The Baseline 2005 ROI Leadership Awards

The dot-com bust is officially over and forgotten.

Creative uses of the Internet propelled the winners of the 2005 Baseline ROI Leadership Awards—and the returns are stellar.

American Express had a lot of company in delivering gaudy return figures.

Audiovox Corp., a consumer electronics company, generated an annual return of 2,288% by using a self-service Internet portal to ease the strain on its customer service operations and reduce an onslaught of phone calls and e-mail.

GlaxoSmithKline got a return of 2,212.2% by consolidating its employee training systems and replacing classrooms with an eLearning application that provided online education—a feat that earned the drugmaker top honors in the Performance Management category. The University of Houston garnered a return of 1,184.6% by launching a Web portal to recruit and retain students.

The 2005 Baseline ROI Leadership Awards winners are judged solely on returns, except for the Grand Prize, which also weighs the impact of the project on the company’s overall prospects. All entrants submit detailed cost and return information on significant information systems projects that they undertook in the past three years. The results were examined and verified by Consensure, a Stamford. Conn.-based business case analysis company.

Here are the projects that gave their organizations the best returns over the past three years.

The Winners:
Grand Prize:
Company:American Express
Annual Return: 2,736.1%

Productivity and Operations:
Company: SBC
Annual Return: 1,191.7%

Growth:
Company: InterContinental Hotels Group
Annual Return: 847%

Customer Service:
Company: Audiovox Corp.
Annual Return: 2,288%
Supplier Coordination:
Company: GlaxoSmithKline
Annual Return: 5,451%

Performance Management:
Company: GlaxoSmithKline
Annual Return: 2,212.2%

Data Management:
Company: LyondellChemical
Annual Return: 193.2%

Business Intelligence:
Company: Avendra
Annual Return: 193.2%
Public Sector:
Company: University of Houston
Annual Return: 2,354.3%

Decision Support:
Company: State of Missouri,
Office of Information Technology

Annual Return: 546.3%

Planning:
Company: SkinCeuticals
Annual Return: 1,184.6%

Justification:
Company: Medical Mutual of Ohio
Annual Return: 230.9%