It seems as though you can hardly open a business or IT magazine without running across a vendor or company hyping customer relationship management (CRM). Unfortunately, opinions vary considerably concerning the real value of undertaking CRM initiatives. Opinions swing just as wildly as to what goals or trends are driving corporate CRM initiatives and what benefits organizations are hoping to gain from them. Moreover, depending on whom you talk to, companies are either enamored with their CRM initiatives or extremely disillusioned due to high failure rates.