In a previous posting I talked about some questions to ask yourself about your customers use of your SaaS application on mobile devices as a way to help understand how mobile fits into your SaaS business. It is clear that extending your application with mobile devices is a trend not only in SMB applications but also in Enterprise applications. At this point all of the major SaaS CRM providers have mobile devices as part of their solution. Many vertical industry solutions also have mobile as a key part of their solution particularly when it involves mobile workers.

Here are 5 Opportunities to improve your business to business SaaS solution using Mobile Devices.

1) Extend the use of your application to mobile workers. This is the approach that CRM providers have taken so that alerts, data input and customer information can all be available while traveling or at the beach.

2) Take advantage of the location/GPS functionality of a mobile device to provide location context information to your users. Many types of transportation and field worker applications could benefit from this functionality.

3) Most mobile device users are used to interfacing with their device using voice interactions. Providing basic voice input and output can make your application much easier to use. But just imagine the opportunities using “Siri – like” voice interactions with your application.

4) Making substantial use of the touch screen functionality is another way to make use of mobile devices. Although not necessarily the best approach for typing and editing; pointing, zooming and moving around a complex document can be much easier using this technology.

5)  Finally, there is the opportunity to really change the work process when a device like the iPad is totally portable and can be taken to the field. Transportation companies such as UPS and FEDEX have been using mobile technology for some time now. Other business such as construction, architecture, civil engineering and medicine all have good examples of how mobile SaaS applications have substantially changed the work process to make real-time, complex information available where ever and whenever it is needed.

These are some of the opportunities available when you think about your users using mobile technology to connect to your application. If you think about your application and how it could be used with mobile devices I think you’ll come up with some interesting ideas.

Paul