This column salutes the IT industry for reaching far beyond the walls of competition to serve the victims of a terrible disaster. Thank you all for your outstanding collaboration and for leveraging your expertise to make an important difference in so many lives.

-- Bart Perkins is managing partner at Louisville, Ky.-based Leverage Partners Inc., which helps organizations invest well in IT. He was previously CIO at Tricon Global Restaurants Inc. and Dole Food Co. Contact him at BartPerkins@ LeveragePartners.com.