Industrial Manufacturing News

CDW, a leading provider of technology products and services to business, government and education, was ranked 14th on this year's list. CDW remains the list's highest-ranked FORTUNE 500 company and the highest-ranked Illinois-based company. This year's list was also sub-divided into several categories, including company size. Within these categories, CDW ranked:
Fifth in the midsize category, which includes companies with 2,501 to 10,000 employees
Seventh in overall percentage of job growth, year-over-year
Seventh among companies with the most widely-used day care

"Our culture is built on mutual respect and mutual reward," said John A. Edwardson CDW Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Throughout our twenty years of doing business, we have held to the principle that happy coworkers correlates with the hard work, dedication and superior service we provide our customers on a daily basis. It enables us to respond with a sense of urgency to customer needs."

CDW's commitment to its coworkers is evident through its generous benefits. All coworkers receive stock options, and approximately 75 percent of coworkers receive bonuses tied to specified performance measures. In addition, CDW offers a subsidized childcare center and fitness center, a tuition reimbursement program, a paid day off for community service, dry cleaning pickup and a charitable donation match program. The company awards tenured coworkers with vacation trips when company goals are met.

In the coverage of the rankings, FORTUNE also made special mention of CDW's unique benefits for adoptive parents. CDW offers reimbursement for up to $3,000 per child for such expenses as agency and placement fees, legal fees, foreign adoption charges and related travel expenses.

CDW offers a multi-disciplinary training program called CDW University. CDWU provides courses for coworkers in all departments - everything from leadership, sales and technical training to interpersonal and professional development skills.

"This year's award is especially gratifying because CDW made significant changes in 2004," added Edwardson. "While integrating the assets we acquired from Micro Warehouse in September 2003, and adding coworkers in nearly every department and opening new offices, we maintained our culture, which is a key component to our success."

"Becoming part of CDW has been a marvelous experience," said T'omi Quigley, a CDW Account Manager Small Business and former Micro Warehouse coworker. "The corporate culture here is one of empowerment and tremendous support. You see success everywhere."

FORTUNE magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list is based largely on an employee opinion survey of more than 46,000 randomly selected coworkers from more than 300 companies. Those companies also completed a questionnaire about their people philosophies, practices and policies. Nearly half of the coworkers surveyed also added written comments, which were also considered. The rankings appear in FORTUNE's January 24, 2005 issue, which is scheduled to be available at newsstands January 17.

About CDW
CDW® (Nasdaq: CDWC), ranked No. 376 on the FORTUNE 500, is a leading provider of technology products and services for business, government and education. CDW is a principal source of technology from top name brands such as APC, Apple, Cisco, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Sony, Symantec, Toshiba and ViewSonic. CDW distributes contracts to end users for customized and standardized on-site services supplied directly by providers such as HP Services and Unisys and for training programs provided by firms such as KnowledgeNet and Productivity Point International.

CDW was founded in 1984 as a home-based business and today employs approximately 3,700 coworkers. In 2003, the company generated net sales of approximately $4.7 billion. CDW's direct model offers one-on-one relationships with knowledgeable account managers; purchasing by telephone, fax, the company's award-winning CDW.com Web site, customized CDW@work™ extranets, CDWG.com Web site and macwarehouse.com Web site; custom configured solutions and same day shipping; and pre- and post-sales technical support, with more than 100 factory-trained and A+ certified technicians on staff.

Additional information can be found by visiting CDW.com

Media Inquiries
Gary Ross
847-371-5048
garyross@cdw.com