All organizations have realized the importance of CRM as an effective organizational strategy for competitive advantage. Many organizations successfully deployed CRM projects and reaped large benefits. Many others are in the process of implementing CRM in their organizations. However, many practicing mangers and academicians feel that CRM in the present form suffers from many shortcomings and may not meet the requirements of the future. They feel that present-day CRM takes the customer for granted and expects the customer to react, while the organization does all the planning. This practice is not matching the aspirations of the customers and they are demanding a major role. They are of the view that CRM project design and implementation has to be from `outside in'. This article examines some future CRM practices proposed like collaborative and Just-In-Time marketing.

Marketing is the process of creating value to the customers and organization through exchange. Without effective marketing no organization can achieve success. Present-day marketing has become very complex and marketers are facing many challenges. The most important of all the challenges are the plurality and proliferation of different types of channels. In the good old days, the number of marketing channels was limited and more or less well-defined like paper, salesperson, free standing kiosks, work, home, mobile call centers etc. But today, in addition to traditional channels, there are a number of other ways in which a company can reach a customer or vice versa including data enabled mobile phones, video phones, WAP, e-mail, portals, interactive TV, set-top boxes, Internet capable consoles. The second challenge is that of raising media costs. The costs associated with each type of media are continuously going up. This is placing strain on marketing budgets and limiting the number of campaigns. The third is, customers have become more fickle. A recent study into brand loyalty has concluded that starting from 1977 till now the brand loyalty has come down from a high 93% to 60% and is likely to come down further. The fourth challenge is, ever-growing competition. All organizations are collecting lot of competitor data and are able to anticipate their marketing moves with more precision and planning counter moves. An example of this is, some competing TV channels even synchronize their advertisement time slots during a commercial, to get the undivided attention of their customers. Informed competitors pose a continuous and ever-present threat. The fifth challenge is, volatile markets. Volatile markets make predictions and planning very difficult. The sixth challenge is, product life cycles are getting shortened with each passing day.

In case of some financial products, the PLCs are less than a week. The seventh challenge is, controlling high turnover in marketing staff. Most employees move out with the market intelligence that they have gathered over a period of time, forcing the organization to start from scratch. The eighth challenge is, the time factor. The time available to a marketer to plan and execute marketing programs has come down drastically. The ninth challenge is RoI. Unlike in the past organizations, stakeholders are demanding Return on Investment (RoI). The tenth and, undoubtedly, the greatest of all challenges is, proliferation of Internet. Internet has converted the society into a global information and knowledge village. Customers have access to any kind of data at the click of a button. This has transformed the customers into knowledgeable customers and tilted the balance of power in their favor. Customers, both business and consumers, are in control. The demanding customer wants to be treated as important and refuses to transact any business that does not respect his needs, likes and time. All these factors individually and collectively are making a lot of demands on marketing organizations.