"What are you going to not buy?" That's a question I'd like you to consider as you read on...

Here's a case study of a CIO who handled some pretty drastic cost cutting in a really sensible, healthy way:
          http://www.ndma.com/resources/docs/Case_Study_Riverside_2.pdf

Matt Frymire, CIO of Riverside County, California, developed a product/service catalog with costs, and submitted his budget in a new format -- the costs of what he planned to "sell" the business, not just what he planned to spend.

This allowed him to manage demand. When faced with a 30% budget cut, he asked his clients, "What do you want to not buy?"

Once the tough business decisions were made, Frymire extracted costs from his IT organization directly associated with those now-cancelled projects and services.

Is anybody else out there running IT as a business and forcing clients to decide what they will and won't buy?