CRM, ERP, BI, and IT Investment - Where Do You Find the Business Benefit?

Most companies want to use CRM applications as a way to "Supercharge" their sales forces. They want to gain some advantage with customer retention and acquisition, to manage the sales pipeline and to have better market insight. But few companies realize these goals. After going through some of the academic studies and literature about CRM implementation there is evidence to suggest that some companies see some limited benefit from their CRM implementations, but overall they are not happy.