Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Awards announced

Bangalore: Infosys (www.infosys.com) and the Wharton School () of the University of Pennsylvania have announced the winners of the second Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Awards (WIBTA).

These awards recognise visionaries and Global 2000 organisations that use technology creatively to revolutionise their industries. The categories for the awards this year are Organisation-Wide Transformation and Technology Change Leader.

The winners from North America and Asia were recognised at the Hotel Waldorf- Astoria in New York on 28 May 2003 and the winners from Europe and Asia Pacific at Kempinski Hotel Bristol, Berlin, on 23 May 2003.

The Imperial Sugar Company from Sugarland, Texas received the Award in the Organisation wide transformation category for transforming the sugar industry. It used web technologies, a then unproven resource, to streamline customer-facing operations and make itself a better company to work with, thus enabling it to gain new customers for what is essentially a commodity product. Fujitsu Siemens Computers and ING Direct Worldwide took home the honours in the same category for the European region.

The former for overcoming the challenges of organisational change by introducing initiatives to bring out performance improvements and support the change management process, and the latter for using the Internet effectively to build an online banking service that is now transforming a mature industry. The Asia award went to Standard Chartered Bank for their innovative one-stop integrated solution that combines key areas of international trade processes.

"These companies are clearly visionaries and leaders in using technology, but they also have the basic business skills and human talent to implement their vision effectively," says Esther Dyson, chairman of EDventure Holdings and WIBTA panelist. "This has enabled them to differentiate themselves and win new customers despite tough competition and tougher markets."

In the Technology Change Leader category for North America Martin Cooper, chairman, CEO and co-founder of ArrayComm and Daniel Bricklin, chief technology officer for Interland/Trellix shared the honours for their contributions to wireless communications and the PC industry respectively. While Cooper was responsible for conceptualising personal wireless communication and pioneered one of the most successful cellular billing companies, Bricklin is credited to have brought VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet to the market.

Chuan-zsi Liu, chairman, Legend Holdings, received the award for the same category for the Asia Pacific Region. His contributions to the computer industry helped China's transition to a market economy. The honour was shared in the European region by John Browett, chief executive officer of Tesco.com and Mart Laar, prime minister of Estonia, for their contributions to e-retail business and development of e-governance, respectively.

Laar, as the prime minister, brought about the development of electronic systems in Estonia to upgrade the country's infrastructure and Browett developed a business process to support the world's largest online home shopping business, making Tesco.com a national leader in the field of online shopping.

"These winners, with their vision and perseverance, showed the world that individuals can use the power of technology to touch and change lives. We salute their spirit of innovation and imagination," says WIBTA panelist David Boyles.

Announcing WIBTA 2003 winners, N R Narayana Murthy, chairman of Infosys Technologies and member of the WIBTA jury said: "Technology has the power to bring in the much needed business transformation. Much progress has happened because of transformation brought about by pioneering individuals and organisations. We are happy that the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Awards is an instrument for honouring such pioneers."

"The Wharton School is committed to helping manage technological development and innovation," added Patrick Harker, dean of the Wharton School. "We are especially interested in the impact of technology on business. The WIBTA awards bring into sharp focus the huge potential of technology-enabled business models and their impact on business and society."

CNET Networks, the leading global media company also received a special Jury's Recognition Award in recognition of its use of IT to enhance fundamental offerings, thereby setting standards for the whole industry.

Applications were judged by a panel that includes thought leaders such as Dyson, Sir Paul Judge (Wharton alumnus), chairman, Schroder Income Fund, Narayana Murthy, Harbir Singh, co-director of Wharton's Mack Center and Edward H Bowman, professor of Management.

The panel also includes industry leaders such as David Boyles, chief operating officer, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), Michael Eskew, chairman and CEO, United Parcel Services (UPS) (Wharton alumnus) and Patty Morrison, CIO of Office Depot.

More details on the jury and the winners are available at www.infosys.com/wibta.