LATROBE, Pa., Sept. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Kennametal Inc. (NYSE: KMT) announced today that it has been named to this year's InformationWeek 500, an annual listing of the nation's most innovative users of business technology. The annual list was revealed last night at a gala awards ceremony at the exclusive InformationWeek 500 Conference which took place at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort, Dana Point, CA.
Kennametal was recognized for successfully implementing SAP 6.0 in an aggressive 15-month timeframe, standardizing processes in the more than 60 countries in which it operates. Since the implementation, the company has achieved six consecutive quarters of record financial performance, and now has greater visibility into data, assets and processes that are working well and can leverage those opportunities across the globe.
"Being named to the InformationWeek 500 is validation of the expertise and knowledge the Global IT team provides to our business partners across a variety of technology systems," commented Steven Hanna, Vice President, Chief Information Officer and Interim Chief Technology Officer. "Kennametal's people are what set us apart from the competition and enable us to excel at delivering the best technology solutions available. Over a year into our SAP reimplementation, we are already adding substantial new functionality on top of our core processes and expect to make continuous improvements."
"The InformationWeek 500 has recognized the most innovative users of business technology for 24 years, and this year's innovations were particularly impressive," said InformationWeek Editor In Chief Rob Preston. "What the editors looked for are unconventional approaches – new technologies, new models, new ways of grabbing business opportunities and solving complex business problems with IT."
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. Past overall winners include PACCR Inc., The Vanguard Group, CME Group, National Semiconductor, Con-Way and the Principal Financial Group. 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.
Additional details on the InformationWeek 500 can be found online at www.informationweek.com/iw500
About Kennametal
Kennametal Inc. (NYSE: KMT) delivers productivity to customers seeking peak performance in demanding environments by providing innovative custom and standard wear-resistant solutions. This proven productivity is enabled through our advanced material sciences and application knowledge. Our commitment to a sustainable environment provides additional value to our customers. Companies operating in everything from airframes to coal mining, from engines to oil wells and from turbochargers to construction recognize Kennametal for extraordinary contributions to their value chains. With annual sales of nearly $3 billion and approximately 13,000 employees, Kennametal serves customers in more than 60 countries worldwide – with more than 50 percent of these revenues coming from outside North America. Visit us at www.kennametal.com.
About InformationWeek Business Technology Network http://www.informationweek.com
The InformationWeek Business Technology Network provides IT executives with unique analysis and tools that parallel their work flow – from defining and framing objectives through to the evaluation and recommendation of solutions. Anchored by InformationWeek, the multimedia powerhouse that looks across the enterprise, the network scales across the most critical technology categories with online properties such as DarkReading.com (security), NetworkComputing.com (networking and communications) and BYTE (consumer technology). The network also provides focused content for key IT targets, such as CIOs, developers, SMBs, via InformationWeek Global CIO, Dr. Dobbs and InformationWeek SMB, as well as vital vertical industries with InformationWeek Financial Services, Government and Healthcare sites.
SOURCE Kennametal Inc.
