ProQuest has ranked 65th in the 2011 InformationWeek 500, an annual listing of the nation’s most innovative users of business technology. ProQuest is best known for its creation of information and technology tools that support research. InformationWeek is a premier source of news and analysis of leading-edge products and vendors in the business IT industry. Its InformationWeek 500 list is considered unique among industry rankings for its spotlight on the power of innovation in information technology.
“This is a particularly meaningful honor for ProQuest because when we’re innovative, it means the important work of research benefits,” said Kurt Sanford, ProQuest CEO. “We are driven to excel because we believe in the work, in the discoveries, in the advancements of those who rely upon us. This kind of recognition fuels us to set the bar ever higher.”
This is ProQuest’s third consecutive appearance in the top 100 of the InfoWeek 500. The company is being recognized for its ability to navigate a highly competitive industry, where new market entrants come from non-traditional sources. ProQuest has continued to thrive through the development of services that enable researchers to discover, interact and use content. Particularly noted is the company’s engagement in partnerships that accelerate discovery of information that is often below the search radar. Earlier this year, ProQuest’s business unit Serials Solutions’ Summon service partnered with HathiTrust, a digital archive of more than 8 million books common to academic libraries, to enable instant searching of these works — even those in print — down to the word on a page. This is an important step since books have been searched by their metadata — author, title, keywords, et cetera. Information that was buried can now be surfaced in a simple search.
The judges also noted ProQuest’s acquisition of and investment in companies with specialized technologies that benefit research communities. Earlier this year, ProQuest acquired imaginative ebook company ebrary. This union creates a uniquely comprehensive research content pool supported with data management tools. ProQuest also acquired the acclaimed Congressional Information Service (CIS®) and University Publications of America (UPA) product lines from LexisNexis. Within weeks, ProQuest announced projects to digitize the vast library of these primary resources. ProQuest Legislative Insight, ProQuest History Vault, and ProQuest Congressional all enable users to easily access and search historical government documents — from presidential memos to congressional reports — that have been confined to archive boxes and microfilm, but now easily studied online.
“For 23 years, the InformationWeek 500 has chronicled and honored the most innovative users of business technology,” said InformationWeek Editor In Chief Rob Preston. “In this day and age, however, being innovative isn’t enough. Companies and their IT organizations need to innovate faster than ever before to stay a step or two ahead of their customers, partners, and competitors. This year’s ranking placed special emphasis on those high-octane business technology innovators.”
“High-octane is a great way to describe ProQuest,” said ProQuest COO Annie Callanan. “Our goal is to drive the entire industry to a new level of innovation that benefits researchers. Whether that researcher is a student, a genealogist, a journalist or a scientist, we’re creating an environment of continuous ‘eureka’ moments.”
InformationWeek identifies and honors the nation’s most innovative users of information technology with its annual 500 listing, and also tracks the technology, strategies, investments and administrative practices of America’s best-known companies. Top winners have included: The Vanguard Group, CME Group, Conway, National Semiconductor, Kimberly-Clark, Hilton Hotels and Unum. The InformationWeek 500 rankings are unique among corporate rankings as it spotlights the power of innovation in information technology, rather than simply identifying the biggest IT spenders.
