How to trim your IT budget without making sacrifices.

These days, even companies in nontechnical industries are spending ever larger chunks of their budgets on IT. Last year, companies with less than $250 million in annual revenue spent a median of $6,120 per employee on technology, according to Computer Economics, an IT research firm in Irvine, California. This year, many businesses are looking to cut IT spending.

Though there are countless ways to scrimp here and there, experts say the most effective way to pinch pennies without sacrificing technology is to outsource as much IT as possible. Handing off management of tech systems to so-called hosted or managed service providers not only cuts costs but also eliminates common IT headaches. If you want to save big bucks on IT, consider farming out the following functions to someone else.

By: Darren Dahl

Full Story: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080501/clip-here-and-save-big.html