CIO 100 Awards: Questions & Answers

What We're Looking For

The CIO 100 Awards celebrate 100 organizations (and the people within them) that are using information technology in innovative ways to deliver business value, whether by creating competitive advantage, optimizing business processes, enabling growth or improving relationships with customers.

Perhaps you took a risk on an emerging technology, or deployed the tried and true in a new way. Maybe you built a better business process, or fostered closer collaboration. Or you found ways to get more from existing customers, to pursue new markets, to save money, to make more. Here's your chance to tell your peers about the technology innovations that have enabled or led the way to greater success for your organization.

To be selected, applicants must show not only that they have executed their project well, but that they have done so in uncommon, innovative ways: pioneering a new technology, applying a familiar technology to a new purpose, setting the bar higher for their competitors. And they must demonstrate business value, not just IT benefits.

Note: This is not an award for technology vendors' products; however, we will consider the value (revenue) of technology-driven services that leverage a company's nontechnology core competency (banking, health care, moving freight), as long as the service is a natural extension of what the company does.

What's in It for You

A CIO 100 award is an acknowledged mark of enterprise excellence. In a 2003 survey by PR Week magazine, CEOs named the CIO 100 among the top 10 most influential corporate scorecards anywhere, compiled by any publication or organization. Because the award is given to companies rather than individuals, it's an honor everyone on your staff can take pride in. Executives from companies honored in 2008 will be recognized among their peers and colleagues at the CIO 100 Symposium and Awards ceremony, to be held at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo., Aug. 24-26, 2008.

How We Judge the CIO 100 Awards

The year's CIO 100 honorees will be chosen by the CIO editorial team based on information submitted in the online application. Due to the high volume of applications, we are unable to review any additional materials. Entrants are encouraged to include any information about their project or initiative that they would like the judges to consider in their answers to the questions on the application.

Each entry will be judged based on how it compares to all other entries submitted. Honorees are not ranked.

Criteria

To be selected for a CIO 100 award, you must demonstrate excellence in:

Primary Criteria

To be selected for a CIO 100 award, you must demonstrate excellence in:

• Business Technology Innovation: The extent to which your organization used IT in a new way, or enabled new ways of doing business, whether internally or externally.
• Business Value: The measurable impact, backed up by supporting data, that your project or initiative has had on your organization.

Secondary Criteria

Demonstrated excellence in these areas will enhance your application compared to those of other entrants.

• Collaboration: The extent to which your project fostered greater collaboration, whether internally or among your organization's partners and/or customers.
• Leadership: The measurable impact, backed up by supporting data, that your project or initiative has had on your organization's business results.

Judging Process

Each application will be read by two members of the CIO 100 judging team, who will rate it on a scale of 1 to 5 for each criterion. Applications that receive a total score of 13 or higher (out of a possible 20) enter a second round of scrutiny. All scores will be kept confidential within the CIO 100 judging team. They will not be released publicly, nor will they be discussed with any individual applicants. The honorees are not ranked.

Increase Your Chances of Winning

Applications that focus on the business goals and results of the project and provide detailed answers to all questions have a better chance of winning. The most successful are written by the CIO or other business-oriented IT manager with input from both business stakeholders and technical staff. If you are an IT vendor who would like to nominate a partner or customer for a CIO 100 Award, we strongly advise you to enlist the CIO or another IT manager within the organization you wish to nominate to submit the application for themselves.

In order to win a CIO 100 award, applicants must provide data and examples that support their claims of innovation and business value. For example, it is not enough to tell us that a sales support system enabled your company to increase its market share. You must also provide numbers such as your market share before and after the project, how your rank changed among your competitors or other metrics that illustrate your claim.

Plus One Awards

CIO 100 Award recipients will each be eligible for an additional award, honoring outstanding achievement toward a business goal as indicated in their applications. Only one Plus One Award will be made per category. A maximum of six Plus One recipients may be selected. CIO reserves the right to combine or eliminate categories if necessary to make the awards competitive.

Winners will be judged for the Plus One Awards against other winners who selected the same business goal in their application. No additional information is required beyond what is provided in the CIO 100 application, nor will supplemental materials be considered. The 2008 Plus One Award recipients will be announced at the CIO 100 Awards Ceremony, Aug. 26, 2008, at the Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, Colo.

How We Use Your Information

The information you provide in your CIO 100 application will be used internally by CIO for purposes of judging the awards and may be used in articles (both in print and online) or other publicity relating to the CIO 100 Awards. Application information will be used for editorial purposes only, with the exception of contact information and vendor information, which may be used to market CIO content and programs.

If you have information about your project (such as internal metrics) that you would prefer not be published, but which you would like us to consider as part of your application, please note this in the text box where the information appears, or in the case of answers to multiple-choice questions, in the nearest text box.

Deadlines

The 2009 CIO 100 application will be available online this fall. The application deadline will be early in 2009. Honorees will be notified by e-mail and in a letter in mid-May 2009, and will be included in coverage of the awards online on CIO.com and in the CIO 100 special issue published in August 2009.