The problem with CRM? Too much "M," contends Yankee Group CRM Program Manager Sheryl Kingstone. "It was all very management-level, it didn't go out to the employee, and the relationship was very limited, it didn't provide in-context information that would enhance the relationship."

What's needed, she adds, is a focus on enterprisewide analytics that bring the "cross-discipline insight needed to successfully execute integrated sales, service, and marketing plans. If you don't have integrated insight, you can't answer the question of which processes [lead to] the most profitable customer."

Kingstone says companies need to get CRM out of its silos and build "key performance indicators" that revolve around customer-focused results. Companies, she adds, "are still looking at KPIs by individual silos, and sometimes even the individual silos aren't measuring the right KPIs. A sales-driven organization [may] just be looking at revenue per salesperson or ramp-up time, but do they look at the average number of calls to close a deal or the presentations per proposal? There may be some best practices, and that information needs to be fed back to marketing."