I spoke to a marketing manager a couple of months ago who was planning to ask the board for a six-figure sum to invest in a new CRM system. Firms current turnover is circa 6M. I just laughed and wished him luck. The implications for vendors largely depend upon where they are in their cycle. If they are mostly installed, their support base should remain solid even if there are possibly some slight licence number reductions: they can tick-over. If they are punting a new product, and therefore reliant on new business right now to recoup development costs; they are in deepest doo-doo. I cannot see any reasonable IT director asking for significant funds for new systems right now. It would undermine credibility to ask; it would be impolitic of a board to acquiesce in the current climate, especially whilst signing off P45s elsewhere in the firm. Everybody will be on 'make-do and mend' for the next twelve months.