In addition to streamlining HP's portfolio of projects and consolidating its data centers, Mott plans to reduce the company's total number of IT facilities from about 100 to 25 and reduce the amount of teleworkers within IT in an effort to foster more teamwork and collaboration. "We have an IT organization that looks more like a sales organization in terms of its spread," he said.

Mott has also told IT staffers to stop helping business units with technology work that isn't being done under the IT department's purview. HP transferred "a whole lot of people" from other business units into IT last October and then shifted more on Feb. 1 "because we didn't find them all" the first time, he said.

Like Mott, other Premier 100 attendees said they're augmenting their newfound portfolio management approaches with related stratagems designed to help make their IT operations more cost-effective.

Automatic Data Processing Inc.'s Dealer Services unit in Hoffman Estates, Ill., has launched a program to "parachute" business analysts into different IT operations to observe the work being done and make recommendations for boosting efficiency, said Jim Foote, the division's senior director of technical services.

Recently, for example, a business analyst who was assigned to the end-user support center at ADP Dealer Services suggested changes that helped reduce the time needed to handle trouble tickets by 60 to 90 seconds, Foote said.