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Of course, this approach doesn't replace ROI analysis. Indeed, only those projects that have been studied in terms of dollars and cents can rise to the level of a portfolio investment, Bertch says.

The investment-portfolio approach is championed by several consulting firms, most notably Meta Group and Giga Information Group. Perhaps the most important component of the strategy is that it forces you to recheck your math before entering each successive project phase. Many IT shops create an ROI analysis at the very start of a project, when the least is known about what results they can expect, according to Giga analyst Alistair Stewart, who is working with Life Time.

"When the universe of knowledge is most imperfect, you're dedicating money to the project," he says. "It's a crude process." Once the business case is made and the funding is in hand, enterprises typically set the ROI worksheet aside and never revisit it. Giga's services in this area range from $40,000 to $100,000 per year and include an analyst who shows the company how to evaluate IT assets and track the rise and fall of that value.

IT executives who shake their heads at such fees might do well to count all those IT projects that remain on life support long after the plug should have been pulled.

Further Updates

• Life Time is on track in its mission to grow revenue from sources other than gym memberships. Sales of personal training and spa services, as well as café and nutritional products, will account for nearly 20 percent of the company's sales this year, says CFO Mike Robinson. That's up from 5 percent last year. Overall, revenues will grow some 40 percent this year, to about $196 million, he says.

• At press time, Siebel's CRM package has been rolled out to all 30 of Life Time's sites. Sales, front desk and membership personnel are the main users.

• Xtime, the appointment-scheduling ASP with which Life Time has been negotiating, released a new version of its service in December. Zempel says his team will evaluate the upgrade to see if it overcomes the scalability problems that compelled him to halt a pilot midway through the test phase.

• Life Time still gets a call or two each week from organizations interested in licensing its MMS software. Zempel is awaiting word from CEO Bahram Akradi about plans to license the software and launch a spin-off company, called Averisoft, to market the product.