Michael Neff, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg), has been voted "CIO of 2005". IT magazine Computerwoche presented the award at a gala event in Munich on December 1. A prestigious panel of judges made up or representatives from business, science, and the Computerwoche editorial team assessed a total of 300 CIOs in Germany. Neff received the prize for Heidelberg for, among other things, standardizing IT in the globally active group. Standardized PC workstations and IT services have been introduced at all the company's support centers in over 170 countries and various data centers have been combined into a mainframe center. At the same time, the variety of SAP implementations has been reduced to a single system. The panel of judges, made up of scientists, consultants, and editors, also highlighted the innovative launch of standardized spare parts logistics and mobile systems at the world's leading supplier of printing presses. "I consider this an honor for my entire IT team worldwide, who have provided me with invaluable and unfailing support in numerous projects and to whom I would like to offer my sincere thanks," said Michael Neff when the results were announced. Michael Neff has been CIO of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG since 2000. He previously held management positions at Hoechst AG. A panel of judges from Computerwoche recently voted Heidelberg Remote Service (HEIRES) IT application of the year.