Results of 23rd Annual InformationWeek 500 Honoring Nation's Most Innovative Users of Business Technology Announced

DANA POINT, Calif., Sept. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- InformationWeek released its annual InformationWeek 500 honoring the most innovative U.S.-based users of business technology.  The rankings and research results were announced Tuesday evening during the annual InformationWeek 500 Conference held at the St. Regis Monarch Beach, Dana Point, California.  For complete coverage of the 2011 InformationWeek 500, visit: www.informationweek.com/500.

The top ten companies in the 2011 ranking are:

1. PACCAR Inc.  
2. Levi Strauss & Company
3. Waste Management, Inc.  
4. Quintiles
5. Catalina Marketing Corporation
6. Associated Press
7. ADP  
8. The Procter & Gamble Company
9. United Stationers Supply Company
10. Vail Resorts, Inc.

"For 23 years, the InformationWeek 500 has honored the most innovative users of business technology," said InformationWeek VP and Editor In Chief Rob Preston.  "If there's one common thread we're hearing in our discussions with CIOs, it's the tremendous pressure they're under to deliver technology projects and programs faster, in order to support and drive business.  This year's list highlights the companies that are using technology to turbo-charge execution and growth—managing operations more efficiently, investing more wisely, delighting customers more consistently, and managing risk more profitably."

Thirty percent of InformationWeek 500 CIOs have a formal responsibility for innovation, in addition to their IT jobs.  2011 top innovation plans include:

• 54% are making business processes more efficient
• 45% are introducing new IT-led products or services for customers, up from 40% a year ago
• 40% are getting better business intelligence to more employees, faster

Cloud computing adoption continues, and is expanding into new realms, InformationWeek 500 research shows.  When asked which Web technologies they are adopting, 79% say software as a service, showing that SaaS is firmly established.  Infrastructure as a service is used by 59%, shooting up from 37% two years ago. Development platforms as a service are used by just 19%, little changed from 17% last year.

"Cloud isn't overhyped.  It's just that the term cloud computing is used to describe a huge swath of technology," said Chris Murphy, Editor of InformationWeek.  "This research brings some clarity: cloud software is entrenched, cloud infrastructure is expanding fast, and cloud development platforms still look like emerging tech."

The InformationWeek 500 is unique among corporate rankings as it spotlights the power of innovation in information technology, not the biggest IT spenders.

This year's InformationWeek 500 Conference featured several keynote addresses including:

• Keynote interview where HP Chairman Ray Lane and Chief Technology Strategy Officer Shane Robison discussed HP's change in strategy and the confusion that followed in the market.  HP announced in August that it would buy the software company Autonomy, end production of the TouchPad tablet computer, and explore spinning off its PC business.  The executives acknowledged the company didn't communicate the changes well, and they explained how HP will become a strictly enterprise-focused IT vendor with particular depth in managing unstructured data—the 85% of information that isn't managed within the columns and rows of conventional databases.
• Keynote interview with FedEx Corp CIO Rob Carter about what he calls the New Era of "Dominant Design," in which servers, networks, storage, and software have reached a level of standardization that IT, for the first time, can provide truly general purpose computing power.  Carter described how the company's new Colorado data center gives FedEx greater agility and speed because of this more flexible computing capacity.
• Sir Ken Robinson explored misconceptions about creativity, such as that people are either creative or not and nothing can be done to hone their creative skills.  Leaders should reject these misconceptions and instead build a corporate culture that makes creativity a part of every employee's role.    
• Paul DePodesta, the VP of Player Development for the New York Mets, talked about using data to make better judgments about players.  DePodesta, whose work with A's general manager Billy Beane is portrayed in the book Moneyball, talked about how difficult it is to put long-held practices aside and make data-driven decisions.  "The only thing we were going to be wed to is being open minded," DePodesta said.

More than 325 of the nation's CIOs attended the annual InformationWeek 500 Conference – a "who's who" in technology purchasing power – including top IT leaders of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Best Buy, Coca-Cola Enterprises, E. & J. Gallo Winery, FedEx Corporation, JetBlue Airways Corporation, Eli Lilly and Company, Lowe's Companies, Inc., Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, San Francisco Giants, Southern Company Services, and The Boeing Company.

Highlights from the live conference, as well as exclusive content will be presented in a virtual environment on October 6th.  To register for the virtual event, please visit: http://www.techwebonlineevents.com/ars/eventregistration.do?mode=eventreg&F=1003446&K=MAA1.

This year's InformationWeek 500 Conference was sponsored by: Cognizant, Dell and Intel, HCL Technologies Infrastructure Services Division, IBM, Information Builders, Microsoft, MphasiS (An HP Company), Rimini Street, Inc., Riverbed, SuccessFactors, Syniverse, VMware, Vidyo, Inc., and Workday.

To download the 2011 InformationWeek 500 research report, including exclusive profiles, research, and the full list of winners, please visit www.informationweek.com/500.

For more information, contact:
Winnie Ng-Schuchman
VP of Marketing
InformationWeek Business Technology Network
wng@techweb.com

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The InformationWeek Business Technology Network provides IT executives with unique analysis and tools that parallel their work flow—from defining and framing objectives through to the evaluation and recommendation of solutions. Anchored by InformationWeek, the multimedia powerhouse that looks across the enterprise, the network scales across the most critical technology categories with online properties like DarkReading.com (security), NetworkComputing.com (networking and communications) and BYTE (consumer technology). The network also provides focused content for key IT targets, such as CIOs, developers, and SMBs via InformationWeek Global CIO, Dr. Dobb's and InformationWeek SMB, as well as vital vertical industries with InformationWeek Financial Services, Government and Healthcare sites. Content is at the nucleus of our information distribution strategy—IT professionals turn to our experts and communities to stay informed, get advice and research technologies to make strategic business decisions.

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