NEW YORK, December 8, 2003 – Ziff Davis Media’s CIO Insight magazine, the premier information source for best practices for IT business leaders, announced today that Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. was named the recipient of the second annual Partners in Alignment Award. General Motors Corporation and Marriott International were also recognized for their efforts in aligning technology with business strategy. The awards were presented during CIO Insight’s Alignment Award dinner in New York, sponsored by Citrix Systems, Inc., a leading provider of access infrastructure solutions.
The Partners in Alignment Award recognizes the ongoing collaboration and communication that is required throughout an organization to have a successful business-IT partnership.
“Sustaining an alignment advantage takes discipline and commitment that starts at the top of an organization,” said Ellen Pearlman, vice president and editor-in-chief of CIO Insight. While all three finalists met those criteria, Harrah’s stood out because it not only aligned IT with the business, but it aligned the business with IT too. As Harrah’s noted in its winning entry, “In the end, the business strategy is the IT strategy.”
The judges also commented on the winning partnership of Harrah’s Gary Loveman, CEO and Tim Stanley, CIO which “operationally and strategically made Harrah’s as much a hi-tech company as an entertainment company.” Critically important to its win was its understanding of the customer. The judges continued, “most companies only dream about understanding the customer. Harrah’s strategy established a vision for understanding the customer in entirely new ways and its IT organization met the challenge. It integrated complex systems and provided the infrastructure, connectivity, raw information, analytics and real-time interfaces to turn customer understanding into business results.”
A panel of eight distinguished judges selected by CIO Insight evaluated companies based on a variety of criteria: a clearly articulated business and IT strategy; processes and governance structures that foster alignment; technology investments that accelerate the company’s business strategy and metrics that measure the results; measurable financial results; and management practices that encourage a culture of collaboration.
The award judges included the following individuals:
About Ziff Davis CIO Insight
Ziff Davis CIO Insight is a strategic business journal for today’s senior IT decision makers. Its mission: to provide IT executives with cutting-edge strategies, management techniques and technology perspectives. Each month, Ziff Davis CIO Insight provides an IT business source that senior-level technology executives can depend on for strategic business thinking and proprietary research. Writers are either proven experts in their fields or journalists who are well versed in technology and management issues. As a result of this elevated editorial approach, Ziff Davis CIO Insight reaches a predictive group of CIOs, CTOs and vice presidents of IT/IS/MIS. Ziff Davis CIO Insight’s subscribers include only IT executives who are charged with setting their company’s IT business goals, direction, strategy and budget.
About Ziff Davis Media Inc.
Ziff Davis Media is a global special interest media company focusing on the technology and electronic videogame markets. The Company is a leading information services provider of all technology media including publications, websites, conferences, events, eSeminars, eNewsletters, custom publishing, list rentals, research and market intelligence. In the United States, the Company publishes 10 market-leading magazines including PC Magazine, eWEEK, Baseline, CIO Insight, Electronic Gaming Monthly, Computer Gaming World, Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, GameNow, Xbox Nation and GMR. The Company exports the power of its brands internationally with publications in 43 countries and 20 languages. Ziff Davis Media leverages its content on the Internet with seven highly-targeted technology and gaming sites including PCMag.com, eWEEK.com, ExtremeTech.com and 1UP.com. With its main headquarters and PC Magazine Labs based in New York, Ziff Davis Media also has offices and lab facilities in the San Francisco and Boston markets. Additional information is available at www.ziffdavis.com.
