Are We Power-Hungry, Or Just Lazy?

I was recently arguing with an analyst friend who told me that, in his opinion, software-as-a-service (SaaS) and service-oriented architecture (SOA) are gaining more traction in the manufacturing marketplace because they put some power back in the hands of the CEO and CFO, who no longer have to just meekly take their place in the IT priority line.

I told him that I thought SOA and SaaS played into the DIFM (do it for me) trend that characterizes the increasing power of the service economy in this country. His response was that DIFM is just an acronym for laziness.

I would have reminded him that intelligence often masquerades as laziness (which answers the age-old question "If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?"), but I was already too tired from all the arguing, so I had to let it go.

In fact, why don't I let you answer for me is this tech trend a power grab, or intelligence-as-laziness?