Chapter 11 Case Finding customers used to be an arduous and tedious manual task. Because of technology, there is a list of names that will allow a business to locate its specific target customers, no matter how “niche.” Today, a company by the name of infoUSA Inc. maintains one of the nation’s largest databases, including 14 million businesses and 220 million consumers. The company started in Nebraska in 1972 when a man by the name of Vinod Gupta created an RV list compiled from 4,500 Yellow Pages phone books. This list was highly coveted at the time simply because nothing similar to it had existed at the time. Such a database makes it extremely easy for customers. Even though it doesn’t do the whole job for them, it allows a target for publicity word-of-mouth recommendations, or “buzz” to be used, making it the core of finding customers. Customer relationship management (CRM) is a system for managing a company's interactions with current and future customers. It often involves using technology to organize, automate and synchronize sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support. There are two different types of CRM system, operational and analytical. Operational CRM is focused on the automation of the customer-facing parts of businesses. Various CRM software applications enable the marketing, selling and service functions to be automated. Analytical CRM is concerned with exploiting customer data to enhance both customer and company value. Analytical CRM builds on the foundation of customer information. One could use infoUSA’s database for marketing purposes. From the analytical perspective, information can be recorded allowing one to “get to know” the customer. Information such as finding what specific customers like and exploiting that data to benefit the company, as well as the customer, giving them what they want. A small business could