Government Technology - Information technology in a changing world

Information technology in a changing world

The Gartner Symposium/ITxpo looks at the effects of the current economic climate

Any way you look at it, these are interesting times. Economic uncertainty meets disruption and innovation. There are many ways to respond. Organisations can focus on cost containment; invest now to take advantage; get operations and governance in order; or press ahead into new markets and new opportunities. Only two things are certain: standing still is not an option and IT will play a critical role in whichever road organisations decide to take.

Symposium/ITxpo, taking place on 3-7 November 2008 in Cannes, is designed for IT and business leaders and will address the key trends and challenges that organisations are facing in the current economic climate.

Who should attend?

CIOs, CEOs, CTOs and their direct reports
Business leaders involved in IT decisions
Technology and business strategy executives
Application managers, developers and integrators
Business intelligence executives and professionals
Business process management leaders
Enterprise architects and planners
Financial services and government
Infrastructure and operations executives and managers
IT professionals
IT network and Telecom managers
IT security, risk and compliance managers
IT sourcing and purchasing managers
Portals, collaboration and knowledge managers
Programme and portfolio managers
Technology investors and venture capitalists
Technology and service providers

Of the eight super-tracks (as listed), there’s a new track on IT in the Business – all the ways IT can contribute to business outcomes. Plus a new focus on benchmarking and case studies as tools for improvement. On the innovation front, you’ll dive into the brave new worlds of cloud computing, enterprise social software, green information technology and the latest on SOA. On the management side, you’ll learn about new cost control levers, the latest security strategies, airtight governance and intelligent consolidation.

The tracks
‘IT in the Business’. This track is about understanding business drivers and translating them into effective IT programmes is a core CIO skill. Discover the new metrics, strategies and tactics here.

‘Business and Technology Leadership: Delivering the Difference’. This track explores how business expectations for IT challenge the CIO’s ability to deliver at a time when resources are under pressure. Those expectations are at the heart of most 2009 plans and commitments. In this track CIOs will discover the new tools and skills required to deliver the business and technology leadership needed to make a difference in 2009 and reshape their future and the future of IT.

‘Strategic Initiatives: Acting on Disruptions and the Opportunities They Create’. This track looks at the politics and science of global warming, rising energy costs and environmental concerns loom large in planning. So do disruptive innovations rewriting the script for data centres and software. This track includes the ever important future technology scan as well as special research reflecting unconventional thinking and will expose maverick thinking within the analyst community.

Change in a turbulent world
‘Enterprise Architecture and Strategic Planning in a Turbulent World’. Change without integrated enterprise architecture and strategic planning leads to reactive and fragmented tactical responses, wasted resources and funding, and loss of competitive advantage. This track will show how, whilst embracing this evolution, IT can continue to keep delivering and supporting technology-driven solutions.

‘Process, Applications and Information’. This track looks at how increasing demand from the business to support innovation and agility has forced IT departments to re-examine their assets, take advantage of emerging and evolving technologies, methodologies and disciplines. This includes an introspection of core applications, data, processes, portals and middleware. Understanding how SOA, BPM, MDM, Business Intelligence and Data and Content Management affect these layers is a must. Additionally companies should not only examine their present state, they should strive to understand how the portfolio of "parts, process and people" is rapidly changing and converging. Companies that do so will have the competitive edge, companies that don't will be rendered obsolete by their consumers.

A solid infrastructure
‘Infrastructure Platforms’. This track looks at how infrastructure is what makes business dreams a reality. Technologies such as multicore, virtualisation and telepresence will provide new application and implementation opportunities for the business. Computational models such as SOA and cloud computing will revolutionise both sourcing and implementation decisions. New concepts such as context and communications aware applications will demand new infrastructure. The next decade of infrastructure will pose greater opportunities and challenges than ever before.

‘IT Operations Management and Security’. This track discusses how IT Operations Management and IT Security are two distinct disciplines with different mandates but with overlapping and integrative processes. As IT moves towards service oriented architectures and dynamic resource and service provisioning, both security and operations management requirements need to be designed into the application architecture and into the IT infrastructure, in a way that enables rather than impedes agility.

‘IT Acquisition and Vendor Management Strategies to Maximise Performance’. Understanding when to buy vs. lease, own vs. rent, outsource vs. insource will not only affect the financial results but could have a profound impact on business performance. This track explores the vast array of new options for sourcing IT products and services. Attendees will also learn to effectively evaluate and manage IT vendors to maximise performance and to develop the best sourcing strategies.

Case study highlights
The event also includes first hand experience from the IT Leader case studies:

Key Drivers for Realistic Risk Reporting at Unilever, Andrew Strong, Global Security Director
Seven Years of SOA at Deutsche Post, Dr. Alexander Scherdin, Senior Vice President, IT Architecture and Quality Management
The Netherlands Ministry of Defense: Total Wireless Private GSM, Teus Van Der Plaat, Director Research and Development
Building a Responsive and Trusted Environment – Controlling Vulnerability Surface-Area, Roger Snelling, Head of Networks, University of Exeter
Ten Lessons from the World's Leading Search Powerhouse you've Never Heard of, David Gilbey, Co-Founder, Aubert Park Ventures

Special pricing for Public Sector. Receive a discount of €1,250 of the standard delegate rate.

For more information
Easy ways to register:
Web: www.gartner.com/eu/symposiumfall
Tel: +44 (0)20 8879 2430