Intelligent Enterprise

Hold the proverbs: We know we live in interesting times. Ambitious business goals demand the best information technology can offer. For the IT community to achieve that, business users must become IT's favored customers and collaborators. A chasm must be crossed, and there's no going back.

Led by the most innovative and influential in BI, service orientation and BPM--companies spotlighted in this year's Editors' Choice Awards--we're finally seeing tools and solutions to support business/IT collaboration. Or, put differently, the technology will only work if business and IT come together.

We present our eighth annual list of 60 companies in two groups. First, there's the Dozen: twelve elite vendors that are providing critical leadership for organizations focused on becoming "intelligent" enterprises. Then we present the 2006 Companies to Watch, 48 top providers in our six primary coverage areas.

The choices are the product of a year's worth of editorial research, reviews and conversations with the IE community of readers and contributing experts, boiled down into who and what will be important as we look ahead. Which vendors should be on the list next year? Send comments to dstodder@cmp.com.