Stories by: Lisa DiCarlo

On the Web site of mega research firm Gartner lives a section titled IT Budget Optimization, which, among other things, offers for sale 20 research papers on strategies for cutting IT expenses.

IT research firms service two separate groups of clients -- technology vendors, which constitute the "sell" side of the market, and organizations seeking advice on technology purchases, the "buy" side of the equation.

When Craig Urizzola's company decided to make a seven-figure investment in a new ERP system, he contacted his local reseller to order hardware to run it on. "We told them exactly what we wanted and said, 'We don't need SANs or clustering or any of that,'" says Urizzola, CIO at Saladino's, a food service distributor in Fresno, Calif. "But their proposal came back with SANs and 10 more servers than we asked for. They just don't listen."

Ah, end users. We sure do love them. Why, most of us wouldn't have jobs without them. But that doesn't mean users don't drive IT crazy sometimes, or maybe most of the time.