling cross-platform development will spend time In order to target multiple platforms, Pivotal needed a development inputting and accessing solution that drew from a common code base to let them focus on customer information evolving the user experience and feature set. that companies need to make important CHOOSING THE RIGHT DEVELOPMENT SOLUTION business decisions.” To create a “CRM everywhere” experience for sales personnel, Pivotal needed to develop native applications through a scalable process. NATHALIE THIBAULT, PRODUCT MANAGER, Before choosing Appcelerator Titanium, they investigated several CDC SOFTWARE development options.

Native: Too many skill sets required Pivotal wanted native application output, however native development would require new developers with different skill sets to target multiple platforms. Additionally, there would be no opportunity to scale development through cross-platform code reuse. CASE STUDY: CDC SOFTWARE

Web wrapper: Inferior native experience “Having a prototype Web wrapper development—web content in a native container— provided an opportunity to develop native output with their that customers could developers’ web skills. However, Pivotal wanted access to the full play with generated range of native features beyond the hybrid app feature set. demand for the app Server-based mobile solution: Black box development partnership before it was even fully Outsourcing native development presented the opportunity to formed. We received leverage end-to-end native development through a partner company. However it posed the danger of unpredictable release cycles for daily requests for the Pivotal, imposed additional server requirements on the customer, and production-grade app.” limited opportunities for customization. JENNY PENG, VP OF ENGINEERING, Appcelerator Titanium: Scalable native development solution CDC SOFTWARE Appcelerator Titanium’s cross-platform development solution provided the opportunity for flexibility and customization—core competencies of CDC Pivotal and CDC Saratoga CRM—through a platform “There are a million independent API and dynamically generated UI. possibilities with the Pivotal mobile app. DEVELOPING ON APPCELERATOR TITANIUM We allow our clients Rapid prototyping to customize their In April 2011, CDC built a prototype with Appcelerator to showcase at CRM experience to fit the CDC Pivotal & Saratoga CRM Galaxy Conference. Their goals for the prototype were twofold: their organization’s sales process in just a 1. Gain feedback about features that customers wanted 2. Create buzz around the upcoming app matter of days” JENNY PENG, VP OF ENGINEERING, CDC SOFTWARE CASE STUDY: CDC SOFTWARE

The prototype took two weeks to build on Titanium and catalyzed pre- “Access democracy sale interest through an engaging user experience. is our company’s Customization capabilities philosophy. We don’t By building on top of Appcelerator’s extensible platform, Pivotal want to restrict how gives customers access to system-level customization to tailor the application to their organization’s business processes and needs. users access data. With the Pivotal mobile Customers can drop in Pivotal modules or build their own on top of the base application, Pivotal Content Management, to optimize the app, users can access app to their organization’s sales process. Appcelerator Titanium’s and update contact dynamically updating UI makes it possible for Pivotal to determine information in and out which business objects to bring up for a client CRM instance without requiring recompilation or recoding. of the office, online or By modifying rules, triggers, and tables, customers can target alternate offline, on any device.” business processes such as marketing, support, and services. NATHALIE THIBAULT, Cross-platform and cross-product code reuse PRODUCT MANAGER, Pivotal’s Titanium integration has laid the foundation for a scalable CDC SOFTWARE mobile strategy across platforms and CRM products. After their iPad debut, CDC Pivotal CRM will extend to other devices such as the Android tablet. Simultaneously, customer organizations will be able to deploy their app to iOS and Android using Pivotal’s single administrative console and toolkit. CDC Software also plans to leverage the Pivotal CRM code base for their alternate mobile CRM product, Saratoga.

Appcelerator is the #1 Mobile Cloud Platform

Appcelerator is the leading enterprise-grade, cross-device mobile development solution on the market today. With over 1.6 million developers worldwide and 40,000+ cloud-connected mobile, desktop and web apps in the wild, Appcelerator is the largest publisher of applications in the iPhone App Store.

The company’s flagship offering, Appcelerator Titanium, is the only platform to enable fully native, cross-device development from a single codebase for iOS, Android, and Blackberry.

Appcelerator’s customers include NBC, PayPal, eBay, Orange, and Cisco. These companies develop their mobile applications on Appcelerator products so they can decrease time-to-market and development costs, increase customer adoption and revenues, and enjoy greater flexibility and control.

Download Titanium for free at www.appcelerator.com.