Technology Innovators

It should be no surprise that some of the leading financial-services firms also top our ranking of technology innovators. It just confirms the knowledge that in order to be a leader in any business - and particularly the securities and investment space - technology innovation must be a priority.

The top-ranked firms have large technology budgets due to the size and scale of their businesses. Certainly a company that brings in $1 billion in revenue is going to have a larger technology budget than a firm bringing in $250 million. However, that doesn't mean smaller firms have to be any less technologically innovative.

The real key to innovation, evidenced by this survey, is spending enough on technology to not only stay current, but move ahead. Each of the six senior technology executives interviewed for our cover story is responsible for his firm's technology innovation - and each executive said he spent well over the industry average of 8.5 percent.

It doesn't all come down to budget, though. Obviously leadership is critical, as in knowing when to take risks and when not to. This is why we chose to interview the highest-ranking-technology leaders at the top-ranked firms.

Our goal is to provide insight into how they manage their technology budgets, how they manage their staffs, how they make tough business decisions, and ultimately, how they have built a technologically innovative company.

Four pages are by no means enough to provide you with the full scope of how these businesses are run.

So, to augment our cover story, we have created a micro site dedicated to the study of Innovative Institutions. There, you will find in-depth Q&A's with each of the highest ranking technology executives of the top-ranked firms and detailed charts offering the complete ranking of technologically innovative companies across all industries. It will also include a ranking of technologically innovative institutions across the entire financial-services industry.

You'll also find other coverage from our sister publication, InformationWeek. InformationWeek has been running the InformationWeek 500 survey for years - and the research in our magazine is a subset of that survey.

Please check out the site at www.wallstreetandtech.com/innovators. Perhaps, most importantly, it will provide you with information on how your firm can be considered for next year's ranking.