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The article presents information on a research conducted by U.S. Federal Reserve economists Martin Schneider and Monika Piazzesi in which they proposed a solution to the long-term problem of why do home prices increase in both high and low inflation periods. The two economists aim to provide a convincing solution to the historic facts that consumers keep on buying homes in the 1970s even though nominal interest rates were extremely high and do same thing during the 2000s while nominal interest rates are low.

Focuses on the entry of enterprise customer relations management (CRM) vendors in the midmarket. Traditional dominance of regional systems integrators in the midmarket; Impact of the emergence of hosted CRM offerings on the midmarket; Abundance of options among midmarket customers; Information on the leading CRM vendors in the midmarket.

Presents information on the winners of the 2004 Service Awards given by the "CRM Magazine." Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) solutions used by Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories; Market lead of Avaya in Interactive Voice Response; Workforce management provided by Aspect Communications. INSETS: Nortel Networks;Edify;CenterForce Technologies;KANA

Discusses the increasing usage of analytics tools for customer relationship management. Most popular analytics tools, suites and Web sites produced by top vendors; Reason for the preference of companies to use predictive analytics tools; Efforts of SPSS to place analytics directly in the hands of marketers, according to Colin Shearer, the company's marketing vice president for customer analytics.

Presents advice on selling and implementing customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives to executives. Benefits of peer-pressure to selling CRM; Uses of incentives to get employees to use CRM; Importance of tailoring a CRM system to suit specific business roles.

Discusses the trends in customer relationship management in 2003 that affect the customer relationship management landscape by the end of 2004. Launch of vertical customer relationship management solutions by several business enterprise vendors; Impact of Web services on customer relationship management; Percentage of companies planning customer relationship management solutions that intend to build in-house.

Provides tips from customer relationship management (CRM) providers to maintain the efficacy of CRM systems and generate a return on investment. Points to remember in launching CRM functionality; Recommended patterns for upgrading CRM systems; Tips on integrating a CRM with a back-end software; Benefits of continuing education on CRM systems for employees. INSET: The New Race of Service.

Provides information on several top companies in enterprise customer relationship management (CRM), mid-market CRM, analytics, contact center outsourcers and consulting firms. Business performance of Siebel; Deal highlights for Onyx; Overview of the analytics of Teradata.

Discusses the use of customer relationship management (CRM) to increase productivity and build relationships in all customer-facing areas of the business. Risk of too much focus on automation, according to analyst John Bardwell; Value of sales force automation applications; Concept of smart marketing; Scheduled callback option offered by Cox Communications to customers calling its support center. INSET: 5 PRODUCTIVITY BUILDERS.

Deals with the issues behind integrating customer relationship management (CRM) solutions with an enterprise's existing systems. Way in which enterprise application vendors tend to attempt to drive out competition; Reason for the need for a CRM vendor to adopt the most open standards available; Manner in which CRM vendors can grow sales in an era of open standards. INSETS: Tools of the Trade;Don't Dive In.

Talks about the demand of buyers of customer relationship management (CRM) technologies for vendors ensure them that the CRM technology they are considering will deliver the promised results. Bckground on the CRM service of PeopleSoft Inc.; Method for setting return on investment (ROI); Reasons few companies are doing postimplementation ROI analysis. INSET: GETTING REALISTIC ABOUT ROI.

Focuses on the development of real-time enterprise (RTE) in the U.S. Benefits of RTE to business; Suggestions of ISM Inc. president Barton Goldberg on becoming an RTE; Actions taken by customer relationship management vendors to adopt RTE. INSET: 10 Steps to Becoming an RTE.

Presents news briefs on customer relationship management (CRM) in the U.S. as of February 2003. Actions taken by CRM vendors on economic downturn; Development of global sales organization by Baan; Barriers to self-service effectiveness.

Presents the stories of three leaders who exemplify the ideal user of a customer relationship management software. Don Vrrocchio, manager of sales operations of SkillSoft; Andrea Cooling, marketing consultant and project manager of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee; Kirk McNesby, tester and support representative of Activision.

The article discusses strategies for protecting gas engines that run on nonconventional gas, specifically gas engines on landfill sites or wastewater treatment facilities. Volatile organic silica compounds (VOSC) that could not be removed from the gas by simple filter technology have been identified as the root cause of the damage to gas engines. The high amount of adsorbable hydrocarbons in the landfill would also cause short exchange intervals and high operating costs. The article also offers information on the system developed by GE Energy with automatic regeneration of the active carbon at the plant.

Reveals that mobile sales software solutions are becoming the focus of customer relations management projects of businesses. Projections made by the Yankee Group on the growth of spending in mobile sales solutions by 2006 in the U.S.; Importance of Wi-Fi in the success of mobile sales solutions; Industries that are fast deploying mobile sales solutions.

