Embracing Change

Good CRM project leaders know they always have to be prepared for change. Staying the course with a dated implementation that limits short- and long-term goals could make for disaster. In the spirit of meeting ever-changing demands, CRM magazine has, with this issue, made a few changes of its own. We regularly write about technology, but we haven't recently dedicated a section of the magazine exclusively to technology products. However, we didn't want to introduce a tech section that merely covers new products for the sake of being new. That type of new-product coverage only helped to inflate the 1990s technology bubble by focusing more on the technologies' gee-whiz factor and less on the business problem they aimed to solve. So, we are introducing "Re:Tooling," a thematic technology department in which each month we will present a business problem and showcase some of the latest technologies aimed at solving it. Check out the first installment of this department, which highlights three of the latest social networking tools to help employees share their customer contact information. Although CRM is serious business, there's certainly room for a little levity. That's why we're introducing "Pint of View" (that's not a typo), a light-hearted column by Senior Writer Marshall Lager, for a humorous and insightful look at our industry. Lager this month acts as a chief therapy officer hoping to help fix business-relationship problems in the style of a Dear Abby advice columnist. You'll also notice some department name changes in this issue. "Analyze This" is now "The Tipping Point," but it will continue to feature the same contributors offering analytical prose--the added value is, we'll also include some of the best of destinationCRM.com's Viewpoint columns to cover more educational and informative pieces. Last, we renamed "Benchmark" "Real ROI." The section still features CRM success stories, but we know the new name better reflects what our readers are looking for from their CRM technology rollouts--real, measurable results. In fact, we continually hear that ROI is one of the first questions customer companies ask of their potential CRM vendors. We don't always measure our return on investment here at CRM magazine in dollars and cents; an excellent measuring tool for us is our readers' responses. So please, let us know what you think by dropping me a line at dmyron@destinationCRM.com David Myron Editor-in-Chief dmyron@destinationCRM.com