November 2, 2015
A partnership network also allows customers to test out various solutions before making long-term investments. Apttus, for instance, provides salespeople mobile access to configure, price, and quote (CPQ) tools that are designed to help speed up processes encountered at the end of a sale, and after a sale has been completed. Apttus charges for its services, but it also allows users to try out products in advance to see whether the tools are a good fit for them. "The vast majority of our app exchanges have a trial capability," Elliott Yama, associate vice president and business leader at Apttus, says. "Trialability is particularly important [to clients], especially when they want to understand the value of the product."
Access to updates is another appeal of these environments. Since many products are offered by subscription, companies often choose to give them frequent makeovers. This can be an effective attention getter. Danny Estrada, CRM practice director at Net@Work, pointed out in a presentation on mobile at this year's CRM Evolution conference that one way to get people interested in a mobile app is to update it, as people are attracted to "new toys."
WHICH APPS ARE HOT?
Every year, Bluewolf, a global Salesforce.com consulting firm, and the MIT Sloan School of Management release their State of Salesforce annual report. The newest survey, conducted in the second and third quarters of 2015, analyzed the activity of more than 1,500 customers using the AppExchange, which boasts 2,400 apps in total.
For salespeople, popular add-ons focus on document preparation, according to Corinne Sklar, chief marketing officer at Bluewolf, a global Salesforce.com consulting firm. Often, Sklar recommends that clients add functionality in the area of contract finalization and e-signatures with applications from the likes of Docusign and eSign.
