At the beginning of each year, CEOs have a major responsibility. They must look at their respective companies as a whole and make important decisions pertaining to operational spending, with each decision designed to achieve the ultimate goal of improving the organization and increasing profitability. As the years pass and technology evolves, CEOs have adjusted some of their decisions accordingly, but the underlying principle remains the same.

According to a study conducted by Gartner, CEOs have placed improving customer interaction as their top priority in 2013. This is certainly a timeless goal. Business executives always want to improve customer service, the way they market to potential buyers and manage the sales process. Customers equal revenue. However, the way CEOs intend to improve customer management show just how far business technology has evolved.

Gartner’s research indicates that CEO’s intend to increase investments into data management tools and procedures as a means to better service their customers and, ultimately, increase revenue. According to the survey, 71 percent of CEO’s intend to increase spending in data and business analytics.

Gartner Vice President and Research Fellow Ken McGee gave a recent presentation about the study’s results and said that the research indicates a trend in the way businesses are working to improve their handling of customers. Instead of concerning themselves with customer-facing solutions, the focus is shifting to the back office.

“The back office has been a big black hole of gravitational pull for IT spend, but that’s beginning to change, “McGee said. “Companies and executives are asking, ‘What is the business process?’ Customer-facing, front-office areas like marketing and sales were given ‘explicit mention’ in CEO investment priority while technology itself is an explicit priority for only a few.”

Most CEO’s will likely opt to invest in database software solutions designed to give key insights into customer behavior, trends and other pertinent information. Using FileMaker can help organizations develop solutions designed to streamline the data management process, allowing businesses to drastically improve customer management practices.