Gartner is a leading information technology research and advisory company founded in 1979 with over 7,600 associates. It provides valuable consulting services to over 10,000 clients worldwide. The document then discusses Gartner's eight building blocks of CRM, strategies for CRM implementation, Vodafone's use of CRM across its customer lifecycle, and how analytics can provide insights for personalized marketing. Key CRM best practices highlighted are that all eight of Gartner's blocks are essential for success and the hardest to implement involve metrics, processes, and changing employee behaviors.