FRAMINGHAM, Mass., Oct. 1, 2004 -- Computerworld, the "Voice of IT Management," this week announced the winners of its "Best Practices in Business Intelligence" Awards Program during a ceremony at its inaugural Business Intelligence Perspectives conference in Palm Desert, Calif. Ten winners and five honorable mentions were selected for their business intelligence technology "Best Practices" based on case studies highlighting successful solution implementation projects and deployments.

Many of today's leading end-user companies responded to an initial call for nominations issued to multiple industry audiences, including Computerworld subscribers responsible for business intelligence solutions in their enterprises. Finalists were identified and considered by a panel of IT industry professionals based on case study submissions that profiled the company, its IT department and business intelligence challenges, as well as application deployment details, summaries of the key technology used and measurable solution outcomes.

Computerworld named two winners and one honorable mention in each of five categories:

-- Creating a BI Vision and Strategies for Improved ROI - American Airlines, Fort Worth, Texas and Yapi Kredi Bank, Istanbul, TUR (Honorable Mention: Agilent Technologies, Loveland, Colo.)

-- Planning, Designing and Building the BI Infrastructure - Herbalife International, Los Angeles and McKesson Pharmaceutical (Business Unit of McKesson Corporation), San Francisco (Honorable Mention: Halliburton, Houston)

-- Information Retrieval and Reporting by Leveraging Off-the-Shelf Enterprise Software - Calpine Corporation, Houston and DaimlerChrysler, Chrysler Group, Auburn Hills, Mich. (Honorable Mention: Chase-Pitkin Home and Garden, Rochester, NY)

-- Data Visualization, Prediction and Presentation by Leveraging Customized Solutions - Quicken Loans, Livonia, Mich. and State of Louisiana Department of Social Services, Baton Rouge, La. (Honorable Mention: IBM, Southbury, Conn.)

-- Managing and Enhancing BI Applications and Infrastructure - LexisNexis, Dayton, Ohio and United States Postal Service, Washington, D.C. (Honorable Mention: Kaiser Permanente, Downey, Calif.)

"The companies recognized with a "Best Practices in Business Intelligence" award or honorable mention is driving excellence in the critically important business intelligence space," said Ron Milton, executive vice president, Strategic Programs at Computerworld. "With the launch of our Business Intelligence Perspectives conference and this very special awards program, we have given our distinguished audience of IT executives a set of award-winning best practices to spur innovation and excellence within their own enterprises."

"Business intelligence solutions provide the key to unlock new levels of performance across an enterprise," said Rob Ashe, president and CEO of Cognos. "Cognos is proud to be a sponsor of Computerworld's 'Best Practices in Business Intelligence' Awards Program and to be the exclusive conference underwriter of this important event."

Judges of the program were:

-- Shaku Atre, Atre Group

-- Frank Bernhard, OMNI Research Group LLC

-- Kevin Downs, Kids Headquarters

-- George Feitel, Wavera

-- Keith Gile, Forrester Research

-- Julia King, Computerworld

-- Ralph Martino, JP Morgan Chase Credit Card Services

-- Ron Milton, Computerworld

-- Dan Vesset, IDC

-- Bob Zimmerman, University of Arkansas

Computerworld's Business Intelligence Perspectives conference focuses on how enterprises are effectively and efficiently implementing successful Business Intelligence strategies and took place September 27-29, 2004, at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort in Palm Desert, Calif. For more information about Computerworld's Business Intelligence Perspectives conference or the awards program, visit http://www.biperspectives.com.

About Computerworld

Computerworld, the "Voice of IT Management," is the most trusted source for critical information needs of senior IT management. Computerworld's integrated offerings form the U.S.-based hub of the world's largest (58-edition) global IT media network through its weekly publication, Computerworld.com website, focused conference series and custom research. In the past five years alone Computerworld has won more than 100 print and online awards for editorial and design excellence, surpassing its direct competition by an order of magnitude. Recognition includes the 2004 Magazine of the Year Award from the American Society of Business Publication Editors and a Jesse H. Neal Award for "Best News Coverage." In print since 1967, Computerworld is the source for information technology management with a guaranteed rate base of 180,000, a total print audience of 1,869,000 (IntelliQuest CIMS v.10.0), and an online audience of over one million unique monthly visitors (DoubleClick).

Computerworld is a business unit of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading technology media, research and event company. A privately-held company, IDG publishes more than 300 magazines and newspapers including Bio-IT World, CIO, CSO, Computerworld, GamePro, InfoWorld, Network World, and PC World. The company features the largest network of technology-specific Web sites with more than 400 around the world. IDG is also a leading producer of more than 170 computer-related events worldwide including LinuxWorld Conference & Expo(R), Macworld Conference & Expo(R), DEMO(R), and IDC Directions. IDC provides global market research and advice through offices in 50 countries. Company information is available at http://www.idg.com.

Marenghi Public Relations for Computerworld
Colin Longval, 781-915-5014
clongval@marenghi.com