A downturn in the economic climate and an upturn in the technological climate might be higher education IT's "perfect storm." The confluence of budget cuts with the increased reliance on technology in almost all disciplines and administrative areas has put enormous pressure on campus IT leaders to pinpoint and fund tech services that achieve efficiencies--and maybe even push innovation--without breaking the bank. With so many new tools available on the horizon, and so many opportunities for incorporating technology throughout college campuses, deciding on which areas to direct limited budget dollars becomes a monumental task. Campus Technology recently spoke with four higher education IT leaders--Wayne Brown, vice president for information technology at Excelsior College (online); Joel Hartman, CIO and vice provost at the University of Central Florida; Karl Herleman, CIO and vice provost at Miami Dade College (Florida); and Kamran Khan, vice provost for information technology at Rice University (Texas)--to explore how they have gone about making those tough budgetary decisions, which types of projects they consider necessary to fund with their limited tech dollars, and which new technologies have allowed them to eliminate spending categories from their budgets and redirect those monies toward new, innovative IT practices. This article presents the top five areas of IT investment identified by the leadership panel. (Contains 5 online resources.)