Discusses the focus of financial services on customer relationship management. Increased attention of businesses to the branch as a customer touch point, according to Jerry Silva, a senior analyst at TowerGroup; Emphasis being given on the quality of customer interactions in the call centers of financial institutions; Importance of the creation and maintenance of a strict balance when marketing to customers at the branch level. INSET: DELTA'S EMPLOYEE CREDIT UNION SERVICE TAKES FLIGHT.

Discusses the use of guided selling tools to boost the sales of companies. Characteristics of guided selling tools; Benefits given by guided selling tools for companies; Companies which offers guided selling tools to their customer relationship management packages. INSET: CDS GUIDES ITS REPS TO SUCCESS.

Focuses on strategies which companies can take to transform data collected on customer transactions, interactions and opinions, into efficient use with their customer relationship management initiatives. Importance of business intelligence tools to use data correctly; Trend in collecting data; Main reasons few companies take advantage of customer knowledge.

Focuses on how Hibernian insurance provider in Ireland used targeted messaging to double sales and leads. Plan to advertise Ignition auto insurance program; Comments from Vytas Kisielius, president of Adeptra, on the ineffectiveness of mass marketing; Details of text messaging-based marketing program.

Assesses the performance of quick-win software solutions in the field of customer relationship management (CRM). Reason for some vendors for formalizing fast-start implementation programs for CRM suite and contact center initiatives; Views of Robert DeSisto, vice president and CRM research director at Gartner, on the quick-win philosophy; Software companies that are marketing fast-to-implement software packages to the mid-market.

Features Francine Feldman, vice president of partnerships and planning at the Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Co. (GPTMC). Daily activities of Feldman; Mission of GPTMC, a nonprofit organization; Benefits of customer relationship management software to the operations of GPTMC.

Discusses the benefits of application service provider (ASP) partnerships in providing customer relationship management (CRM) software. Partnership between Salesnet and Qualt&eacute in an aim to provide sales force automation and service capabilities; Effect of ASP partnerships on traditional CRM vendors; Views of system analysts on ASP partnerships. INSET: Vertical Focus: High-Tech.

Focuses on two conferences on customer relationship management (CRM) software, DCI's CRM Conference and Exhibition and the Call Center Las Vegas 2003 Conference and Expo. Issues discussed about Web services; Discussion on the attention paid by CRM solutions vendors on mid-market and smaller businesses; Speakers at the conferences.

Focuses on the growth of several customer relationship management (CRM) software vendors despite a rough economy in the U.S. as of January 1, 2003, based on the Deloitte & Touche Technology Fast 500 index. Criteria for the index; Area of CRM that has proved profitable; CRM companies that made the list.

Presents news briefs related to customer relationship management (CRM) as of January 1, 2003. Increase in customer management spending among pharmaceutical companies; Acquisition of Advanced Information Marketing Inc. by Canadian CRM vendor RareMethod Capital Corp.; Reputation of Interface Software in the field of CRM.

Two letters to the editor are presented in response to articles in previous issues including "Always On," by John Chan in the February 2008 issue and "The Power of Habit," by Marshall Lager in the March 2008 issue.

The article presents an interview with Atul Gawande, author of the book "Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance." He discusses the importance of assuming ethical and humanitarian responsibilities associated with medical practice in order to improve the medical care system. He cites the efforts of doctors Virginia Apgar and Warren Warwick to improve medical care through their humanitarian initiatives.

The article presents an interview with writer Barbara Ehrenreich. Barbara's book "Blood Rites" focused on collective excitement that goes together with war and was about ecstatic ritual. She believes that the very old civilizations are hierarchical, and hierarchy tends to be hostile to collective joy because it's an egalitarian impulse. She also believes that political powers are threatened when people in the lower social hierarchy celebrates their bond and solidarity.

This article presents an interview with Jeff Byles about demolition. He sees Stacey Loiseaux as a role model in the demolition trade. Byles emphasizes the effect of tearing down New York City's Penn Station on architects. When asked about how will Hurricane Katrina's ravages affect the wrecking trade, he said that with so much destruction, politicians are talking about bulldozing 50,000 homes which would be a demolition on a huge scale. He stresses that it will be a test case on a massive scale for the preservation industry.

Focuses on the partner relationship management (PRM) initiative at Samsung Electronics America's Digital Information Technology Division (DITD). Situation facing Samsung before launching its PRM initiative; Benefits of the launching of the initiative to Samsung DITD; Expected benefit of the Click Commerce portal.

