If the experience of CRM vendor Chordiant Software is any indication, the recession and burgeoning SaaS (News - Alert) trend have not been kind to other established online CRM vendors.

“While many companies have been investing in CRM software for the overall benefits of improved customer relationships, this move may slow as budgets get tighter and the pressure to reduce costs heightens,” TMC’s (News - Alert) Stefania Viscusi wrote recently.

“For smaller businesses, who must fight even harder to win and keep customers, CRM software is even more vital. In this economic climate however, many of these businesses may look to cutting their spending on customer relationship management,' Viscusi said.

But, as InformationWeek reported recently, “if a planned $161.5 million acquisition announced this week goes through, Chordiant (News - Alert) buyer Pegasystems, a business process management and rules management firm, may end up with a bargain.”

Chordiant, a veteran of the old customer experience management days and one of the first to get into applying predictive analytics to customer interactions has “an enviable list of financial service, insurance, and telecommunications customers, including Citibank, Capital One, MetLife, Cigna, Wellpoint, T-Mobile, and Vodafone (News - Alert),” InformationWeek says.

But that was then and this is now. Chordiant’s on-premises software sales are down, which is no doubt the case for a great number of CRM vendors: “For its fiscal year ended September 30, 2009, revenues were down more than 30 percent to $77.5 million from $113.0 million in 2008. New license revenues sank 34 percent to $22.5 million, down from $34.1 million in 2008.

Some vendors, such as online CRM provider Intelestream, are finding success via affordability. Intelestream’s own CRM system, intelecrm, is specifically designed with SMBs in mind.

“With its flat fee for unlimited users, our pricing model encourages every member of an organization to get on board,” said Stafford McKay, marketing director at Intelestream, adding that the reasoning behind the offer is the understanding of the necessity of CRM for all companies looking to improve productivity.

Nobody’s giving up CRM, though. According to a VendorGuru.com white paper, “Using CRM To Recession Proof Your Business,”   businesses “could find an effective CRM approach will give them an important competitive advantage under recessionary conditions.”

Salesforce.com (News - Alert) and Microsoft Dynamics Online have made SaaS hip in CRM, with Gartner confirming that SaaS versions of CRM accounted for a fifth of the $9.15 billion worldwide CRM market in 2008, InformationWeek said, “up sharply from 15 percent in 2007.”