Chordiant spent six years as a consulting shop before it shipped a product. In September 1997 it released its Customer Communications Solution, software that pulled a customer's details from many systems into one place. A bank teller, a call center agent and a website could then treat the same person the same way. When Chordiant filed to go public in late 1999, every big company wanted an e-business plan, and Chordiant sold the plumbing behind one.

Consultants Turn Product Makers

Chordiant was incorporated in California in March 1991 and moved to Delaware in October 1997. Before 1997 it did custom consulting work. Its CCS suite combined customer data from different sources and automated the steps behind each request. It kept service the same across the internet, telephone, e-mail and branch offices. Customers bought perpetual licenses, plus services to install and fit the software to their business.

Eighteen Dollars, Then Pegasystems

Chordiant priced its IPO at $18 a share in February 2000 and listed on Nasdaq. The timing was close to the top of the tech market, and the stock fell hard when the bubble burst. Chordiant stayed public for another decade. In 2010 Pegasystems, a business software maker, made a tender offer of $5 a share in cash. The deal went through, and Chordiant left Nasdaq in April 2010.

Cover: Lélio: The Aeolian Harp, from Hector Berlioz, sa vie et ses oeuvres, Henri Fantin-Latour. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a harp (Chordiant, many strings in one chord).