Successful CRM involves making sure the customer receives the best possible perception of your company from the best possible interaction with your people, products and services-across all channels. For a customer-facing web presence in particular, a (RIA) strategy can provide the customer engagement and the knowledge needed to implement an integrated (BI) / CRM solution to enable a holistic customer-centric organization, coupled with relevant insights into the customer base.

People, process and technology. Those three elements are the driving force for any successful business intelligence or CRM strategy. But how does one achieve all three with their customer-facing web presence?

First, organizations must put all content provided into context. A company's selected platform must deliver the best possible user experience through intuitive, brochure-quality documents, and interactive Web reports in context for every user's preference. Visual appeal combined with readily available, useful information ensures that data becomes engaging, personal and interactive while still providing value.

Second, an adaptable platform is necessary to keep up with the pace of change. Both for business and personal productivity solutions, are becoming commonplace and are changing at an ever-faster pace. Find a vendor that can provide applications that are interactive and dynamic enough to support , programming flexibility, scalability, security and handle needs as they change to meet evolving expectations.

Third, the or can benefit any business strategy. A do-it-yourself application has limits, but if one can harness a vast user community and keep up with demand for innovation and the latest standards, the likelihood of developing a best-of-breed solution that is primed for the future grows exponentially.