Consumer-goods companies mare setting their sights on optimizing business efficiency.

The leading strategies for doing so among consumer-goods companies in the InformationWeek 500 are reengineering applications (91%), improving data integration (86%), and increasing automation (71%). Nearly a fifth of consumer-goods companies are outsourcing IT operations either offshore or domestically.

Though outsourcing didn't rank high, it continues to have appeal in the consumer-goods sector, where companies are particularly sensitive to costs. Among 21 industry sectors in the InformationWeek 500, the consumer-goods category ranked third, behind hospitality and travel and metals and natural resources, in percentage of respondents planning to pursue new global opportunities this year. Twenty-nine percent of consumer-goods companies expect to do so.

Kimberly-Clark is among them. The company "is well into its plan to outsource selected business-support services and is highly focused on its global marketing and innovation activities," VP and CIO Ramón Baez says in an e-mail. "Our IT team is an integral part of these activities as we continue to provide significant support to our businesses."

Kimberly-Clark's strategy reflects a cross-industry trend. In 2006, 63% of InformationWeek 500 respondents acknowledged contracting with outsourcers for services offshore. That number rose to 67% in 2007.