For us, CRM is first and foremost an idea what value which customer has, how we want to make these customers more loyal, which customer processes (Key Account-Management, customer loyalty, customer marketing) the company needs and a way to achieve clarity around gathering customer data: how to decide which data to collect, how to generate relevant knowledge from this data, and how to use these insights to efficiently generate more sales. All measures must be sensibly integrated into the marketing plan, with the goal of building a deep, long-term customer relationship. The tool/IT solution then follows the strategy – not vice versa.