The field of customer relationship management, or CRM, has certainly had its share of peaks and valleys. From the hype of the mythical "360 degree view of the customer" to the promise of the Web channel and new community-based models, CRM as a discipline has had to and continues to evolve (see "Is CRM Dead?"). Meanwhile, areas like knowledge management, business process management (BPM) tools and real-time analytics are raising the level of intelligence within customer-facing solutions and fostering interest and investment in adjacent markets that offer to extend and even reshape today's CRM platforms.

So, what's in store for CRM in 2008? When I put on my analyst hat and think about the initiatives that our clients have identified as priorities for the next year and scan the latest research from our friends at Gartner, McKinsey and others, some common themes appear. Certainly cost savings is again becoming a key driver for decisions as the economic picture becomes increasingly uncertain. But beyond the "doing more with less" mantra, there are three priorities emerging: delivering a differentiated customer experience (ideally across all customer touch points), better leveraging and delivering existing content assets so reps and customers have answers at their fingertips, and tapping into collaboration and the power of social networks.

These three C's—customer experience, content and collaboration—have the potential to not only deliver greater organizational value but also put more control directly in the hands of customers, a key to accelerating the payoffs associated with fewer calls and higher adoption of self-service applications (see "Can Self-Service Deliver Better Service?"). These priorities also reflect the growing interest in Web 2.0 technologies and "lightweight" approaches like wikis, RSS and social networks. These methods not only streamline communication and publishing of information but also drive greater knowledge sharing among internal staff and promote customer loyalty through peer support and communities of interest.

On the industry front, after an active year for deals in the enterprise software sector—especially involving big-ticket acquisitions of some of the top BI players like Business Objects, Cognos and Hyperion (by SAP, IBM and Oracle, respectively)—we expect market consolidation to continue in 2008. In addition to more valuation-driven deals at the high end, look for deals involving smaller vendors that streamline access to disparate customer records (think CDI and master data management), help tailor the user experience, and generate and manage community content.

Five Ways to Prepare

Getting ready for success with customer-facing technology initiatives is both an art and a science. As customers realize they are increasingly in control of their business relationships and businesses seek greater insight into what will drive loyalty and advocacy for their products, a balanced focus on organizational sponsorship and governance, user needs and incentives, and content readiness—even ahead of technology deployment activities—is essential.