Everything Old Is New Again

The start of the New Year is always a great time for change. Many people begin the year by reflecting on the past year's successes and challenges, and by setting new goals or finding ways to renew themselves or their businesses. CRM magazine is among those renewing themselves. In this month's issue, for example, we introduce our new news and analysis section, Insight (page 13). Formerly titled Edge, Insight sports a fresh design by Creative Director Oscar Peterson and two new monthly columns that cover trends in various verticals (Vertical Focus) and market segments (Market Watch). This month we spotlight trends in the financial services vertical and the enterprise CRM market. Hot Projects, a new column in our Return on Investment section (page 56), showcases CRM success within a particular niche. This month highlights companies that have achieved ROI using online CRM tools. We also have three new additions to our already top-notch editorial staff: Martin Schneider, news editor; Jason Flynn, staff writer; and Alison Lowander, copy chief. Martin and Jason's work will appear throughout the magazine, as well as be featured on our Web site, destinationCRM.com. You may be planning to renew yourself or your business this year as well. If you're looking for ways to revitalize your CRM initiative, "Recipe for Success" (page 38) and "Build or Buy?" (page 52) offer insight into evolving CRM strategies. "Recipe for Success" discusses how call center training is changing and how companies can benefit from melding old and new training strategies. "Build or Buy?" delivers new answers to the age-old question of whether companies should build their own CRM applications or buy existing packages. January is also a popular time for predictions. CRM magazine, of course, has added its two cents this issue in "What's in Store for CRM?" (page 28). Senior editors David Myron and Lisa Picarille, along with freelance journalist Erika Rasmusson and I, queried industry pundits on their predictions for the fate of CRM in the coming year, as well as on changing customer expectations. We also surveyed a selection of our readers who are CRM project leaders to reveal their expectations for CRM in 2003. The outlook for the CRM industry may surprise you. As for CRM magazine, we predict that the industry will see far more successes than failures, and that as the industry continues to mature, C-level executives increasingly will view CRM as the business imperative that it is.