Reader's guide to the Top 100

The annual Top 100 ranking is the most popular feature of our website. Year over year, it pulls in the most traffic and consistently ranks in our top five most read pages for any particular day.

We’re proud that the industry has embraced the rankings as a tool for tracking where the market is headed and who the major players are.

Each year we try to improve the usefulness of the list and this year, we’re happy to unveil a latest news feature, indicated by this icon:

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Looking at the main Top 100 rankings, when you see this icon you’ll know we’ve had a news story about that company within the last three days.

This way the Top 100 list becomes a tool you can use year round to stay current about the latest news involving the largest companies in the market.

We’ve also widened the list to make it more readable. As I push up against by 48th birthday, I’m grateful for the easier reading.

I also wanted to share a couple other tips for using the Top 100.

There are a variety of ways to sort the list and look at specific segments of the market. At the top of the rankings page, there are two rows of “View List By” links These include A-Z, newcomer, publicly traded, small business, etc.

As simple as it sounds, but I probably use the A-Z button the most when I’m looking for a specific company and I can’t remember its ranking.

These buttons also let you look at the list according to a company’s defense or civilian revenue, so you can quickly see who the top companies are in those categories.

Another useful tool is the Industry Sector button. Here, we’ve broken down the companies by different categories such as IT services, systems integration, consulting and value-added reseller. This way you can identify the top companies in those sectors of the market.

We also have financial information on the publicly traded companies so you can dive into measures such as market valuation and revenue growth.

As I said, we are continually striving to improve the Top 100, so I invite you to offer suggestions, ask questions and even give some of your own tips for using the Top 100.