Matson Recognized by CIO Magazine as One of CIO 100 Award Honorees

Matson Navigation Company has been honored by CIO magazine as a recipient of the 2009 CIO 100. The 22^nd annual award program recognizes organizations around the world that exemplify the highest level of operational and strategic excellence in information technology (IT). Matson was recognized for its common application services (CAS) strategy for software reuse to reduce operating costs, eliminate technology obsolescence risks and enable growth.

"This year’s CIO 100 awards draws well-deserved attention to companies that are both innovating and creating business value with IT despite the economic downturn,” said Maryfran Johnson, Editor in Chief of CIO magazine and Events. "These winners are an inspiration to businesses everywhere.”

According to CIO magazine, Matson earned its ranking among the top 100 companies in the world because of its innovative approach to CAS and its value to the organization: "Reusable components are provided to applications development teams in conjunction with the needs of the applications projects so that those components can be efficiently used and reused. The company reduced capital expenditures across 14 completed software applications by $2 million – an ROI of 106 percent.”

Matson was one of nine transportation companies to be honored with this year’s award, along with such industry leaders as Jet Blue Airways, Con-Way, and UPS. It was the only ocean carrier recognized by the publication in 2009. Other recipients of the award included Best Buy, BP, Dell, IBM, Marriott International, Monsanto Company, and Pfizer.

"Component reusability in software has been successfully achieved in other industries, such as automotive and electronics,” said Peter Weis, Matson chief information officer (CIO). "Matson’s IT strategy has been to transform our IT environment from a ‘stovepipe’ applications architecture with little or no reuse of common building blocks to a single integrated stack architecture where all reuse opportunities are fully leveraged in the development of new business applications. Unlike specific business application projects that may deliver value on a standalone basis, the return on investment in CAS is realized over the course of multiple initiatives, as the components get reused. In recent years, Matson has realized the benefits of this strategy on a number of business fronts, ranging from our logistics unit in North America to our terminal operation in Hawaii, which is the hub of the company’s Pacific services. We have also been able to utilize the strategy to enhance our online capabilities for consumers shipping their personal vehicles.”

Matson President Matt Cox added: "The success of the company’s IT strategy is a direct result of the support and cooperation of the entire Matson organization, as well as our parent company, Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. This recognition reflects the commitment and dedication of virtually all of our business units to leverage technology in ways that deliver to our customers an efficient, reliable service of superior quality and value. Matson is very proud to have been recognized for its IT initiatives with such a distinguished group of global companies.”

Matson provides ocean transportation services to Hawaii, Guam, China and Micronesia, as well as logistics services through its subsidiary, Matson Integrated Logistics. Matson is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. of Honolulu (NYSE:ALEX).

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