Its a classic exercise for the kids: The house is on fire. You can only save ten of your beloved possessions. What do you grab? Okay, now the rules have changed: You can only save nine items. Any six. Any four. As your options get narrower and narrower, what do you save?
The economy may be a few steps away from its darkest lows, but were still in a recession, and information officers are finding themselves in a cruel real-life version of that once-silly kids game. Were cutting your budget by 10 percent. Who do you want to save? Were cutting by 20 percent. Were cutting by 25 percent. Who makes the cut, and why? And how do you fill the gaps created by those who are gone?
We asked these questions of CIOs and other high-level tech decision makers. Of course, asking who youd save in the event of cutbacks is awfully close to asking who you wouldnt save. Thats a topic that makes everybody nervous, so we promised not to use any real namescompany or personalin this article.

When it comes to naming the most crucial position in an insurance IT department, many CIOs, particularly from small and mid-sized carriers, came down foursquare behind their database administrators. One, head of a fairly large P&C operation in Pennsylvania, put it bluntly: Regardless of what language youre programming in or what packaged application youre using to run your company, at the end of the day its all about the data. If you dont have anybody to help you manage the databases, you wont be able to make the correct decisions to run your company.
Finding someone outside the company wasnt an option, even if it cost less. Nobody felt you could simply replace a good DBA with a random consultant from the outside and expect that consultant to do just as good a job. Reports are a never-ending need, said the CIO of one small specialty lines carrier in New York City. The network issues could be outsourced, but the database administrator is woven into what we do every day.
Also high on the list of critical employees are software developers, even with the market still somewhat saturated with dot-com refugees. Coders with that same hip-deep level of integration usually find themselves protected as wellits hard to outsource support for a program you created in-house; you might end up having to bring back the people you let go, this time as high-paid consultants.
You gotta have someone who understands whats going on [with the companys software], said the CIO of a mid-sized Dallas-based P&C company. I can outsource other technical activities, he explained, but proprietary software dictates a dedicated staff.
A CIO of a small company agrees: We have a lot of proprietary applications, and they need to be supported. Thats not a job you can run a classified to fill.
Programmers security may also be dependent on the companys focus. Someone proficient with imaging applications is relatively safe if the company is beginning a document management program. And someone with a broad knowledge of mainframes and integration will do well in a merger-happy environment, as the vice-president of technology at a small (for now, apparently) Phoenix-based life insurance company pointed out. Acquisitions are our number one area of growth, he said. Programmers are absolutely vital to the merging of the various computer systems.
If push came to shove, many CIOs would look to outsource such matters as networking and infrastructure, but others saw that as far too basic a need to farm out. You need to continue to run your business, said a CIO of an all-lines P&C carrier; he would keep the network team protected.
Another CIOthis one from a mid-size life insurerlists the network team just after his senior software developer, saying, Without them, theres no way to deploy all that new programming the software guy is doing.

Chiefs or Indians?
An interesting thought division came up when asked about keeping IT managers, or those they manage. Some felt that good leaders are harder to find than good grunts, while others expected to reduce the number of managers while broadening the responsibilities of those who stayed.
Were a hands-on organization, said one CIO who put his management team at the top of his list. Were all working people, including myself. Others echoed the point, opting to hang on to the vice-president of software development, or the chief architect. But others took the precise opposite view.
Wed combine units and eliminate some management so we can hang on to the people who do the work, said the CIO of one large national health insurer.
There is one employee above all others who is safest when the axe starts to fall. This persons title might not reflect her (or his) indispensability, but it might. If she does have an appropriate title, its usually something like relationship manager. You probably know who we mean: The person who combines deep-rooted technical savvy with insurance-industry know-how. There are tech people who happen to work for insurance companies, and insurance people who know some technology, but this person has both sides down pat.
As one CIO of a mid-sized all-lines company put it, We need someone who is technical enough to say to the businesspeople, I know you want this project done and it sounds very simple, but heres why your idea wont work. But he also has the business knowledge to say to the others [in the tech group] who want to advance their own projects, This wont work for the business, and here are five reasons why not.
That kind of person is even more crucial because he not only knows technology and insurance, but your technology and your business. Thats also not something you can advertise for; it takes years to build the knowledge base. One CIO puts it even more plainly: I cant outsource to people who understand my business.
And even if you could find someonean outsourcer or consultantwho knows your business and your software, that doesnt mean all is peaches and cream. As a CIO from a mid-size P&C carrier said, outside vendors and third-party business partners, can be, quite frankly, difficult. And that emphasizes the need for that relationship manager. Only someone with a full balance of business and tech talents can adequately communicate with these outside companies.
Its more important for the business problems to get solved than for the tech problems to get solved, chimes in an executive vice-president of a large mortgage and insurance company. And another, a vice-president of human resources at one of the largest insurance companies in the nation, said, We are not a technology company. We are an employee benefits company, and we must be focused on providing service to our clients.