Background:

Our CRM software contains a huge list of contacts that are only available from within the software application.

Problem:

It becomes a challenge when a sales team member is out of the office (on the road) and needs a customer’s phone number or email address.  It is typically not feasible to boot up their laptop, connect to the Internet and lookup the contact.

Solution:

The solution was to create a simple Blackberry application that will allow the team member the ability to lookup a contact against our CRM software’s database.  From their Blackberry, they would then be able to call any of the listed phone numbers for the contact or send them an email.

Result:

I created a small Blackberry application designed using the Blackberry Plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio.  The applications allows the user to search by name or company (or both).  The application then submits the search request to the Blackberry Enterprise Server, which then uses a web service that I created to search against our CRM database which is a SQL Server 2005 database.
Once the results are returned, you then have the ability to call any of the listed numbers, email, or add them to your Blackberry address book (which will in turn add them to your Outlook address book).
Overall basic program, but can be a lifesaver when out of the office.