ShortCycles and its mobile capability help to reduce the amount of time sales personnel spend searching for information. We can also help new sales staff come up to speed faster. Coggins observed that industry studies have shown that the average sales person takes 18 months to become fully effective and that, on average, people leave for a new opportunity in the 19th month. If we reduce the ramp-up time by just one month, it will have a big impact across the company. He noted that ROI comes from both sales and marketing and that each feeds upon the other.
Marketing thus spends time answering the same question over and over again.
Coggins said that the Mobile module is the first step in the ShortCycles product road map that addresses offline access to critical sales information. We see this area as one we want to invest in further to enhance the mobile capabilities the system provides, including the ability to support wireless devices and the use of cell phones to get access to short documents. ShortCycles Net-Net documents, which give the three or four key bullet points on a topic, coupled with Context Map search technology, are the ideal foundation to tee up critical information via cell phones or handheld devices. Copyright 2001 Interex. All rights reserved.