Six Strategies for Leveraging Your IT Investments

by Bart Perkins, Scott Knell

As more of the typical IT portfolio investment becomes increasingly tied to outside vendors, the traditional buy-versus-build dilemma has become an academic question. But for CIOs and IT decisionmakers who now spend more than half of their budgets on externally procured hardware, software, telecommunications, and services, the pressing question is not "Should I buy?" but rather, "When I buy, how can I leverage outside spending to meet my most pressing objectives?" Those objectives are to cut costs, improve service, reduce complexity and risk, and add value to the enterprise.