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January 1, 2002

The Dozen

Twelve companies most influencing the development of intelligent enterprises

By David Stodder

Two years ago, "Give me E!" was the clarion call. The e-business road race was in full throttle; businesses did all they could to not get run over and left behind. From their IT solutions providers, they wanted nothing more than the e-lixir of Web enablement.

What is today's howl? "Give me visibility!" The dot-com boom has evaporated. The fog of economic slowdown has descended: So has the fog of war. What remains is an environment that most would describe as complex, dangerous, and confusing. And strangely, full of promise and hope.

In both public and private sectors, organizations are turning to their information systems to find answers, clues, and hidden pockets of opportunity. Yet, for all the operational efficiency achieved with e-business, ERP, and CRM, decision makers have too little visibility: they can't effectively plan for the future. The new landscape demands new methods of deriving strategic value from information resources. Business processes must become intelligent; analytics and operations must blend together to reduce information latency. The beneficiaries must be humans: employees, customers, and business partners.

Welcome to The Dozen: Our annual editors' choice of IT solution providers contributing the most to the development of intelligent enterprises. In two companion features, we highlight 60 companies: The Dozen, plus four additional lists of 12 devoted to what we see as the "pillars" of the intelligent enterprise.

Let the debate begin. The selection process is always tough, never more so than this year. Sifting through a year's worth of coverage, research, and dialog, we offer a varied group of companies: some clearly dominant, others simply innovative. From our undisclosed secure location, we invite your comments. And using our powers of visibility, we'll begin to unravel the next riddle: Who should make the list next year?