The Design Language of Your CRM Solution, Part 4 - Different Shapes and Sizes

In the previous three parts of this article series I've discussed how the traditional management-focused design process of CRM systems is beginning to give way to a more user-oriented approach, where generating pull or even viral traction for the application is used as the strategy for achieving the desired business results. In this final chapter I'll take a look at how changes in the client hardware and software fronts can allow CRM to fully re-invent itself - and how the Microsoft Dynamics CRM team has just recently made strong statements aligning itself with some of these ideas.

Like many other business applications, CRM used to have a very physical presence inside the corporation. You launched a client application on your workstation and connected it to the server software located not necessarily very far away from the client. As the web browser capabilities evolved, the requirement of running a dedicated client app was soon lifted, but CRM still remained something that existed behind the corporate firewall and was utilized deliberately and as a distinct task, separate from the use of other applications.

Today we are surrounded by a continuously increasing collection of apps in the growing number of connected devices around us. The reason we are able to cope in such an environment with the same size brains we've always had is that the applications are becoming lighter. They load up within a couple of seconds and consume only a tiny bit of our mental capacity. At best you barely notice you're using them.

I can open up Foursquare ...