Cisco is a prime example of optimized connectivity within this quadrant. Cisco s market value, which now exceeds Microsoft s, indicates how optimizing within this quadrant can drive shareholder wealth. Once multiple customer touch points have been synchronized, the next step is to integrate real-time business intelligence into the same operational framework. That s what is happening in the upper right-hand quadrant of the matrix. Eventually, every company will need to move to the upper right-hand quadrant if it hopes to remain competitive.
Customers can get exactly the same information from the Web, from the call center, etc.
This makes it easy to do business with the company and supports high levels of satisfaction and loyalty. The company also benefits. In addition, customer and segment profitability analysis can be implemented and refreshed with a continuous stream of real-time customer offers. Real-time business intelligence has only recently been made possible through the introduction of sophisticated new products such as Dialogue from Xchange. This is a perfectly reasonable question, because the level of investment needed to move progressively toward fully integrated e-CRM is substantial.