InformationWeek 500 Winners And 20 Great Ideas To Steal

InformationWeek This Week - Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008

Editor's Note: Learning From The IT Leaders Great IT teams do a lot of things right. They keep systems up, they keep them secure, they understand business needs, they put out fires when needed. The top InformationWeek 500 companies do those things. But to make it to the very top of the ranking, they also have to deliver projects that propel the business forward, that help companies stay competitive and stand out in a brutally competitive business marketplace. It's these projects that I find most fascinating every year about the InformationWeek 500 research, which gives us a glimpse at the best work being done at IT shops around the country. Our extensive coverage includes profiles of our top five companies and their approaches to business technology. It includes "How They Did It" articles on specific projects by other standout companies, and a collection of 20 Great Ideas that we hope will spark efforts you can replicate in your companies. And this year, we have blog posts direct from executives, telling how they pulled off some of these high-profile projects. Please read our coverage, and share your thoughts. And please join me in congratulating National Semiconductor, this year's No. 1 company in the InformationWeek 500. Chris Murphy cjmurphy@techweb.com www.informationweek.com
1. InformationWeek 500 Trends: Web 2.0, Globalization, Virtualization, And More What the InformationWeek 500 data tells us about the use of emerging technologies. 2. Top 5 Companies -- No. 1: 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. -- No. 2: IT Extends Hilton's Welcome Mat 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. -- No. 3: 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. -- No. 4: Fiserv Banks On Facebook App To Lure Younger Customers 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. -- No. 5: SOA Lets Unum Simplify The Customer Experience Simply Unum will make it easier for Unum to introduce new benefits products and services. 3. How They Did It: Here's how six InformationWeek 500 companies successfully used productivity, customer intimacy, wireless, supply chain, emerging technology, and security technologies to transform their businesses. Productivity: Eli Lilly Orion Builds Efficiency Into Eli Lilly's R&D System Collaboration, automated data collection chores expedite delivery of new products. 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: Sempra Feeling The Heat, Sempra Scrambles To Restore Power Amid last year's wildfires in Southern California, the utility company's IT team establishes communications for a dozen temporary command centers. Information Security: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Secure Authentication Is Good Medicine For Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Fingerprint readers and pass code generators save caregivers time while complying with state laws. 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: Monsanto Monsanto's Collaborative Growth Plan By combining unified communications, IM, SharePoint, and blogs and wikis while protecting its IP, Monsanto is advancing teamwork. 4. 20 Great Ideas For You To Steal Go ahead and follow the lead of these innovative companies, which came up with ideas involving green technology, voice over IP, security, and more. 5. View The Lists View the listing of the top 250 companies sorted by rank or as a downloadable PDF. View the full listing of the 2008 InformationWeek 500 sorted alphabetically, sorted by industry or as a downloadable PDF file. 6. Virtualization: Microsoft's Price Versus VMware's Features Microsoft is betting many IT shops won't pay for VMware's more sophisticated features. Related Story: -- No End In Sight For Mix-And-Match Virtualization IT managers for some time will be cobbling together software to get the performance they want. More than 20,000 IT terms, more than 20,000 definitions: All at your fingertips, all in TechEncyclopedia Saw a TechWeb feature you want to see again? You are subscribed as morgan628@gmail.com. To unsubscribe from, subscribe to, or change your E-mail address for this newsletter, please visit the InformationWeek Subscription Center. Update your subscriber profile.	1. Firefox 3.1 Adds 'Porn Mode' Private Browsing The launch of Google's Chrome browser appears to have prompted Firefox's developers to be less leisurely in bringing the feature to market. 2. Physicists Start Testing Big Bang Theory Geneva's Large Hadron Collider became operational Wednesday; the device could shed light on the universe's origins. 3. Ubuntu Linux Vs. Windows Vista: The Battle For Your Desktop Is Linux finally ready to take on Windows as a desktop OS? We tried out both Vista and Ubuntu on individual PCs to see which works better. Here's who won. 4. Home Security Gets A Web Makeover Forget the closet control panel, today's Internet- and smartphone-enabled home security systems allow browser-based management, SMS updates, live video feeds, and money-saving DIY options. 5. Large Hadron Rap A Viral Hit Physicists testing the big bang theory in Geneva use hip-hop rhymes to explain their work. 6. Windows XP SP3 Sows Havoc, Users Complain The problems with XP SP3 range from spontaneous reboots to outright system crashes. 7. Apple Releases iPhone Update 2.1 To Fix Bugs The firmware update is expected to improve the accuracy of the 3G signal strength display, as well as decrease the number of dropped calls. 8. Review: 6 Ultrafast 802.11n Wi-Fi Routers Here's a look at 802.11n routers from Apple, Belkin, Buffalo, D-Link, Linksys, and Netgear. Read on to find out which device is your best choice. 9. Google Chrome, At-A-Glance Take a spin through our Google Chrome image gallery and have a look at the browser that's being touted as a game-changer. 10. Langa Letter: XP On Your Thumb Drive Fred Langa offers a step-by-step and illustrated guide on how to boot XP from an ordinary USB drive. InformationWeek Research And Reports Google Chrome: Our First Take We look at Chrome's strengths and weakness for enterprises, its impact for SaaS providers, and its level of security. 500 Top Innovators For 20 years, the InformationWeek 500 has examined the IT practices of America's best and brightest. This Analytics report, free for a limited time, includes the full results of our poll. It looks at the initiatives and strategies these 500 companies are employing to pave the way to technology innovation.
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