CSX Intermodal using CRM software with handhelds

Computerworld - Air2Web Inc. yesterday announced software called 2CRM for making wireless connections to existing CRM applications.
Such wireless extension products are becoming more commonplace, analysts said.
CSX Intermodal Inc. in Jacksonville, Fla., said last week that it has been an early adopter of 2CRM, first implementing it in May, and has found it to be the most robust and flexible of several products it considered.
CSXI is using 2CRM to connect about 500 independent truck drivers to a trucking operations center in Jacksonville, so they can communicate when a shipment has arrived and obtain information on future loads for shipment, said Misty Skipper, a CSXI spokeswoman.
The 2CRM application runs on Research In Motion Ltd. BlackBerry handhelds, with data sent over wireless networks from several carriers, Skipper said. "Using the BlackBerry means the driver doesn't have to wait on the phone, which could be 20 minutes, and in a lot of areas, they don't even have cell phone access," she added.
The software will save and forward the outgoing information that a driver inputs until he has driven to where a wireless signal is available, Skipper said.
"It's really an easy process," she said. The system has been running long enough that CSXI is able to say that it's definitely saving drivers time and that it has also led to more accurate information being passed to dispatchers. "Sometimes things are lost in translation in a phone call," she said.
The intermodal transportation company evaluated several vendors providing similar software, but found Atlanta-based Air2Web's offer to be the lowest cost and also the most flexible, given 2CRM's ability to interoperate with different cellular carriers and hardware devices, she said. Also, 2CRM was able to interoperate easily with features within CSXI's field force application.
CSXI wouldn't disclose its costs or the names of the competing vendors whose products it evaluated.
Warren Wilson, an analyst at Summit Strategies Inc. in Boston, said that while there might be a group of 100 small vendors making software products to provide wireless access to field force workers, Air2Web's 2CRM is more flexible and robust than other applications he has seen.
Wilson said that field force wireless connections to enterprise applications have been under way for several years, but that vendors such as Air2Web are finally making money with them. "There are pilot projects, but this is a real revenue maker for Air2Web," he said.
Mark Emery, director of marketing at Air2Web, said one of its competitors is Xora Inc. in Mountain View, Calif.
Gartner Inc. analyst PhilipRedman said competitors also include IBM's Websphere, Extended Systems Inc., Intellisync Corp. and Syclo LLC.