Heard and Overheard

"CRM is about knowing now what you need to better serve your customers." --Scott Nelson, vice president and distinguished analyst, CRM, Gartner "A positive customer experience is not just a luxury, it's a necessity." --Tim Sanders, leadership coach, Yahoo! "CRM is about data. Bad data is bad CRM." --Marco Emrich, president and CEO, Sedona "Users never want to go backwards in functionality, but sometimes they need to rethink how the functionality fits into the business process." --Erin Kinikin, vice president and research director at Forrester Research "Their CRM program is a coup for management. They can see right into the pipeline and know whether the reps are meeting their numbers." --a businessman talking on his cell phone at a Midtown Manhattan shoe shine stand "Nobody argues that they need CRM. It's, 'What's the return? What do I get out of it?'" --Jeffrey Longoria, vice president of sales, Firstwave Technologies "Contact centers are trying to be more strategic, but are stuck in this crisis management mode of [keeping up with] answering calls." --Steve Bernstein, director, product marketing group, Blue Pumpkin "The IP [Internet protocol] debate is not when but how." --Paul Segre, CTO, Genesys Telecommunications Labs "The whole purpose of data is to work with customers and [partners] better." --George Ahn, group vice president and general manager, PeopleSoft CRM