CRM Systems: Unite or Die?

When it comes to CRM systems, large companies are anything but centralized. CRM vendors love to get in through the business units and at the department level. Even if your company makes centralized CRM decisions, it may have merged or made acquisitions that Balkanized the systems. IBM announced it's going to spend $20 billion on acquisitions -- how many dozen CRM systems do you think they're going to be bringing in over the next 24 months?