Short for customer relationship management. CRM entails all aspects of interaction a company has with its customer, whether it be sales or service related. Computerization has changed the way companies are approaching their CRM strategies because it has also changed consumer buying behavior. With each new advance in technology, especially the proliferation of self-service channels like the WEB and WAP phones, more of the relationship is being managed electronically. Organizations are therefore looking for ways to personalize online experiences (a process also referred to as mass customization) through tools such as  help-desk software, e-mail organizers and Web development apps.

thanks to isp.webopedia.com

Web based CRMs are a significant step closer to access of important customer data ANYWHERE at ANY TIME...

Siebel, Onyx and Peoplesoft are all large scale CRMs. These can take a team of people many months to implement. Steve was the "Solution Architect" for Suncorp's web-based CRM solution. It took a team of over twenty people a year or so to implement this, as it was customised and had to be integrated with diverse business processes and customer details from many banking systems.

Small as it my be, ACT is an PC based example of a CRM. What's limiting about this class of CRM is its PC nature. One person at a time can access it, and it is locked in a single PC unless you upgrade to a network version. Even then, you are limited to sepcific PCs.