MIS 100 2008 is the 12th edition of this annual research that recognises the biggest 100 enterprise information technology (IT) users in the most strategic markets in Asia. It offers an unbiased report on the latest projects, plans and challenges faced by senior IT executives, and sets a benchmark for technology adoption in what is currently the world’s most dynamic region.
Determining the top 100 users of IT across Asia’s major countries each year is no mean feat. The project involves more than six months work by MIS Asia magazine staff and sub-contractors, including e-mail surveys and telephone follow up to verify and expand on responses. This year, our people contacted organisations across Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, and mainland China.
Singapore dominates
The survey results indicate that Singapore organisations continue to dominate, with 27 per cent of the MIS 100 members based in the lion city. Hong Kong companies make up nearly a quarter of the list. In MIS 100, ‘Asia’ organisations indicate multinational entities that have no primary national base and operate in multiple countries, which, in the case of MIS 100 2008, are mostly IT and manufacturing companies.
The tradition of financial institutions dominating the MIS 100 list still holds, with 17 per cent of them represented this year. Most of the banks that have made the MIS 100 this year are national and they have been busy renewing their legacy systems and focusing on fortifying risk management. In terms of IT projects, business intelligence and IT service management frameworks have topped the CIOs’ priorities list in 2008.
Government ministries and departments are not far behind, and take 14 per cent of the pie. This year, the government sector is busy working on business intelligence, customer relationship management, outsourcing and service-oriented architecture initiatives. The manufacturing sector ties with government, and is placing heavy emphasis on business intelligence and IT consolidation.
Listing criteria
Following last year’s practice, MIS 100 2008 is determined by three broad criteria—potential IT spending, actual IT spending, and strategic use of IT. While we explore the biggest enterprise IT users across the region, the editorial team always works to ensure the nine industries are as evenly represented as possible.
Since 2006, screen count has ceased to be the only measure of an organisation’s IT strength, but, it is nonetheless an objective indicator of potential IT spending. With a consistent increase in mobile messaging devices used by senior executives, this year’s screen count is defined as the combined total of PCs, servers, laptops, and hand-held devices such as BlackBerrys plus other web-enabled personal digital assistants.
It is interesting to note the huge growth in screen count in the last year, even with the slowing global economy. Despite many CIOs reporting budget constraints, the total screen number has increased by 78 per cent (from 1,689,202 to 2,143,090), with an 83 per cent increase in the average screen number for listed organisations (from 18,361 to 21,868).
Actual IT spending
Actual IT spending is determined by an organisation’s IT budget, in relation to the company’s annual revenue, which measures the IT spending per employee. Of course, it requires the CIOs’ faith and confidence in MIS Asia for them to reveal their IT budget details, especially with newcomers, while MIS 100 guarantees confidentiality.
This year, 68 per cent of CIOs revealed their IT budgets on our assurances of privacy. It is also worth noting that none of the government departments were able to provide their annual revenue, as they are not revenue-generating entities. To evaluate how strategically organisations are using IT as a business driver, we also take into account the rankings of prestigious publications such as Fortune 500 and other corporate publications in Asia. In addition, we seek advice from our editors and analysts, at various research firms, to gauge the success of IT adoption in different industries.
Of course, even though we stress that only publicly-available information is sought, some organisations still remain reluctant to provide their details. Our surveyors found that some, even those who participated last year, declined to be involved in the MIS 100 process for 2008.
Cautious profile
Perhaps they believe tightening economic times warrant a more cautious profile. Or maybe they have had a management change and the new executives are reluctant to share their statistics to the world, for fear of reducing their competitive advantage. We would argue that it benefits all to share and categorise, but we respect the right of any organisation to decide not to participate. So, expect to see some familiar names in the MIS 100 2008, and also some newcomers.
MIS 100 welcomes 26 newcomers this year. They include China Construction Bank Asia which merged with Bank of America (Asia) in 2006, the Office of Government Chief Information Officer HK established in 2004, as well as China’s Konka Group, the Thai state-owned telco TOT, Kerry Logistics, and Starwood Hotels and Resorts.
With CIOs progressively transforming themselves from IT enablers to business-drivers, MIS 100 is, despite our best efforts, never a perfect list of the top IT users in Asia, although that is our target. After careful evaluation of all the factors, several successful IT adopters failed to make the list this year, including Citibank Malaysia, Sripatum University, InterContinental Hotels and Resorts, Quality HealthCare Asia, the Singapore Tourism Board, and the Titan Petrochemicals Group. We thank these organisations for taking the time to talk to our surveyors and we hope their ongoing IT growth will see them making the MIS 100 list next year.
Top trends in 2008
Against the backdrop of an economic slowdown and skills shortage, many CIOs have re-positioned themselves as key business partners of their companies. Business intelligence is the most popular IT project for CIOs this year, with 36 per cent of our respondents indicating it was one of their top priorities.
Apart from BI, IT service management frameworks (31 per cent), IT consolidation (28 per cent), server virtualisation (27 per cent), business continuity (25 per cent), customer relationship management (22 per cent), Web 2.0 (19 per cent), and data warehousing (18 per cent) are the next top projects the MIS 100 CIOs tell us they will be focusing on in the next 12 months.
Not a ‘league table’
It is important to note that the MIS 100 is not a numerical ranking. The project does not profess to name the number one organisation or enterprise, through to the one-hundredth. Rather, the MIS 100 is categorised by industries and this issue provides a range of methods of indexing, including by screen count, by country and by project.
Each key sector is featured in an industry overview which outlines the current state of play regarding technology uptake, across our region. Our aim is to provide senior IT decision-makers with a valuable, practical resource, useful for the following 12 months, until next year’s MIS 100.
