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Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is seen as a holistic framework for interaction of organizations with their customers. It is focused on gaining customers' loyalty through providing the value positively perceived by the customers and usually incorporates information and communication technologies in the form of CRM systems. The paper discusses various aspects of CRM philosophy and utilization of information and communication technologies in relation to CRM. A survey that was conducted among three hundred organizations in the Czech Republic (among them some major companies, such as ČEZ, T-Mobile, Česká spořitelna and others). The objective of the survey was to discover the scope and level of using CRM systems, factors influencing decisions about CRM, understanding the CRM concept, evaluating CRM benefits, issues related to implementation and others. Organizations mostly perceive CRM as a profitable approach although they do not see it as a global philosophy but rather as a set of separated tools. The most relevant argument for CRM implementation include better contact management, better understanding the customers, higher number of retained customers, longer relationships with customers and higher customer satisfaction.