Since emerging as one of the 'must have' technologies of the 1990s, customer relationship management (CRM) has more recently seen its reputation tarnished.

The concept was fairly simple to grasp: understand your customers and you can make that relationship more profitable.

Execution has proved to be more difficult. As with many IT projects, implementation and integration problems were common.

In one recent survey of vendor reference sites, AMR Research found that almost half of users had struggled to accept their CRM systems.

But companies still see the value in making their customer base more profitable.

It is far more financially viable to keep hold of existing customers by making sure they receive the right levels of support and sales pitches than going out looking for new ones.

And, as business continues to grapple with CRM, our Special will keep you in the loop.