Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can be widely defined as company activities related to developing and retaining customers. It is a blend of internal business processes: sales, marketing and customer support with technology and data capturing techniques. Customer Relationship Management is all about building long-term business relationships with customers.

Many companies are turning to customer-relationship management systems to better understand customer wants and needs. Customer Relationship Management applications, used in conjunction with data warehousing, E-commerce applications, and call centres, allow companies to gather and access information about customers' buying histories, preferences, complaints, and other data so they can better anticipate what customers will want and how to best retain them. The adoption of Customer Relationship Management is being fuelled by a recognition that long-term relationships with customers are one of the most important assets of an organization, providing competitive advantage and improved profitability.

Customer Relationship Management is a strategy, not a specific software or hardware; but it encompasses the technology and strategy needed to completely integrate a business in order to get a holistic view of customers and their relationship to the entire enterprise. The software that links the back office to the front office, the technology needed to make the call centre customer-friendly, and integrating each component seamlessly with the customers' point of contact, web-based or other means, are all part of Customer Relationship Management.