About 150 nominations across Asia were submitted for consideration. Some where self-nominated, others were nominated by their business and technology partners, as well as customers. The ZDNet Asia editorial team also nominated a handful of companies that it felt deserved to be considered for the awards.

The 50 that made it to this year's inaugural honorary list are setting a new standard for business leadership by combining creativity, people, process and technology to achieve long-term success.

Smart50 judge Victor Lim, who is vice president for business development, verticals, IDC Asia-Pacific, said: "Every business will tell you that they are using IT to improve their competitiveness or operations, but only those that view IT as an integral part of their strategy or operations, and not as only an add-on tool, will fully realize the benefit that their IT investment promises.

"As we have seen in the Smart50 winners, it is not just about adding an IT department, it is about reorganizing and rethinking your business plans based on what IT has now made possible," Lim added.

Two of the 14 verticals stand out for having the most number of Smart50 companies. They are the government and financial services sectors--industries well-known for being big IT spenders.

But not all Smart50 companies have deep pockets. In fact, among them are small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in sectors such as retail and travel, which are not traditionally known to be early, or big, adopters of IT.

Independent analyst Graeme Philipson, who was also part of the independent 10-member judging panel, noted the high standards of the nominees in the inaugural ZDNet Asia Smart50 Awards.

Philipson said: "The overall standard of entries for the Smart50 Awards was very high. Well over half demonstrated outstanding uses of technology to achieve real-world business outcomes.

"Competitions like this are very useful. They remind us all that IT is not an end in itself but is used to achieve a particular purpose. Too much attention is paid to the suppliers of the technology and not enough to the users. Without users, there would be no IT industry," he added.

The judging process, as we found, was extremely difficult, given the diverse nature of the businesses and the projects. The general approach to assessing the entries was, therefore, to consider how a particular technology has impacted the company's competitive capabilities, its customers and enhanced the industry as a whole.

Special Awards
ZDNet Asia also handed out special awards in six categories. We salute the various winners of the Project of the Year Awards--their IT departments, initiative and commitment to making their IT project a success.

Winning these awards is no mean feat, as the quality of entries was extremely high and the judges had a difficult time picking the winners. Here are the top scorers:

Public Sector Technology Project of the Year
We decided to name two winners in this category: Malaysia's ePermit project, and Singapore-based National Healthcare Group's Lab Information and Automation System.

Malaysia's ePermit project is the result of six months of collaborative efforts between the Royal Customs of Malaysia, the transport and logistics communities as well as other government agencies. Developed by Dagang Net to simplify and streamline all permit processing procedures in Malaysia, ePermit replaces the tedious manual paper-based processes and brings about a new level of collaboration between the government (permit issuing agencies) and the private sector (importers, exporters and forwarding agents).

Singapore's National Healthcare Group implemented an ambitious project to link all of its 13 laboratories onto one common system platform, as well as to introduce automation and robotics in two of its largest labs. Touted as the single largest laboratory information system in Southeast Asia, the project provides seamless and consistent care across all its healthcare institutions as authorized care providers can access a patient's lab results electronically.

Financial Services Technology Project of the Year
Open to companies in the banking, securities and insurance industries, this award goes to Great Eastern Holdings for its electronic mobile advisory solutions. The judges were impressed with Great Eastern's ability to develop a fully-integrated system that enables straight-through electronic submission and processing of insurance proposals.

Communications Project of the Year
Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) emerged with the top score for the NOL-SUN Advanced Technology Centre. NOL used RFID technology to develop solutions to improve their operational capabilities and expand into new business areas. The judges picked NOL as the winner for the center's industry-wide impact. The center helps create a community and platform where customers, and industry players, can test and pilot RFID and logistics technologies.

Project of the Year
Judging in this open industry category was difficult due to the diverse nature of the projects. There were several hot favorites, but the winner was MTR's Engineering Works & Traffic Information Management System (ETMS). The Hong Kong rail transportation company developed the system to ensure better utilization of MTR's limited resources--people, tools, workspace and time--during four non-traffic hours of the day. Developed using artificial intelligence technology, the system automates the planning, monitoring, controlling and reviewing of all maintenance and engineering works.

CIO of the Year
The CIO of the Year Award goes to Daniel Lai of MTR for successfully pulling off the massive ETMS project. Under Lai's leadership, MTR has been applying IT tools in an innovative way across the corporation. The milestone ETMS project is one of several major projects that Lai has championed and created value for the organization. Lai's IT contribution extends beyond MTR's corporate walls, having devoted much of his personal time to promoting ICT in Hong Kong and in the Asia-Pacific region.

SMB of the Year
This special award goes to FarEastFlora.com. Founded in 2000, this Singapore-based flower and gifts portal continuously seeks new ways to improve its customer service and products. In 2005, FarEastFlora.com partnered HP to give new meaning to the phrase "say it with flowers". Instead of penning messages on a card, its clients can have their messages printed on flower petals.

Recognition they deserve
It is easier to say than to do. This is particularly true when it comes to implementing IT.

ZDNet Asia hopes that the IT departments--and their chiefs--of these Smart50 companies are proud of what they have accomplished.

In this special report, read how these organizations approach IT and how they have made it work. Learn about the business objectives behind multibillion-dollar projects, and find out why some dare to pioneer new IT applications, despite the potential risks.

Learn also the challenges and how these were overcome. While ZDNet Asia celebrates the successes, this special report also highlights valuable lessons without which there would be no success.

ZDNet Asia hopes the Smart50 Awards inspires Asia's businesses, and their IT departments, to continue to aim high and to make every IT dollar a well-spent one. We believe there are many good case studies out there, but many Asian businesses are still media-shy. If nothing else, the Smart50 Awards aims to encourage more companies to promote their IT endeavors and to share their project successes with others.