Global change

Surely only in the information technology industry can a company that is just a decade old stand out as the most strategically important judged against much more established peers.

That company, of course, is Google, the only organisation to be voted for by all 30 of our judges in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. In honour of that notable achievement, it has been singled out to lead a list of global profiles that are otherwise in alphabetical order.

There are some other changes to the MIS Strategic 100 this year because we felt that too much weight was being given to local companies and start-ups.

As a result, the 2009 issue includes 75 global organisations, 15 established local companies and a further 10 that members of our judging panel identified as rising stars.

The past 12 months has certainly been challenging for the vendor community, with plenty of merger and acquisition activity, headcount reduction and missed financial targets. Much of this action is detailed in the pages that follow.

Services giant Electronic Data Systems (EDS) is no more, having been rebadged as the enterprise services arm of Hewlett-Packard a year after it was acquired for $US13.9 billion.

Another industry stalwart is also on the way out, with Oracle awaiting clearance from the European Commission to complete its $US7.4 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems.

But these and others have been acquired in recent times kept their place in the Strategic 100 because our judges thought they had retained enough of their own brand identity to warrant a mention.

We hope you find this issue a useful guide to the technology companies that matter to business today. As always, your feedback is appreciated.

Brian Corrigan
Editor, MIS Australia

Get back on track

Brian Corrigan

The amazing year we've just had has been a mixed bag - some companies thrived under pressure while others crumbled. But as the economy rebounds, CIOs who take advantage of opportunities for growth will be singled out as the star performers. Read more 

How we selected: The 75 companies profiled in the following pages are the ones CIOs cannot afford to ignore. They are the big players, those that influence the buying patterns around Australia and the rest of the world. They will be in CIOs' minds whenever they have potential purchasing decisions to make, no matter what their areas of expertise. To qualify for the list, the companies must have a significant presence in the Australian market and service a large portion of their revenue from outside their domestic markets. These companies were selected by a panel of 30 judges across the Asia-Pacific region.

How we selected: How we selected: There is a vibrant and increasingly competitive local IT sector, so this year's MIS Strategic 100 has dedicated these pages entirely to Australian-based vendors. The fierce competition to make it on to the list of the most tactically important operators in the region has certainly proved impressive. Our expert judging panel chose the following 15 from an extensive cast of local players. These companies were selected by the Australian-based judges.

How we selected: The 10 Rising Stars are often very new businesses, but ones that show signs of seriously influencing the way technology is bought or deployed. Many of these companies can expect rapid growth, to make acquisitions, be acquired, or otherwise significantly increase their presence in the marketplace over the next 12 months. This is an early warning to take note of companies that are already impressing savvy CIOs. The list was compiled after suggestions were made by our expert judges throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

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