It takes money to save money

As the economy slows and companies see revenues decline, CIOs are in a bind because of fixed costs that don't scale downward with the decline in business volume.

Paul Horowitz, a senior partner in the PricewaterhouseCoopers with expertise in financial and IT management, said the answer for CIOs is actually to spend money in the short term to simplify their IT environments and to position their organizations for long-term cost reduction. "It's now all about harmonization, synchronization and consolidation, and that's where we typically see the greatest opportunity for organizations to reap massive savings," he said.

For more on money strategies:
- check out this CIO.com article