Research (The McKinsey Quarterly, March 2009) shows that 40 percent of pre-recession leadership organisations will lose their lead during a recession. Many things can contribute to this, but IT’s ability to respond quickly, effectively and economically is fundamental. Your applications must do what you need at a cost you can afford. The result is a leaner, more agile operation and a distinct competitive advantage for your business in the long run. There is a 'cost of doing nothing' in your application environment. Running unresponsive and brittle legacy applications reduces the innovation budget required to increase service level and revenue growth initiatives. It is critical to transform and modernise applications and supporting infrastructure to achieve the business outcomes you need right now. Start today on your path to application integration and transformation in each of the three key areas:     Transform your applications from maintenance spend to business innovation     Transform technology architectures to deliver more valuable business services     Balance competitive advantage, innovation and cost