IT experts have predicted for years that architectural thinking will save money and increase flexibility in IT. But few firms have implemented architectural models and processes that enable integration, standardization, and reuse. Fortunately, in the past couple of years, companies are becoming more serious about architecture. They are thinking about standards and reuse at the highest levels.

Editor's Note: The following two articles are from Cutter's Business Technology Trends and Impacts Council Opinion, " Spending Priorities for 2002," (Vol. 2, No. 11) published at the close of 2001. It may benefit readers to consider what you ended up spending on IT for 2002 and compare it to what is budgeted for 2003. Are your charging strategies for IT defined more clearly in 2003?

As IT departments go through the rigors of budgeting for the next fiscal year, they'll have to cope with the pressures of the economic slowdown and the realities of the post-9/11 world of terrorism.

This time of year, whether you want to or not, you have to give some thought to the basic issues of our IT management profession. Things like: Who's paying? How much can the company afford? What technologies does it want? And what is most important? Many of you have been working up annual budgets and plans for months, but the time is near, here, or past, when you'll have to lay out your commitments and defend what you think.

"Getting more from less" is an oft-repeated cliche, especially in hard economic times. As most IT professionals can attest, pressure on IT costs is stronger than ever, yet executives still expect higher performance. These pressures go beyond wringing more performance from IT staff, extending to the projects and assets managed by the IT organization.

In tough economic times, "getting more from less" is a common refrain. For IT organizations, the pressure on costs is enormous, yet high performance is still expected. After wringing performance gains from IT staff, IT managers are seeking to increase business value by actively managing their application and project portfolios.

Sometimes it helps to step back a little and assess how we're doing, to identify the management trends that seem to be taking hold. The data we have collected over the past year suggests a number of trends -- mostly good -- that we should identify and discuss. These include:

Sometimes it helps to step back a little and assess how we're doing, to identify the management trends that seem to be taking hold. The data we have collected over the past year suggests a number of trends -- mostly good -- that we should identify and discuss. These include:

During the past two to three years, both the IT and business communities have been seriously discussing the possibility that Web services may become the next big thing.

Although corporate America is still reeling from the excessive IT spending of the late 1990s, numerous disparate, standalone systems still abound in many organizations as a painful reminder to the myopic and reactive approach to enterprise computing. Many systems acquired (or built) with the intent of addressing only one business problem are now strong candidates for abandonment.

"Adopt thy partners. The real-time enterprise must span the physical boundaries of an enterprise and should extend as a virtual enterprise through the entire end-to-end chain. For example, Colgate-Palmolive trimmed its inventory 13% and saved [US] $150 million by attaching its order planning systems to thousands of Wal-Mart and Kmart cash registers.

Those of us in the technology business tend to overestimate the short-term impact of new technologies and underestimate the long-term impact.

Those of us in the technology business tend to overestimate the short-term impact of new technologies and underestimate the long-term impact.

When Tim Berners-Lee speaks, people listen. This stems from the fact that a decade ago Berners-Lee came up with the World Wide Web, and it was the technology behind the Web that made possible the creation of the first browsers, millions of hyperlinked Web sites, and the explosion of the Internet.

When Tim Berners-Lee speaks, people listen. This stems from the fact that a decade ago Berners-Lee came up with the World Wide Web, and it was the technology behind the Web that made possible the creation of the first browsers, millions of hyperlinked Web sites, and the explosion of the Internet.