It's all the talk on websites, at conferences, in nervous boardrooms - CRM isn't driving top-line results. And everyone's getting worried, from the companies who have sunk millions into buying the software, to the software providers themselves, to the IT services companies who see CRM as their best chance for post-dot-bomb survival.

It's time to face some hard facts about Customer Relationship Management. Plain and simple, CRM just isn't getting the job done.

When it comes to the return on marketing investment, every penny counts and we should be able to account every penny.

Sustained Profitability in today's fast-changing high-tech industrial markets can be elusive. Confident that a new technological break-through will have customers clamoring at the door, managers often make major investments only to discover there is no real demand for their product. And even if the new product is a market hit, earnings can be short-lived. Competitors will soon pile in, prices will drop, and eventually the entire market will be wiped out by the next technological breakthrough. Only the earliest movers - both into new markets and out of fading ones - are likely to reap profits.