The 2012 CIO 100 is our ranking of the top CIOs in the UK. This listing awards the IT leaders and company directors that are transforming their organisations through technology leadership.
View the CIO 100 in groups of 20, starting with the top 20 companies in this year's CIO 100.
1. Ministry of Defence
The Ministry of Defence continues to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq. Technology is charged with giving troops a competitive edge and also saving time, money and lives.
2. Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs
The breakdown in HMRC management control and information security policy led to the biggest data loss in recent history last year, rocking faith in government IT.
3. Royal Bank of Scotland Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland has maintained its position near the top of the CIO 100 ranking during the past year despite these trying economic times.
4. BT
BT has embarked on a worldwide transformation programme with the creation of two new operating units: BT Design and BT Operate.
5. Department for Work & Pensions
The Department of Work and Pensions manages the £155 billion paid out each year to 26 million UK citizens. This year it had met ambitious efficiency targets.
6. Unilever
Neil Cameron, Unilever global CIO says the company has had a year of good progress, both for IT and the corporation as a whole. IT operations at Unilever have begun to use a four quadrant model, which will be in place globally by 2010, dividing up responsibilities into strategy and planning, business partnering, innovation and services.
7. DHL
It has been a good year for Nigel Underwood's IT team at DHL Logistics. The major integration project to merge the UK logistics company Exel with DHL parent company, Deutsche Post was completed ahead of schedule. The benefits it has delivered has built much credibility for IT across the new business, according to Underwood.
8. Royal Mail Group
Group Technology Director Robin Dargue arrived at the Royal Mail Group six months ago, with a remit to drive transformation. "I have inherited a fundamentally successful IT team that supported the £9 billion business of the Royal Mail on virtually nothing. It deserves a medal," he says. "Since I arrived we have now been up weighting the technology team so that it can cope with the transformation project ahead."
9. Lloyds TSB Group
Lloyds TSB is set to merge with HBOS to create a banking giant as the financial sector faces difficulties following on from the collapse of Leman Brothers in the US. The merger, which the government is likely to approve will create wide ranging redundancies. Perhaps by virtue of its size and having only the UK as its key market, making it the fifth largest banking group in the UK, Lloyds TSB Group has felt comparatively less growth pains in the midst of increasing global economic instability. With revenues of £16.9 billion last year, it still registered a balance-sheet item termed a "revaluation reserve reduction" of £740 million that was bigger than the £667 million sub-prime related losses charged against profit.
10. HBOS
HBOS is set to merge with Lloyds TSB to create a banking giant as the financial sector faces difficulties following on from the collapse of Leman Brothers in the US. The merger, which the government is likely to approve will create wide ranging redundancies Just before news of the merger leaked, HBOS said in its most recent trading update that, while it has not been immune to the wider economic and credit conditions, the UK's largest mortgage and savings provider was on track to demonstrate a “resilient performance in 2008”. Not bad for a bank in its tenth year as a listed company.
11. BP
BP knows better than most how 'hot' a topic energy has become. If anything, the last year has seen energy concerns rise even higher up the political, corporate and public agenda than ever before, with increased global debate and analysis over energy security, safety and climate change.
12. Tesco
Last year saw Tesco consolidate its dominance as the world's third largest grocery retailer, both domestically and overseas in the US, Europe and Asia. Despite recent trading updates that indicate challenging economic times are having a direct impact on consumer incomes and slowing growth in its booming non-food business, Tesco has largely bucked the downward trend in UK-based retailers' profits.
13. GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) maintained its position as the second biggest pharmaceutical company in the world with sales of £22.7 billion and £7.8 billion in profits in 2007. The vast majority of that was from its drugs sales, making up 85 per cent of its business, but its consumer healthcare portfolio with well-known brands including Aquafresh, Macleans, Lucozade and Ribena and over-the-counter remedies like Nicorette, Gaviscon, Panadol and Zovirax, contributed a not-so-shabby £3.4 billion last year.
14. BAE Systems
The IT team at BAE Systems has continued to build on last year’s achievements. Its programme of mid-range virtualisation is going very well, according to Chris Coupland, director of the Corporate IT Office at BAE Systems.
15. ASDA
Recent reports say that Asda plans to leverage the global scale of its parent company Walmart following a series of meetings with fast moving consumer goods manufacturers at the Walmart US headquarters. The retailer’s IT initiatives for the coming year include a continued expansion of its dot.com presence. On the supply side it is currently undergoing a multi-channel SAP Implementation Transport Solution.
16. HSBC
With assets of some $2,354 billion (£1,283 billion) at 31 December 2007, HSBC Holdings is Europe’s biggest bank by market value. Serving over 128 million customers worldwide through around 10,000 offices in 83 countries, it is not surprising it has felt the affects of the seismic shifts in the global economy that have affected so many of the other financial services companies featured in this year’s CIO 100 listing.
17. Royal Dutch/Shell
Another astonishing year in bottom line terms for Anglo-Dutch giant Royal Dutch Shell, which in the first operating quarter of 2008 saw a 56 per cent rise in revenue compared to the same period last year - a result, of course, of the inexorable rise in oil prices. Shell outsourced a lot of its IT four years ago to a clutch of firms led by Indian outsourcing giant Wipro, but has refined the deal.
18. Barclays
Barclays is one of the ‘big four’ UK financial services providers, with retail, commercial and investment banking, credit cards and wealth and investment management businesses, serving 30 million customers in over 50 countries.
19. Deloitte & Touche LLP
For financial services firm Deloitte it has been a year in IT of continuation. The partnership said: “In terms of changes to business IT strategy it was mainly a continuation of the projects identified in 2007 - for example the completion of VoIP, completing the roll out of Document Management, and working on the green agenda.”
20. Centrica
Centrica, the UK utility giant operates in an industry embroiled in a mix of global environmental and economic uncertainty. Consumer gas and electricity bills have soared in line with increasing wholesale prices, challenging margins in the company’s core UK residential business, operating under brands including British Gas.
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