Whether companies require specific tech talent for a project or need extra help meeting a business uptick brought by the recovering economy, corporate IT departments depend on the contract workforce.

For CIOs, temporary staff offer the experience required to complete a specific task without the need, and cost, of permanently keeping them on the payroll. IT staffing firms see contractors as helping companies stay flexible and meeting the work peaks and lulls that accompany a recovering economy. In either scenario, contractors have been, and will continue to be, in demand for enterprise IT, according to CIOs and hiring experts.

Moving to Salesforce.com's CRM platform a few years ago meant that InsideTrack, which offers academic coaching services to college students, required specific personnel who could build custom applications. Without the proper "internal knowledge or expertise in how to leverage" the platform, the San Francisco company, which counts Columbia University and Florida State University as customers, wondered "how do we develop on top of it?" said CIO Derald Sue. Hiring and training workers didn't fit the company's budget or schedule, said Sue.

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