With 34% of budgets devoted to salaries and benefits, this vertical industry is looking strongly toward deploying business intelligence tools (75%) and wireless e-mail (100%) to raise productivity. About 50% have BI tools in widespread deployment and another 50% have it in limited use. Today's limited use of Linux (75%) could portend another IT trend in the not-so-distant future. The charts below outline the business, technology, and budgeting strategies of the metal and natural resources companies selected in the InformationWeek 500.