CRM moves to an outside-in approach.(Front Office)

THE SURGE in consumer social media activity reinforces the fact that people want to be heard. Fortunately, some CRM heavyweights made some pretty significant acquisitions recently and, as a result, are incorporating more customer listening tools--or voice of the customer (VoC) solutions--into their product offerings. In addition to Salesforce.com's acquisition of Radiano last year, Verint Systems acquired VoC vendor Vovici, and NICE Systems responded with its acquisition of enterprise feedback management company Fizzback. These acquisitions represent an important milestone in the CRM industry-a shift toward outside-in thinking.

CRM vendors have traditionally developed …