You can get terms in your agreements that allow you a lot of flexibility - things like platform independence or processor independence or version upgrades or the ability to prevent a vendor from splitting product enhancements in two and calling it two different products. You can really work the terms so that you have a very malleable agreement. And in IT, the more malleable your terms, the more technically agile you have made your organization. Other structures and tools would also include a business strategy and an IT strategy document. It's pretty tough to develop a multiyear investment picture unless the business has laid the groundwork.
Organizational setup is also critical.
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