The Principal Financial Group® ranks 84th on this year’s InformationWeek Elite 100 – a list of the top business technology innovators in the U.S. This is the 18th year The Principal® has been on InformationWeek’s list, formally the InformationWeek 500.

“It’s critical for technology to be considered a part of the business in order for innovation to occur, and we’ve integrated our IT professionals across the organization,” said Gary Scholten, executive vice president and chief information officer at The Principal. “This collaboration continues to be a driving factor in our growth and success.”

Other key contributors to The Principal’s InformationWeek Elite 100 recognition are the successful implementation of:

  • The Retirement Wellness Score for participants, which provides a new, personalized digital experience that utilizes behavioral economic research to address the retirement readiness gap in the U.S.
  • SalesPoint, a native sales management mobile/Web application for iPad, that provides sales data visualization to help The Principal field sales representatives and internal sales support teams.
  • State-of-the-art, integrated collaboration solutions that enable Principal workers around the globe to connect quickly and easily for rich, “in the same room” collaboration.
  • An upgraded customer relationship management (CRM) platform and new mobile tablet hardware solution that enhance the performance and productivity of Principal Global Investors sales and service professionals.

"Gone are the day's IT could run as an entity unto itself. If IT isn't part of product development, or marketing, or customer service, your company risks falling behind in the era of digital business,” said InformationWeek Editor Chris Murphy. “At InformationWeek, we talk about this as 'IT Without Borders,' as we see the best IT leaders tearing down traditional borders to help every department leverage technologies such as data analytics, cloud, and mobility. The 2015 InformationWeek Elite 100 spotlights companies at which IT is not only inseparable from every department, it's pivotal to every customer experience."

This is InformationWeek’s 27th year identifying and honoring the nation's most innovative users of information technology. The InformationWeek Elite 100 research tracks the technology-based investments, strategies, and results of some of the best-known organizations in the country. Unique among corporate rankings, the InformationWeek Elite 100 spotlights the power of business technology innovation.

Additional details on the InformationWeek Elite 100 can be found online at http://www.informationweek.com/elite100.

About the Principal Financial Group

The Principal Financial Group® (The Principal®)1 is a global investment management leader offering retirement services, insurance solutions and asset management. The Principal offers businesses, individuals and institutional clients a wide range of financial products and services, including retirement, asset management and insurance through its diverse family of financial services companies. Founded in 1879 and a member of the FORTUNE 500®, the Principal Financial Group has $530.3 billion in assets under management2 and serves some 19.9 million customers worldwide from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and the United States. Principal Financial Group, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PFG. For more information, visit www.principal.com.

About InformationWeek

For more than 30 years, InformationWeek has provided millions of IT executives worldwide with the insight and perspective they need to leverage the business value of technology. InformationWeek provides CIOs and IT executives with commentary, analysis and research through its thriving online community, digital issues, webcasts, proprietary research and live, in-person events. InformationWeek’s award-winning editorial coverage can be found at www.informationweek.com. InformationWeek is produced by UBM Tech.

1 “The Principal Financial Group” and “The Principal” are registered service marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a member of the Principal Financial Group.

2 As of March 31, 2015.