Discussion: Whether you have been a CIO for many years or only a few, we all want to learn how to become even more effective. This session will ask some key questions of our panel of experienced CIO's to see:

what they think are the most important characteristics of an effective CIO

how they have overcome the obstacles they have encountered

what educational programs have helped them and could help both newer and more experienced CIO's

what techniques they have used to improve their effectiveness

how they have worked to improve the quality of their personal lives, given the demands of the job.

Discussion: Managing demand for most IT organizations is extremely difficult. Demand comes from many different sources and is of vastly different levels of priority-from tactical to strategic. Even if all the demand is captured, there is often no process by which to make trade-off decisions with the business in terms of priority, timing and budget. In addition, once this demand is quantified and resources assigned, IT has a further challenge in showing results to the business. Compounding this challenge is the lack of visibility - the IT organizations' customers have little visibility into the status of their approved initiatives. Often IT appears as a black box to those who rely on IT for their business technology.
In this session, see how organizations capture all types of demand, prioritize for decision making, and manage key performance indicators to optimize IT's portfolio of investments, resources and applications. Learn how organizations are able to develop clear investment models for the leadership and business community to focus on strategic development and rationalize applications in terms of the number and quality of systems.

Discussion: You can align business and IT and still have chaos. You can implement ITIL and still have no view of the business. Peter Armstrong, Corporate Strategist, BMC Software, will review what customers around the world are doing to address these issues, from the initial formulation of the business strategy through to the operational processes required to underpin it, and discuss what benefits they are deriving as a result.

Discussion:

We have a passion for quality results

We exemplify personal and organizational excellence

We relentlessly pursue success

We build relationships based on mutual trust

We support a unified and aligned mission

We accept accountability for the effects of our leadership

Discussion: Today’s enterprise-level IT departments are challenged to support the highest levels of corporate performance within a strict budget. The risks of information security, data retention and compliance loom large. Enterprise data management strategies enable you to accelerate performance while controlling costs and mitigating risks. In this session we will discuss some of the strategies that leading organizations have implemented from archiving and test data management solutions to proactive data privacy strategies.

Discussion:

What are the key characteristics of a successful CIO

Changes in the role of IT in the company – the future & what skills are required of IT people

What qualities do women have that make them well suited to a role in IT? As an IT leader?

How to juggle career and family – tips and tools

Why is networking important – especially for women

Discuss value of affinity groups or women’s networking groups

Discusion: An informal and interactive discussion with today’s search industry leaders. Find out: what they hear from prospective clients, what skills are needed to be successful, why do CIOs loose their jobs, what are prospective employers looking for, how do you get on their radar screens, which resumes get their attention, what is the future state of the CIO. This is your chance to hear it from the experts.

Discussion: Part of living in the 21st century is working in an electronic world. In 2003, there were 31 billion emails sent daily. By some estimates that number doubled by 2006. Add to this the fact that data that can be stored and retrieved from instant messaging programs, handheld devices, web sites and telephone voicemail systems, and the challenge of developing, managing and maintaining an enterprise data storage and retrieval program can seem overwhelming. Factor in the new obligations courts and legislatures are imposing on businesses to store and provide access to this information and the challenge might seem impossible. In this program, moderated by Nicholas Gentile, Jeff Ziplow (a compliance and corporate controls consultant) and Rich Green (an attorney specializing in information technology) will provide you with an overview of obligations under the new federal legal rules and suggest guidelines for litigation readiness and effective ongoing management, use and disposal of your business’s electronic information.

Discussion: IT Strategic Planning and Information Lifecycle Management viewed either separately or together, could be interpreted, processed and managed differently from one environment to the next. Some factors which influence these differences include management styles, business strategy, customer perception and regulatory pressures. There can be a correlation and synergy of these two topics, including how your organization can adopt the various technologies required to address your immediate and future business needs. Below are the core subjects to be discussed by this panel. Conversation will include the subjects themselves, how they correlate to one another and how they can be addressed from a strategic perspective.

Access > End Point Security

Applications > Integrated Communication Platforms

Infrastructure > Storage and System Consolidation

Governance > Data Retention Policies and Discovery

Management > Controls and Reporting

Discussion: Service-Oriented Architecture means many things to many people. For the buyer, it can mean wasted IT spend or a robust, long-term IT spend strategy. IT spend for SOA tends to be substantial because it touches your entire strategy and takes time to implement fully. Therefore, it should only be started with a full understanding of the implications for you, your vendors, your teams and your budget. Senior executives also need to be comfortable with the changes that may impact their business processes and users. This session covers an introduction to the definition of SOA along with case studies that illustrate the potential and pitfalls of its implementation tactically or enterprise-wide. Focus will be on concrete examples and steps. Architecture will also be covered at a detailed level, but only as it relates to understanding what changes will be necessitated by this evolutionary process. A bit of IT spend history and review will assist you in starting the process of measuring the impact and value of SOA.

Discussion: Doug Hubbard will discuss his upcoming book about how to measure things usually considered “immeasurable”. He asserts that the idea that some things are immeasurable is based on a set of misconceptions about statistics and measurement in general or, in many cases, a lack of a clear definition of what the proposed “intangible” really is. Whatever is relevant for a business to know must have observable consequences. This presentation from the book will include:

The three reasons why anything is ever (incorrectly) thought to be immeasurable

Quick and simple methods for measuring any uncertain quantity

An overview of some of the more advanced methods

Interesting examples of where “impossible” measurements had clever solutions.