Alltel, Acxiom stay atop list of largest IT companies. (Arkansas Business List Overview).

ONCE AGAIN, LARGE, PUBlicly traded companies landed at the top of Arkansas Business' list of the largest information technology businesses in the state, ranked by number of Arkansas employees.

But some significant differences mark the current list from past rankings.

In the past, for example, the companies based in the state were considered for the total number of employees, while firms headquartered our of the state were ranked only by the number of Arkansans employed. This year, only in-state employment numbers counted.

That change resulted in Intellimark Inc. and Staffmark, both former divisions of the company now known as Edgewater Technologies of Wakefield, Mass., falling off the list.

In addition, one of the state's premier marketing firms, Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods, was ranked last year because it boasts an information technology division, imazing! CJRW. But the vast majority of CJRW employees don't work at imazing, so the company wasn't listed this year.

Still, the top names, though they've cut back some due to the slowing economy, head the list as they did last year. Alltel Corp. of Little Rock is the state's largest information technology business. The company operates wireless networks, wireline telephone exchanges and information data services; Alltel serves about 10 million customers worldwide with annual revenue of about $7.8 billion.

Another Little Rock company, Acxiom Corp., experienced job and pay cuts this year, but remains the second-ranking IT employer in the state. Acxiom specializes in customer data integration and registered over $1 billion revenue in its most recent fiscal year. Company leader Charles Morgan, a leading business figure in Arkansas, joined the fledgling company in 1972 and helped transform it from a Conway demographics firm to perhaps the nation's leading personal data processor and provider.

Another leader, Louisiana-based CenturyTel Inc., competes against Alltel in the telecom business and has refused several unsolicited offers from the Little Rock company to purchase its mostly landline phone business.

Optus Inc., telecom business headquartered in Jonesboro, has carved out a share of the northeast Arkansas IT market in only 10 years of existence. With 160 employees, Optus boasts annual revenue of about $25 million.