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Acxiom Recognized As One Of Top 100 'Agile' Companies

CIO magazine announced Acxiom Corp as a recipient of the 2004 CIO 100 award. The annual award program recognizes organizations around the world that exemplify the highest level of operational and strategic excellence in information technology. This year's theme is the "Agile 100," which recognizes those executives and organizations that respond quickly to changing business environments. Winners demonstrate measurable results in how they used IT to enable and support agility in their organizations.

"Innovation and agility have been continual forces that drive Acxiom's success," said Acxiom Company Leader Charles D. Morgan. "This award is further confirmation of the commitment Acxiom associates have to providing our clients with the latest, most efficient means of managing their customer information."

"With the economy rebounding, companies will seek out and capitalize on new opportunities as they emerge," said Abbie Lundberg, editor-in-chief of CIO. "Those best positioned to succeed are the agile enterprises, able to move and change quickly; to create advantage in a world in flux. This year's CIO 100 winners have all the hallmarks: agile operations, technology, staffing and governance models. We celebrate their achievements and expect to see great things from them in the years ahead."

Acxiom has taken several steps during the past year to stay ahead of a changing market, Morgan said, including the largest innovation the company has undertaken in more than a decade -- the initiation of a complete enterprise reorganization of people and technology in support of the development and delivery of its Customer Information Infrastructure (CII), the first configurable platform for data processing based on Grid computing technology capable of meeting the increasing information management needs and time-to-market constraints in an increasingly interactive and customer-centric business environment.

Acxiom began deploying Grid computing, the sharing of high-end PCs across a network that functions as one large supercomputer, in 2001. Alex Dietz, who leads the company's Products and Infrastructure Technology Organization, said Acxiom realized the potential of Grid computing in its infancy and has since been recognized as one of the first companies in the world to fully embrace Grid computing on a massive scale, providing clients faster and more timely access to customer information.

"The exponential increase in the volume of consumer data and the cost required to effectively manage and store that information is a growing business challenge," Dietz said. "CII offers capacity on demand and sets new standards in allowing companies to transform data into the intelligence needed to drive business initiatives, the result of which is an improved relationship with customers."

Another landmark for Acxiom has been the acquisition of two of the largest European data companies, which has allowed the company to better help larger clients more effectively market their products and services globally.

"The integration of Claritas Europe and Consodata into Acxiom is a perfect example of Acxiom's agility," Morgan said. "Acxiom is now able to provide a full complement of services for companies doing business in Europe."