Of Studley's plans for technology investments or development in the future Hipschman says, "We are looking at our infrastructure in communications and products that directly work for our clients. We want something that our clients can actually touch themselves." He says Studley develops its own products to meet its specific needs by buying and creating pieces and then combining them.

Earlier this week at the Information Management Network's conference on carrier hotels and Internet data centers, most of the various speakers agreed that outsourcing would continue to grow as a trend for bricks and mortar companies. Hipschman says this is not so for Studley; the company seeks to reduce outsourcing and work in-house as much as possible, which he explains reduces costs and production time.

While Hipschman says he cannot reveal specifically what products the company is working on for itself, he does say, "From our standpoint, we've already budgeted for a number of investments, as in the past, and we'll prioritize them to do the most important in this first quarter and then feel out the economy and other factors and then decide what to do from there."

Of the environment for technology in general he concludes, "My perception is that in the market everyone is scared. People are pulling back. In some ways this becomes self-feeding. While everyone is waiting stock prices suffer and companies suffer from a lack of customers and investment capital."