CIOs, take note: In today's midmarket environment, application development is a huge priority. In fact, it's the top strategic IT priority for 2007, according to CIO Decisions research of nearly 400 subscribers. One-third said they exclusively build applications in house, while another third said they use a mix of staff and contractors. The final third said they use staff, contractors and partners.

That's not to say they don't buy software as well. Commodity or standard applications (think Office) plus many flavors of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, among other types, are much more often bought than built. But in today's IT shop, buy vs. build is not a binary choice. Like the Toyota Prius, a hybrid model is taking hold.