customer data collection and analysis : how do firms de - velop competence in customer intelligence management ?

Executive Summary Customer Intelligence Management (CrIM) is a member of the intelligence management family, sharing a variety concerns and practices with business intelligence (BI) and competitive intelligence (CI). Its origins can be traced to practices of customer relationship management and marketing and advertising science. It is especially associated with Customer Relationship Management and its purpose is to support the development and deployment of effective customer knowledge management. CrIM fo-cuses primarily on the interactions between the firm and its customers. Data from these interactions are supplemented by remote observation of potential customers and internal metrics provided by the firm's reporting business intelligence systems. Customer intelligence is increasingly embedded in the customer interface to support service workers or automate responses to customers. Technology selection and implementation and business process design are thus critical issues in CrIM. Since many actors within the firm have requirements for customer information and customer knowledge competence, users of CrIM solutions range from analysts to customer support personnel. In effect, the greater the integration of CrIM capability in the firm, the greater the range of users will be. For this reason CrIM effectiveness is sensitive to a greater number of factors than other forms of intelligence management.