Application Support and Maintenance (ASM) is an RTB spend that has increased over time. Primarily, this is because ASM has become an important, recurring revenue stream for IT Vendors, who are therefore less inclined to help the CIO radically lower this spend. Therefore, the very contract that defines and protects this predictable revenue for IT vendors, tends to limit cost savings for the CIO. While other IT Vendors are motivated to keep growing their ASM engagement, it is important to proactively try to kill it by adopting cost reduction approaches.