Much of the focus in 2005 will be on finding the right customers and keeping them happy. Customer service and management will be critical to the success of this initiative. Use the resources in our Executive Guide to obtain the information and advice you need to make a smart business case for CRM adoption.

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Expert's corner

Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D. In 2004, IBM asked hundreds of executives what they believed to be the most important factors differentiating a successful customer technology initiative from an unsuccessful one. The conclusions: strong leaders that manage change well to create the right culture and to facilitate adoption.

Every company's business success depends on getting more customers, keeping them longer and making them more profitable. This mandate brings with it a clear responsibility for corporate management. Every member of the C-suite, from the CEO on down, must find ways to create value for the company and the customer at every opportunity.

But for the CIO, the task of creating the most possible value from this scarce productive resource -- customers -- brings with it unique challenges. Customers expect to be treated individually, and technology has enabled companies to meet these expectations. In the early days of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), the technology for treating different customers differently was regarded as a forward-thinking, somewhat unproven, investment. Today, however, that same technology, far less expensive and more capable, has become a competitive necessity -- you can't afford not to do it. This change is already happening, and the only question is whether you'll be driving the train or sitting on the tracks in front of it.

In an era in which every IT investment is expected to deliver real value, many CIOs are busy building their business cases around customers. They recognize technology as the avenue by which customer strategies are executed and turned into dollars. It's how companies collect, secure and analyze valuable customer data. It's how customer-facing employees access and act on the right information, at just the right time and across the right channel to drive revenue.

Savvy CIOs also recognize that technology is just one part of what must be a larger, enterprise-wide initiative to focus on customers -- an initiative that involves organizational structure and alignment, training, compensation, and culture, in addition to business process management. As IBM's survey found, true success only comes when everyone, from corporate leaders and marketers, to service reps and financial staff are motivated to adopt and use technology to act in the interest of customers -- as if they were customers themselves. That's when technology becomes a company's ally in creating shareholder value from its most precious asset, customers.

And in many cases, it's up to CIOs themselves to lead this charge.

Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D. are the founding partners of , the world's leading customer-focused management consulting firm. "Business 2.0" named them as two of the 19 most important business gurus of all time. They have also co-authored six best-selling books, including "The One to One Future," "Enterprise One to One," a CRM text book for graduate level courses and "Return on Customers," published last month.