The most important point here? #8 - "Functions across your entire organization may be candidates for CRM." Why? Because CRM is about improving the economics between buyers and sellers, making customer relationships and, by extension, business, itself, more profitable. In a nutshell, CRM is applying the right business treatments to the right customer segments at the right time for the purpose of optimizing the economic value of those relationships. If a company does this correctly, mutual value is created. Given that, how do we realistically separate CRM from ?business?? I guess the real question is, ?Should we??

Companies known for customer-centricity have one thing in common: the customer has become the business? primary design point. This business philosophy recognizes the fact that from the customer?s perspective, the economic value is not in individual composite business processes, but rather in how they are organized to support a customer?s needs.

These companies represent a more radical departure from traditional business practices than you may even realize: Each one has not only gotten CRM right, but also it has actually transformed its entire modus operandi. You could say each has become a customer-centered business or a c-business for short.

Unlike ?traditional? businesses, a c-business aligns business processes and technologies around a customer lifecycle:

? Engage: mindshare capture
? Transact: exchange of currency
? Fulfill: delivery
? Service: post-sale service and support

So let's start thinking and talking about NEXT-GENERATION CRM, where we "get" that it's about the customer. And businesses that get this right are C-Businesses.