Chief information officers (CIOs) should make prolific use of social networking systems to boost staff morale and retain key knowledge, according to a 2009 resolution list for IT leaders released by analyst Gartner.

According to the list, the CIO survival path under reduced budgets consists of using collaboration tools to invest in core strengths and to openly communicate internally and externally to "rebuild brand confidence, energise the company culture, develop ideas and refine solutions".

Strategic moves proposed by the analyst include the creation of people networks to maintain complex and legacy skills, and to identify new talent amid the thousands of IT workers now available in the market.

Off-line social skills will also come into play when recruiting key IT staff into the business. Gartner suggests that CIOs make better use of personal networking to identify ideal candidates for the most important mid to senior positions to fill during 2009, then discuss the possibility of holding fewer senior job slots open in return for a higher reduction target elsewhere.

CIOs should not lay off the people they will need long-term, such as enterprise architects and emerging technologies staff, as it will be harder to replace them later, said Gartner. Instead, IT leaders should enact tactical redeployment to other ongoing projects.

But cost saving will be a balancing act for businesses during 2009, and CIOs will need to "reset" their relationship with vendors and require more flexibility from their existing agreements, according to the analyst.

"Suppliers will be keen on staying in close touch, working hard to attract CIOs off-site for 'face time', so CIOs must resolve to politely decline vendor courtesy trips in 2009 and signal a reset to a new style of interchange," said John Mahoney, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

"[CIOs] should identify the senior management leader in each of their key v endors, probably not the day-to-day account managers, and invite them to lunch or dinner at a chain restaurant venue that sets a starkly thrifty tone to discuss the value-driven cost optimisation that are required to deliver in 2009. "