Welcome to the brave new world of the Customer Economy. Studying the trends over the past two years, it's clear that business is moving inexorably toward more collaborative models driven by, you guessed it, the Internet. To succeed in the future, companies will need to define their relationship network opportunities, decide what information should be shared, and invest in the systems needed to make multi-enterprise integration work.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a business strategy to get, grow, and retain the right customers, leading to long-term profitability. Thanks to the Web-accelerated power shift to customers, CRM is essential to create a sustainable competitive advantage based on relationships, not just products.

The CRM software industry is growing and changing rapidly, reflecting the strong influence of e-business technologies. Boston-based AMR Research pegs the "Customer Management Market"--which includes software for marketing, selling, support/service, and sell-side eCommerce--to grow at a 29 percent per year pace, from $14.1 billion in 2001 to $37.8 billion in 2005. Factoring in integration costs, total worldwide CRM investments could exceed $75 billion in 2005.

In an August 2001 CRMGuru.com webcast, panelist Rod Johnson, AMR Research's service director for customer management strategies, said that CRM is in its "Third Coming." Draw the lines where you will, his point is that not long ago everyone thought CRM meant a certain set of customer-facing tools. Now, we're realizing it encompasses how to drive a campaign, how to manage customer contact, and how well you provide field service. It includes the Internet, partners and traditional e-commerce capabilities.

In the future, entire CRM application suites will be Web based, not just self-service tools. Portals will become increasingly critical technology, and integration technology will allow more connections and analytics to be embedded in business intelligence.

In other words, CRM is shedding its old skin and growing into something that reflects the networked environment in which we all live and work. This special section will look at how business is moving toward more collaborative models, and how CRM will both change and direct that evolution.

Topics will include:

Today, there is more opportunity than ever to relate to customers quickly and efficiently. There's never been a better time to be a customer--and there's never been more opportunity for businesses to gain or lose customers. Hang on for the ride.