Wondering who is using a blackberry or iPhone type of device. And if they work with GM Dealerworld and R&R Contact Management.
Come on, anybody? I would like to find out before I start going through phones and service providers in an attempt to find one that does. Somebody must be able to say "I have a XXXX and it works with gm global connect" or "My XXXX does not work with gm global connect" any help would be greatly appreciated. I am not trying to sell anything, so feel free to respond.
AnyBody??? Really??? Two people only??? All I want to know is does anybody access and use GMDealerworld or GMglobalconnect on a smartphone? The dealership is finally getting one for the internet department and I want to make sure that I get one that works with the site. GM is no help when I called them, they said we can't support one brand or device over another. No matter how I asked the question they wouldn't answer. I use my current phone to notify me of my leads from R&R but I would like to respond to them from where ever I am at. HELP Please.
If you have a choice in smartphone, and the goal is to be able to use any online site I would go with the iphone right away. I dont have access to GMDealerworld or GMglobalconnect but I can tell you this: The I phone screen is bigger, the browser is faster and the company DOES NOT need a mobile compatible site to work well on the iphone. Depending on the browser of the smart phone some sites will only work if they are mobile compatible. The iPhone will work with the mobile compatible sites as well as the NON-Mobile compatible sites. I highly doubt GM has a mobile app, but regardless iphone will work and and has a higher probability of working on other sites because their browser, and screen is the best out there... IMHO.
PS I have had blackberries and now have an iphone and it is so far superior for surfing the web... its not a contest for me.
As a Internet Director, the only phone that I know to be compatible to any CRM software is the Blackberry and it's able to do a limited Salesforce application built for it. The iPhone is the same too.
I use my Blackberry with R&R Contact Management, but only to be notified of the emails.
iPhone only uses Safari browser for internet. Globalconnect offers only full support (if you can call it that) for internet explorer. No the iPhone will not run all your requests in Globalconnect. Specifically Order Workbench does not work. Does work with new Smartauction, not sure about R&R. We use Autosoft DMS as its only $695/mo with no contract.
wow - they dont support safari? Well I guess thats not entirely strange given the specifically targeted nature of their application, but still... kinda nuts. Glad you have personal experience with it and could correct me, although, I still swear by the iphone. Absolutely love it. (even though the blackberry keyboard was awesome for emails) thanks for the update.
You could try a Windows OS based smart phone. Since that uses Interet Explorer, you may be able to access your sites. If I were you, Id go to a cellular store and play with their "demo" models and find one that works for the sites you want it to. You'll either find one (or more) that do, or you'll find that none of them do. Either way, you'll know.
Thanks for the input. I was able to get my hands on an iPhone for a little bit to try it out on GM Globalconnect and it worked somewhat. The owner wanted it back before I had a chance to get on my contact manager. I know the apps are there for all the fun stuff on the iPhone, but I won't be using it for such. Work is work, play time is dedicated to the kids and I do my best to keep the two seperated. But at times it is necessary.
Shawn I think the iphone is the way to go. It is great for buisness because the internet is pretty fast!
Using any smart phone's web browser for a website that is designed for a regular computer will provide mixed results. Ideally if you need mobile accessible tools you will need to get software that was designed specifically for mobile usage. Vendors have to sometimes make a second version of their software just for mobile web use.
Here are some of the obstacles in trying to use a regular web application on a smart phone:
1. Flash, Silverlight, Java and other plugins
2. ActiveX controls that are IE only
3. Window sizes and other dialogs. A lot of web programs use different types of message dialog windows and pop up windows and those are designed for a certain size monitor size (ex. 1024 x 768) so they may not render and show correctly on a mobile device. So when you click SAVE for example the dialog that comes up to confirm it you may not be able to see correctly.
4. Input screens that use a lot of javascript or HTML input for sending an email (for example) may not work properly.
I use an iPhone and find that it works very well for basic browsing of the web and reading news type sites, but when trying to use it to access actual web applications sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
I would highly recommend the iPhone, Palm Pre, or Android phones because their browsers are the best. Blackberry and Microsoft Mobile browsers are awful.
Most phones also have applications available that allow windows remote desktop or other types of remote access programs (like gotomypc, logmein, VNC, etc) that can be used. These would allow you to remotely log in to your computer at work or home and use your desktop software like normal. It might be kind of hard on a small phone screen but it works.
Thanks,
Matt Watson
VinSolutions CTO
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