CRM has been defined as: "The alignment of business strategy and the corporate business model with customer information in order to achieve widespread implementation of superior customer service."

New database management platforms provide access to customer information allowing new insights into customer behaviour through a range of analysis methods. Sophisticated contact management software coupled with an advanced supporting infrastructure enable this information to be used in increasingly creative and cost-effective ways.

A rather trite example is the case of a major bank's customer who phoned with a query whilst on holiday abroad. On his return to the UK he contacted the bank again and spoke to a different individual who's first question was "did you have a nice holiday?" Contact management software had captured the information and made it available in a readily usable form to the operator helping give the feeling of a more personal service.

A more telling example is Château Online, an online wine merchant for whom a CRM company designed an application to build product association rules capable of predicting repeat buying behaviour. Once the characteristics of repeat buyers were identified, e-mail promotions targeted at those buyers were used resulting in an increase in repeat buying of 60%.

SLP Infoware has a range of such applications all of which are driven from a Customer Profiling System (CPS). In addition to churn analysis, the applications are used to make up-sell and cross-sell recommendations, to predict repeat and exiting buyers and for customised behaviour analysis. Their latest product "BadDebts/CPS" seeks to identify those customers who are most likely not to pay their bills. SLP Infoware provides a scalable architecture that facilitates integration with other front and back office applications.