Despite the crunch, typical companies have so much old, complex IT that they can't think about cutting the staff or systems that keep it going. Pople calls that "entitlement spending" because, like federal programs such as Social Security and Medicaid, it's difficult to make drastic changes. Letting IT entitlements grow, he says, affects finance and procurement, making these functions more expensive to run than necessary.

Like many companies, FedEx used to build lots of systems specialized for single functions, such as customer service, with their own applications, hardware and databases. FedEx had been running decades-old software and hardware, including a networking architecture built in 1974 and a descendant of 1979-vintage airline transaction-processing software. "We had one or two of everything," Humphries says. The company also had to keep IT staff who knew how to care for the relics. He declines to say whether the company will reduce staff as it shuts down old technology. But he notes that let the average IT staff member support several business areas.

GE understands the ill effects of too many applications or other forms of complexity, which increase costs and slow the business down, Begley says. It has acquired at least five companies since 2010, all of which came with IT systems that had to be turned off or migrated. The energy division alone accounts for five recent acquisitions, including one company that brought in 39 ERP systems, Begley says. GE signed two more deals recently, which it's expected to close later this year.

Before Begley became CIO in 2010, GE had no formal time frames for integrating a typical acquisition, she says. "We said, 'Not OK.'" IT will make no headway in simplification if integrations languish, she says. Now, GE is working toward establishing a rule that it has to be done within 18 months. "That's enormous in this company."

Begley has also assigned 1,000 people to refine business processes as part of a project called GE Advantage. "This is about killing complexity. As you do, you get faster. You have speed, lower cost and the flexibility to go faster," Begley says. "It's about competitiveness."