This marks the 23rd year the InformationWeek 500 shines a spotlight on IT innovation by identifying and recognizing business technology teams that have made a notable difference in how their companies do business.

The InformationWeek 500 is open to companies with revenue of $250 million or more. (This year we made a few exceptions by considering some companies just below that cutoff that were highly IT-intensive.) Qualifying companies must complete a rigorous application about their business technology strategies. The process is both quantitative and qualitative, whereby applicants are ranked based on their responses to a questionnaire and are also evaluated based on the innovation they outline in an essay submission.

Completed applications are reviewed by a panel of InformationWeek editors, who determine the final ranking.

The data is aggregated across all InformationWeek 500 companies and by industry. Individual responses are kept confidential and individual company data is never disclosed without permission.

The 2012 IW 500 application period opens in December. You can preregister for next year at informationweek.com/500/prereg. For more information, visit the InformationWeek 500 Resource Center. Send questions about the process to iw500@techweb.com.

A report on the 2011 InformationWeek 500, which includes all the aggregated data from the survey including IT spending broken down by 21 industries, can be downloaded at informationweek.com/analytics/2011/500. The report is free with registration.