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2008 InformationWeek 500
Presenting The 2008 InformationWeek 500

For 20 years, the InformationWeek 500 has tracked the technology practices of the nation's most innovative companies. This study offers a unique look at the business technology strategies, investments, and practices of some of America's best-known companies and is the most detailed source of industry-specific IT budget information around. Compare your company's initiatives with the businesses in the 21 industries examined in this study, across the full 500, or with companies in the ranked list of 250.

  • Pre-register for the 2009 InformationWeek 500
  • Get all the data in the InformationWeek 500 Analytics Report

  • Top Of List

    Ulrich Seif -- Photo by Kim Kulish #1 Top Company
    National Semiconductor
    IT Is At The Heart Of National Semiconductor's Business
    Innovation in service-oriented architecture and collaboration lands the electronics company at the top of the InformationWeek 500.


    #2 Hilton
    Hilton's Welcome Mat Starts On The Web
    From faster online reservations to letting guests pick a specific room in advance to self-service kiosks in its lobbies, Hilton keeps customers coming back -- and paying more.

    #3 Highmark
    IT Team Delivers Financial And Ecological Green For Highmark
    Two initiatives -- one to provide better business data and one to cut electricity costs -- show how IT can deliver bottom-line business value.

    #4 Fiserv
    To Stay Vital, Fiserv Courts The Facebook Crowd
    MyMoney is geared toward credit unions seeking to cater to younger, Internet-savvy customers who are unlikely to walk into a brick-and-mortar branch.

    #5 Unum
    Pleasing Customers Made Simpler At Unum, With SOA
    Simply Unum will make it easier for Unum to introduce new benefits products and services.


    How They Did It

    Here's how six companies successfully used productivity, customer intimacy, wireless, supply chain, emerging technology, and security technologies to transform their businesses.

    Productivity art Productivity: Eli Lilly
    Eli Lilly Initiative Helps R&D Make The Best Bets
    Collaboration, automated data collection chores expedite delivery of new products.

    Customer Intimacy art Customer Intimacy: Flextronics
    Flextronics' SOA Success A Hit For Customers, Partners
    Electronics manufacturer leverages service-oriented architecture into a higher level of customer service.

    Wireless art Wireless: Sempra
    Feeling The Heat, Sempra Scrambles To Restore Power
    Amid last year's California wildfires, the utility company's IT team establishes communications for a dozen temporary command centers.

    Information Security art Information Security: Cincinnati Children's Hospital
    Secure Authentication Is Key To Prescription Safety At Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
    Fingerprint readers and pass code generators save caregivers time while complying with state laws.

    Supply Chain Innovation art Supply Chain Innovation: PC Connection
    PC Connection Invests In The Future
    The tech reseller overhauls its fulfillment system using Web services and EDI.

    Emerging Technology art Emerging Technology: Monsanto
    Monsanto's Collaborative Growth Plan
    By combining unified communications, IM, SharePoint, and blogs and wikis while protecting its IP, Monsanto is advancing teamwork.


    2008 InformationWeek 500 Video


    Tech Standouts

    20 Great Ideas For You To Steal
    Go ahead and follow the lead of these innovative companies, which came up with ideas involving green tech, voice over IP, security, and more. Also, see what company principals have to say at our Great Ideas blog:

    blogger headshot Glen Grosslight, senior VP
    Wells Fargo Uses Market To Filter Out Innovative Ideas


    blogger headshot Yuri Aguiar, senior partner
    When Test Release Went Viral, Ogilvy Knew It Had A Hit With Web Transporter 1.0


    blogger headshot Frank B. Modruson, CIO
    Accenture Looks To Youth Culture To Work More Efficiently And Ubiquitously


    blogger headshot Aaron Crossen, IT senior director, Cigna Pharmacy
    Web Tools Help Cigna Tackle Ballooning Health Care Costs


    blogger headshot Marc Nadeau, director, U.S. IT project management
    Convergence Saves PricewaterhouseCoopers Money And Boosts Staff Mobility


    blogger headshot Audrey Pantas, chief information risk officer
    Xerox's Path To Managing Information Risk


    Slideshows

    2008 InformationWeek 500 Top 5
    The InformationWeek 500 Top 5
    How does a company rise to the top of the InformationWeek 500? In this gallery, the CIOs of National Semiconductor, Hilton Hotels, Highmark, Fiserv, and Unum tell how they did in their own words.

    Innovation Leaders art Innovation Leaders
    Meet the InformationWeek 500 Innovation superstars. The CIOs of Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Eli Lilly, Flextronics, Monsanto, PC Connection, and Sempra Energy tackled complex IT challenges and completed them with distinction. Click through these slides and learn how they did it.

    Extreme IT sample image Extreme IT: Systems That Can Take A Beating
    GM, U.S. Steel, the American Red Cross, and other members of the InformationWeek 500 put their IT systems to the test -- in factories, coal mines, laboratories, steel mills, construction sites, and even in the wake of natural disasters. See how IT gets the job done under tough conditions.

    20 Years Of InformationWeek 500 gatefold art 20 Years Of Innovative Ideas
    Through the years, the companies on our list have delivered in two areas -- innovation and execution.


    Research Findings and Methodology

    The InformationWeek 500 Analytics Report
    For 20 years, the InformationWeek 500 has tracked the IT practices of the nation's most innovative IT organizations. The InformationWeek 500 analytics report examines business and technology best practices, IT investments, and provides industry comparisons. Use these findings to benchmark your company's strategies against the nation's most innovative users of IT as identified by the 2008 InformationWeek 500.

    InformationWeek 500 Trends: Web 2.0, Globalization, Virtualization, And More
    What the InformationWeek 500 data tells us about the use of emerging technologies.

    Selection Of The InformationWeek 500
    The InformationWeek 500 spotlights the power of innovation, rather than just identifying the biggest IT spenders.


    View The Lists
    View the top 250 companies sorted by rank or as a downloadable PDF file. View the full listing of the 2008 InformationWeek 500 sorted alphabetically, sorted by industry or as a downloadable PDF file. (Note: PDF files require Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

    Down To Businesss

    Rob Preston Rob Preston
    What IT Pro Has Time To Think About The Business?
    Well, only the most valuable ones. Strategic thinking is everyone's business, even if your organization's culture and hierarchy are holding you back.