InformationWeek

Company: Vanguard Group

Industry: Banking & Financial Services

Key IT Executive: Paul Heller, CIO

Key IT Initiatives This Year: Implemented eVanguard initiative to help employees collaborate better, making a once-static portal a tool for interaction. The employee portal also has become a testing ground for Web 2.0 tools that Vanguard can bring to its customer Web site.

Key Past Successes: Security and availability are the No. 1 priorities for any online efforts, and Vanguard's customer-facing Web site is available more than 99.8% of the time.

In Their Own Words: On its eVanguard project, "When we did the analysis and looked at the [employee] hours that are somewhat unproductive... if we could take 10% of the friction out, it was a no brainer."