Since piloting the devices last year, Reeves says the mobile team has been working with the salespeople to tweak capabilities and address their ongoing concerns. "We are constantly in change-management mode," he says.

For example, there used to be more than a dozen classifications of customer sales opportunities and two screens' worth of data to input data for each sales opportunity. Now there is one opportunity type that can be filled out - on just one screen. Salespeople can get what Reeves calls "quick links" on SAP CRM data on their BlackBerrys simply by clicking an icon. These quick links show critical data, such as each salesperson's sales by customer, open order statuses and customer complaints (which is important for a salesperson dropping in on a customer). Before the mobile deployment, when a customer asked to check on order status, the Dow Corning sales rep had to call into Dow Corning customer service operations, Reeves notes. Now the sales rep gets that in seconds on his BlackBerry. For Reeves, it all comes back to: "How much quicker can we get that responsiveness?"

In addition, the sales lead-generation process has been streamlined for salespeople on the BlackBerrys. Again, the quick links allow them to view critical lead information and input data that's tailored specifically to the mobile device's screen size, Reeves says. Using the SAP Portal technology, that lead generation data flows back into Dow Corning's CRM system "without a salesperson having to open up the CRM application," Reeves notes. So far, he estimates that the simplified lead follow-up via the mobile SAP application saves 15 to 30 minutes per lead and increases the likelihood for follow-up.

The enterprise vendors have certainly realized the importance of mobility and have increased their capabilities and offerings, says Fletcher. Shailesh Rao, vice president of product management at SAP, says, "Customers are demanding that every application vendor provide mobile access." Rao uses Dow Corning's situation as an example of the overall trend that CIOs need to realize. "It's not application-centric anymore; it's more scenario-based information access for mobile workers," he says. "We're not so much talking about the applications. I just want to provide the information the business users want and need the most-irrespective of where the information is coming from."

For any CIO starting out on a mobile endeavor right now, AMR's Fletcher offers these pieces of advice. First, before CIOs start any project, figure out what you want to happen at the end of the project, such as exactly what salespeople will get out of the new system and how long it will take to get payback on the rollout. "Know what your business case is and stick to it," he says. And second, don't forget the carrot with the stick: "You have to tell salespeople, 'You're going to start using this new CRM system, and you're going to be able to give better quotes to customers.' Or 'we promise to give you 40 new qualified leads every month-but you have to put that critical information into the system,'" he says.

At Dow Corning, Reeves says his salespeople now have a competitive advantage, but it's still early on in the transformation. "I have a lot of excitement at where we're at today and what's possible looking ahead," Reeves says. "But there's more work to do."