CRM: What Is It and Why Do It?
Part One: Historical Background
Glen Petersen - November 8, 2004

Historical Background

Customer relationship management (CRM), a concept that has been around since the mid 90s, has its roots in the technology of sales automation and call center operations. At that time, it was thought that merging the customer data from the field (sales) with the call center interactions would result in more informed interactions with the customer. The concept resonated with user organizations and soon mergers and acquisitions created a host of software vendors all claiming to have an integrated set of capabilities that became known as CRM...