Stage 3:
The feature/function race. At this stage, the “more is better” mindset sets in and competitive paranoia arrives in full force. Highly capitalized vendors begin to enter the marketplace. By the mid to late 1990s, SFA became CRM (customer relationship management). Consulting firms and industry analysts built entire practices around CRM. Armies of consultants helped their clients select and install; analysts offered sophisticated methodologies that actually provided a mathematical score for evaluating competing CRM products. The implication was clear—the higher the score, the better the product, and the actual business value of features became sublimated to feature/function “weight.”