In a league of their own

Introduction WINNERS BY INDUSTRY Education | Financial services | Government | Healthcare | Manufacturing | Transportation | Hospitality | More WINNERS BY TECHNOLOGY Applications | Convergence | E-commerce | Management | Security | Servers | Storage | WAN | Wireless | Download complete list of winners John Gallant on being an All-Star

In 1933, Chicago's Comiskey Park hosted the first major league All-Star game, showcasing the talents of such baseball greats as Charlie Gehringer and Babe Ruth. That legendary game launched an American tradition, as all-star matchups became an annual highlight of the pro basketball and football seasons, too. In the spirit of this tradition, Network World has created the Enterprise All-Star Award, which honors companies with technology projects so stellar they belong in a league of their own.

The 50 companies presented here are Enterprise All-Star Award winners for two basic reasons. First, they have demonstrated exceptional use of technology within an industry segment - education, financial services, government, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, transportation and others. Second, their IT projects demonstrate how smart use of technology is smart business. For instance, the All-Star winners that reported savings expect to bank $161.5 million collectively from their projects one year after implementation - and $469.4 million by the third year.

As impressive as these figures are, only about half the winners named cost-cutting as a primary objective. Others were more concerned with increasing competitive advantage or bringing on next-generation applications. For instance, Parkview Health System, a healthcare network serving northeast Indiana, earned its place on the list for building a SONET network that gave it "Niagara Falls-size" bandwidth. The SONET net will carry new lifesaving applications such as a virtual monitoring service for intensive care patients.

A project didn't have to be high budget to earn a place on the list. Budgets ranged from $30,000 to $32 million; $640,000 was the median. Of the winners that reported savings, about 60% said ROI would hit 100% within the first year, with half saying ROI would be more than 200% in that time. Only two winners said they did not expect their investment to be fully paid for in hard-dollar savings by the three-year mark (but did expect impressive productivity gains). The message is clear: Even when projects cost millions of dollars, smart ones quickly pay for themselves.

For a case in point, look no further than the project implemented by the Defense Information Systems Agency's Center for Computing Services, at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala. The agency reported savings of $140 million in the first year of a three-year, $3 million revamp of its network management systems. Others reported first-year savings of $36,000 to $3 million, with a median of $686,000. First-year ROI ranged from about 6% to more than 1,000%, with a mean of 265%.