Mary Mullins's Profile

What does it mean for businesses? So far, it means more outsourcing. The
benefit is pretty straightforward: Rather than keep your own I.T. staff, buy
your own computers and software and struggle to make it work, you can pay an
outsourcing company a flat fee to handle those headaches. These days that idea
is so popular that IBM saw its North American outsourcing business grow 45% last
quarter, a spokesman told me. (See editor's note below)

As quickly as business conditions are changing, the technology services could
still stumble in 2009. But so far, they're looking better than hardware.

--Editor's note: A previous version of this story reported that an
IBM spokesman said the company's North American outsourcing business grew 34%
last quarter. It grew 45%.