Brad,

I will echo what others have said here, the conservative approach is going to trump many time saving solutions.

Having said that, I enjoy those solutions that add something to a product that I use. As an example, long before SQL 2008 came out and included "intellisense", RedGate had SQL Prompt. SQL Prompt made my life way easier and I became more productive. Not to mention all of the fantastic hints and code guides. SQL Prompt it still by far favored by me over the Microsoft solution.

We use other products as well, but just because they are not Microsoft provided solutions does not make them bad. Think about ways to consolidate usage reporting and such. There are scripts and reports and all of that sort of stuff that can be implemented, but why not buy something that offers the same capabilities? As long as it does not prove to drag performance down there is no harm.