So check the pockets of many of this year's Premier 100 IT Leaders, and you'll likely find an updated passport: Nearly half of them report that they're managing global operations that span time zones, continents and cultures.

"Even if you're not responsible for facilities and operations in other parts of the world, you still need a global perspective because so many processes that enable the business are often outside the U.S.," says Shawn Banerji, executive director of Russell Reynolds Associates Inc., a New York-based executive search firm that helps companies locate global IT talent.

And heading global projects, Premier 100 IT Leaders have found, means facing challenges that are very different from those at home. Just ask Fred Danback, vice president of global technology at Stamford, Conn.-based XL Global Services Inc., which provides IT services to XL Capital Ltd. , a large Bermuda-based financial services company. Through a flurry of acquisitions, the company now operates in 29 countries.

A project of epic proportions

In 2001, XL Global began creating a shared services infrastructure for XL Capital's distributed IT functions. But building a cross-continental infrastructure is a huge endeavor, given the variety of legal systems, business rules, social cultures and economic climates involved. Moreover, because XL Capital had grown through acquisition, the individual units were still aligned with their own business models. With 17 different IT organizations, "it was a very politically sensitive environment," Danback says.