Introduction

I was going to blog about the new 2016 features of the mobile Dynamics CRM app as to counter my recent amount of “glorifying” posts on Resco Mobile CRM. But Resco’s acquisition this week is HUGE news in the mobile CRM world!

Let me introduce the main players in this acquisition…

CWR Mobility

CWR Mobility empowers mobile workers and organizations to become more insightful, agile, productive and customer-centered while reducing their cost and with great user-adoption. CWR has a background in enterprise mobility for more than 10 years and gained a rich experience in cross-platform enterprise app development, CRM, security, deployment, back-end integrations and brilliant user-interfaces. CWR was named Microsoft’s Partner of the Year for Mobility Business-to-Business Applications in 2011.

Resco

Resco, founded in 1999, is one of the global leaders in developing cross-platform mobile software solutions. Its Resco Mobile CRM — a mobile client for Microsoft Dynamics CRM — is currently used by more than 1100 corporate customers, with almost 50 000 licensed users around the globe. The team of Resco professionals continues to utilize its knowledge by designing products for corporate customers, developers, integrators and end users and today, Resco Mobile CRM can be also utilized as a mobile edge to other systems, such as Oracle Siebel, SAP and even as a standalone CRM system.

Why is this such big news?

Simple, because this means that the two biggest ISV’s in the mobile Dynamics CRM world will become one. Instead of competing against each other, they can now fully focus on taking on Microsoft’s free mobile Dynamics CRM app and extending its functionality into other CRM systems (besides Dynamics CRM, Siebel CRM and their own CRM).

“CWR has been in a healthy competition with Resco for several years, where both solutions had their specific pros and cons. From now on, customers, resellers, and integrators can buy one unified solution via one software company: RESCO,” says Cyril Vonken, CEO of CWR Mobility.

What will the future bring for CWR Mobility?

According to MS Dynamics World;

CWR Mobility’s team will transform to an IT services company and will continue to operate as an independent company. Their primary focus will be the implementation of mobile technologies, and says Stano “I see them as a vital Resco partner in the future, especially given their experience, know-how and skills.”

What will the future bring for the CWR app after the acquisition?

In contradiction with what The Hosk posted; “Now Resco has two different solutions to offer to customers and can share resources and possibly some development in the future.” I expect Resco to support the current CWR app for a certain time before removing it from the market, leaving their own Mobile CRM app as the preferred app for mobile clients . During this time I expect Resco to finish the acquisition, organizing both companies and harmonizing the two apps into one. This is supported by the article in MS Dynamics World;

Asked how the companies will harmonize their offerings, Stano said that “CWR’s and Resco’s products might look quite similar at least on the first sight. Technologically, the products are very different though. Frankly, our long-term plan is to consolidate the mobile offering from a marketing angle and provide one Mobile CRM solution fully based on the leading Resco technology.” He adds that CWR customers may rest assured that Resco will support CWR Mobile CRM for at least a year.

Moreover, this fits in Resco’s earlier announcement in which they announced that they will “harmonize its product lineup to offer a platform for complete mobile strategy“. It is becoming pretty clear that Resco is aiming for 1 robust, SUPER, app which will offer a huge amount of functionalities, independently of the back-end system.

“Our ambitions go beyond the Microsoft Dynamics CRM world now,” he says. “Based on our unprecedented position in Dynamics, we are actively approaching the remaining top three CRM providers (Oracle, Salesforce, SAP). We see Resco as a complete mobile strategy for businesses no matter what their back-end systems are. This is our top priority after the take-over.” – MS Dynamics World

When the acquisition is finalized, Resco’s customer base will climb to over 1500 businesses with almost 70,000 licensed mobile users. This will require some reorganization of both companies during the year in which they  will still support CWR Mobile CRM and they’ll prepare themselves for bringing the newly improved SUPER app. You can bet that we’ll see full support for the other three CRM providers in a year or two.

Finally, a last word of opinion; This reorganization won’t be only on a CRM level or the app level, but rather on company level. CWR Mobile CRM has its own market, support and sales department which now has two possibilities, becoming obsolete or adapting the new way of work under the Resco flag. Trying to keep their biggest USP’s; bringing new functionalities and supporting them extensively will be a huge challenge for Stano and the Resco team.