IT, banking, FMCG, Core Manufacturers best users of IT, says IMRB International study NASSCOM has initiated the IT User Awards to reward organisations which displayed ability to effectively use Information Technology. An industry first, the awards attracted enthusiastic response from various business verticals including education and Government. The eTechnology Group@IMRB International, the specialist IT research arm of IMRB International was entrusted the task of identifying the best IT users in the country. A proprietary assessment tool called the P-Cube I-Cube Model was used to comprehensively measure the extent of IT usage in organisations. The tool measures usage on six dimensions, viz., IT Preparedness, IT infrastructure, People, Policy, Process & IT competence & benefits. This tool is already being used for assessment of e-Readiness of Central Government Departments and Ministries by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The study assessed interested nominees from top 500 enterprises in India, major universities, reputed schools and state governments. The assessment covered all aspects of IT-isation from measuring current IT infrastructure, effectiveness of IT project deployment, training aspects of people to comprehensive details of BPR inititiatives in the organisation. Awards were distributed yesterday at a function organised by NASSCOM-ET in Mumbai to the best IT users from eleven business verticals. List of winners included HDFC in Banking, Tisco in Manufacturing, Shopper Stop in Retail, GSK in Healthcare, ITC in FMCG, Indian Airlines in Transportation, Wipro ePeripherals in Information Technology/Telecom, BPCL in Energy & Utilities, LIC in Insurance, IIT-Delhi in Education and IT Dept. of Government of Maharastra in govt. sector. The Aditya Birla Group bagged the overall award for "Best IT User" across industry verticals. The nominations were based on indexed scores with a maximum of 1000 points. The High Scorers, comprising 43% of nominees belong to the IT sector, Indian conglomerates from FMCG, Core Manufacturing and New Indian Banks. As evident from their IT usage initiatives, the study found positive relation between efficient usage of IT and market performance of these companies. With an average score of 677, against overall average of 543 this category also scored high on IT benefits aspects like impact on ROI, productivity and cost reduction. The Moderate Scorers comprised 31% of nominees represented by segments like Consumer Manufacturing, Pharmaceuticals, Retail, Energy, Telecom, Newly established Indian Banks and a few professional institutes. With the overall score at 534, close to overall average score of 543, this group was found to be a little behind on automation and integration of various processes within the organisation. The Low Scorers with 21% of the nominees have scored less on most of the six parameters. With an overall average score of 321, this segment included participants from media, transportation, a few public sector banks and some educational institutions. They lagged considerably behind on IT Policy practices, People training aspects and IT infrastructure development.