It's easy to think that CRM systems are "just a database," since they hold parametric and text data and handle it more or less transactionally. While parametric CRM data is the core of many a report and dashboard, it's actually not the most important data about the evolving customer relationship. Because those parametric data represent only the current state of play, to understand the history means following the sequence of changes in audit trails: quite difficult, and less than enlightening.
