Even when the CIO is convinced that investment into IT infrastructure is directly linked to the strengthening of its own core competencies, it’s still not easy deciding to prioritize and focus investment into IT over other competing business inputs, particularly given today’s management environment where many different stakeholders and their interests are intertwined. Realistically speaking, for most companies where specialized research into management information technologies will not be a core competency, there are limitations to how much a company can achieve on its own in identifying new IT technologies and applying them to actual business practice. Given the current management environment, choosing a reliable IT outsourcing partner, sharing the company’s management vision and objectives, and taking advantage of ideas and information on the latest trends offered by the service provider, which are a product of the partner’s capabilities – i.e. absorbing and incorporating the ideas into real practice - may be a more effective and strategic way of utilizing different information technology options.