As for storage, "I will do anything I can to avoid buying another SAN in 2009," he said.

Menefee said his suppliers claim business is still good. "Today, vendors are telling us that they are seeing the decision-making process extend another two to three months, but they are still seeing deals go through," he said. As a result, "they still have a target dollar amount they think they can get from you."

Fortunately for Schumacher, most of its IT contracts don't come up for renewal until next year when Menefee

Menefee also plans to take a close look at his enterprise agreements with and see if it makes more sense to move back to a "Select" license. Enterprise agreements are Microsoft's premium license that offers users the most features, but at the highest cost. Select licenses omit certain features but can be much cheaper for less-demanding users.

Microsoft runs on all of Schumacher's desktops, as well as many of its servers, such as its 7TB billing system, which uses a SQL Server data warehouse.