You are right on target when you noted that most IT Strategic Sourcing/Procurement folks do not have all the right skill sets with assisting IT and IT needs to ensure they have all the information they need to always be successful. No doubt the Strategic IT Sourcing/Procurement forlks are experts in their own right when it comes to company process and procedure in the acquisition and renewal effors of IT products and services, just as their non-IT counterparts. This is tremendous guardianship, however, the ultimate accountability of the solution rests with IT and that’s why we are starting to see some other acquisition and renewal models with resources such as IT Vendor Managers on the IT payroll who is the torchbearer for those IT Directors and VP’s and interfaces with the IT Strategic Sourcing and Procurement folks to ensure the solution is the best solution at the right price with the right value adds not only for the business unit, but also for the enterprise. Most successful IT Vendor Managers are ex-delivery Managers and Directors from the hard-core IT side of the house and have the needed needed solutioning context as well as scars on their chest to prove their worth. From my perspective, this new IT Vendor Management model with its utlimate built-it IT accountability and quarterbacking-like cross-functional value (one or two reports from the CIO office) is gaining more popularity as a viable cost-and-value-enterprise-solution (CAVES) approach to treat IT as a business enterprise. One final note, I would like to dispell a common myth among some strategic sourcing folks which is, that IT services are not commodities and if you try to commoditize services you will most likely get a sub-standard solution.