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The Survivor's Guide: Will Vendors Be Less Flexible This Year?: Page 6 of 6

Lessons Learned

IT executives will no doubt carry into the upturn the lessons they learned in the downturn. Patel, the CIO of GMAC Commercial Holding, says there are things you can do to save money under any economic circumstances. For example, he usually buys equipment and software near the end of the quarter, when salespeople are under pressure to meet their forecasts. This puts him in a better bargaining position.

Patel also offers his shop as a testing ground for vendors. Two years ago, Microsoft took him up on the offer during the beta rollout of Windows XP. In return for the lessons Microsoft learned, it picked up some of GMAC's deployment costs. Patel's bosses let him take such risks because, he says, he has built a track record of successful projects completed on time and under budget.

Patel is confident that his aggressive purchasing will prove to be a competitive advantage as the economy improves. "You could turn off the lights for the next two years and we'd still be ahead of the market," he says. His experience shows you can wring a lot of extra value out of vendors if your timing is right and you have credibility with management (see our special issue on building business credibility).

David Joachim is Network Computing's editor/business technology.