Presents news briefs on the customer relations management (CRM) software industry as of April 2004. CRM software providers which got positive rating from the review conducted by Gartner; Percentage of small- and mid-sized business executives who fear becoming heavily dependent on Microsoft Corp. software; Revenue growth posted by the business process management sector in 2003.

Reports on the rise of return on investment (ROI) by companies that bought customer relations management (CRM) software. Reasons for the rise of ROI of companies; Improvement in the CRM software products of vendors; Percentage of ROI of companies.

Presents news briefs related to customer relations management (CRM) as of March 2004. Survey on the importance of CRM to small-and-midsize-businesses; Impact of brand recognition efforts of SAP AG on the market; Forecast on the increase of CRM license in 2005.

Focuses on the use of the Onyx customer relationship management software by telecommunications firm TransACT to compete against dominant carriers in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. Capabilities of the system; Contribution of the software in correcting service issues; Increase in first-call resolution since the program's implementation.

Presents news briefs on the customer relationship management (CRM) software industry as of February 1, 2004. Results of a survey among small and midsize companies on the value of CRM to their businesses; Increase in customer satisfaction of businesses with integrated sales, marketing and customer service operations through CRM initiatives; Expected growth in CRM investment in the Asia Pacific region by 2009.

Focuses on the increase in the popularity of acquisitions in the customer relationship management (CRM) software industry. Notable acquisitions made by large CRM firms such as PeopleSoft; Role of market valuation in the trend; Possible emergence of mergers of hosted and nonhosted CRM vendors.

Discusses the benefits received by online retail company HPshopping.com after implementing the analytics and data integration solutions from Informatica. Services provided by the solutions for the company; Reasons the Informatica solutions have proven effective for HPshopping; Increase in the effectiveness of their interactive marketing campaigns; Increase in inventory turns.

Discusses the developments in customer relationship management (CRM) systems as of January 2004. Information on the CRM system developed by Siebel Systems for call center reporting software firm Merced Systems; Upgrades released by Salesforce.com for its CRM solution and on-demand application server.

Presents news briefs on Web services and information technology (IT) as of January 2004. Rise in IT spending for the third quarter of 2003, according to the "Wendover-Global Insight IT Spending Index"; Discussion on the Yankee Group report regarding the communications service provider industry; Predicted number of U.S. call center agent positions which will be outsourced to a foreign market by 2008.

Focuses on the improvements in the customer service operations of Water Corp. through the implementation of a customer relationship management system from SAP AG. Improvement in warranty tracking during service calls; Revenue growth posted in 2003; Percentage of increase in electronic commerce revenue of the company.

Comments on the California Security Breach Notification Law aimed at enhancing customer security and combating identity theft. Overview of the law; Limitations of the law; Impact of the law on the call center industry.

Presents news briefs on customer relationship management as of December 2003. Factor considered by information technology buyers in their purchases in terms of data integration; Percentage of respondents from several companies which claim outsourcing gives them control over business; Impact of incentive-based sales compensation packages on sales figures.

Presents updates on issues concerning customer relationship management (CRM) as of November 2003. Percentage of business enterprises that use hosted CRM products; Estimated growth rate of worldwide analytic applications software market; Percentage increase in U.S. call center spending in the financial services industry.

Focuses on the trend in consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. Benefits derived by the CPG sector from the industry-wide shift in attitude; Comment from Sheryl Kingstone, customer relationship management (CRM) program manager at the Yankee group,, on the amount spent by companies in marketing; Advantages of having a better marketing technology; Companies that are actively pursuing the CPG market.

Deals with the use of a self-service pilot program using touch screen kiosks at the counters of McDonald's. Comment from Lisa Howard, spokeswoman of McDonald's, on the advantages brought by the technology; Details of how the system functions; Deployment of wireless Internet access in several cities in the U.S.; Benefits derived from wireless connectivity.

Reports on the decision of Toshiba to launch its products registration and warranty forms online using DataLode's RealConnect Marketing solution. Reason behind the move; Approach taken by the company in adopting the solution; Benefits received by the company after implementing the tool. INSET: The Payoff.

Presents news briefs related to customer relationship management as of October 2003. Indications of growth in the market according to JMP Securities; Possibility that travel and transportation executives might support multichannel-communication software for their customer relationship management activities; Range of global sourcing alternatives being demanded by enterprise buyers from information technology service providers.

Comments on the trend of delivering analytics within the context of a customer relationship management (CRM) application. Reason behind the trend; Benefits received by Carfax.com from adopting WebSideStory's Hitbox CRM product; Tips for analytics vendors on promoting their products.

Presents news briefs on customer relationship management in the U.S. as of September 2003. Increase in demand for chief customer officers; Technology spending by North American banks; Significance of mobile access to CRM solutions to systems integrators.