Gartner defines the CRM customer engagement center (CEC) as a cohesive set of software built around core case management tools, dedicated to providing customer service and support by engaging with customers, and intelligently orchestrating the processes, data, systems, and resources of an organization.
Customer success management (CSM) platforms are SaaS solutions typically used by B2B organizations selling subscription-based solutions to guide life cycle interactions and provide visibility into account health. CSM platforms help customer success and account-facing teams to achieve customer retention and growth objectives. They provide the ability to define and execute playbooks, and automate customer outreach based on triggers or specific journey stages. Using data collected from customer success teams and ingested from other internal systems, these platforms can provide customer health alerts and can suggest or even automate next best actions.