Analyst Insight: Given today's intensely competitive business environment, as well as consumers who are more informed and demanding than ever, it's imperative that companies develop customer-driven operations that create a distinctive experience through supply chain capabilities. Simply put, product/service features and pricing are no longer enough to meet customer expectations. And since customers in different segments often have very different needs, generic supply chain capabilities won't cut it. - Joseph S. Roussel; Global Operations Advisor, PwC; Brad Householder, Principal, PwC

Analyst Insight: CRM as we know it has been turned on its head, but its importance has never been greater. In the late 1990s, CRM systems such as Onyx and Seibel were state of the art and were built to better organize and capture the plethora of data that sales teams were creating. Through the internet, the ability to share data with large and diverse teams was unprecedented. Unfortunately, digital has changed this. CRM is no longer robust enough for today's demands, but its core value has never been more important. - Guy F. Courtin, Vice President & Principal Analyst, Constellation Research

At a time when businesses continue to expand their use of data, fifty-three percent of so-called customer experience executives do not use big data to improve strategy, according to a new survey by Consero Group.

Sales executives, managers and reps spend countless hours in forecast meetings, yet often find their actual closed revenue falls far from the mark they predicted. With the advanced CRM technology and sales forecasting tools available today, it's a wonder this trend continues.

The rise of the social web provides an abundance of opportunities to reach and engage with potential customers, but these added touch points muddy the waters when it comes to effectively tracking and monitoring your company's interactions with individual prospects.

Customer relationship management technology has evolved to support increasingly complex business needs. How do you find one that's right for you?

A European telecommunications company wanted to lower the cost of its customer service operations but worried about the potential loss of revenue from the cross-selling that its traditional call centers did so well. So-called e-care solved the problem.