Conference Program
 

How to be Relevant in 2010: Selecting Technologies that are Business Enablers
Jim Vaselopulos, Vice President, PSC Group, LLC
 

With limited budgets, staff, and time, CIO's must be shrewd in selecting the right projects, methods and technologies. Irrespective of elegance or merit, technologies must be evaluated in the context of business value.
 

In this session attendees will learn:

• How to evaluate a list of emerging technologies and their importance to the business

• An understanding of what the growth mechanisms are to your respective business

• Best practices for clearly identifying business project needs and prioritization

• How to work the CIO and IT enablement challenges

• How to articulate the direct contribution in business terms to the board, the business units and IT

• How to evangelize to the IT organization that their work on new technologies is an investment to the business and how they can develop that mindset

• How to determine when a new technology is "ripe" enough for your company's use

Reducing the Client Burden: How Desktop Virtualization May be a Game Changer

Desktop computing has long been the curse of IT.  When desktop hardware is under users' control (and not IT), solid management software and lockdown policies will not preclude support and security challenges. PCs and laptops are also expensive to purchase, deploy, maintain, manage and upgrade.

Desktop Virtualization may resolve many of these burdens.  The momentum of desktop virtualization is driven by the following desires: To reduce computing costs, to increase IT control, and at the same time enhancing user productivity.

By reducing the spend on desktops money can be reallocated to areas such as IT innovation – which can help move the organization forward.

In this session attendees will learn:

• Where desktop virtualization makes sense

• ROI of desktop virtualization

• How to effectively implement the technology

• Limitations of the technology

• Pros and cons of the varying types of virtual desktop technology

11:30am - 12:30pm

Cloud Computing: Ready for Prime Time or Still a Bit Hazy?
Eric Ledyard, CTO, AHEAD

In the last year cloud computing has gained tremendous attention in the industry.  Yet, the very definition of cloud computing depends on who you talk to.  Many organizations are still trying to figure out what it means to them, what level of cloud service they may be willing to embrace and what are the real/tangible benefits.   Will cloud computing present the same challenges that the outsourcing model of 2000 did?

In this session, attendees will learn:

• Is cloud computing ready for large and mid-tier enterprises?

• If so, who is embracing it?

• What are the benefits of a private cloud versus a public cloud?

• What the differences are between Infrastructure-as-a-service, Platform-as-a service and Software-as-a-service

12:30pm - 1:30pm - Luncheon

1:30pm - 2:30pm

Low Investment/High Yield – Strategies to Make the Mobile Workforce More Productive
J Schwan, Founder and Managing Partner of Solstice Consulting
 

Over the past 5 years, great strides have been made in mobilizing the workforce's communications platforms (email, calendaring, contacts, etc.).  With the maturity of the smartphone, the mobile web and mobile application platforms, there is a renewed interest in further enabling knowledge workers by providing them with mobile versions of their favorite enterprise applications and services. This discussion will suggest how to fulfill these needs with with a low investment/high yield approach that is built on company's existing (legacy) architecture.  The session will leave the audience with considerations for a business case for mobilizing the enterprise, pragmatic insight on the technologies available, suggestions on which platforms they should place their bets on, and practical suggestions on how to get started.

2:30pm - 3:00pm - Refreshment Break

3:00pm - 4:00pm

New Technology Integration: Steps for Effective Implementation

Praveen Moturu, Enterprise Architect, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois
 

When evaluating these new technologies for IT modernization, one must evaluate how well they can be implemented with their existing environment technically as well as how they can lead to business improvement, cost savings, and new services being offered to internal users.

In this session, attendees will learn how to build a plan that evaluates many new technologies as to how well they can be implemented in their current environment.

4:00pm - 5:00pm

How to Build the Business Case for New Technology Adoption

Moderator: Mark Phinick, Regional Manager, BigFix

Panelists will include:
Bernadette Rasmussen, Chief Enterprise Architect, Divisional Vice President, HCSC

Sergey Chernov, PMP, Manager, Enterprise  Architecture, NiSource
Iain R. Tilbrook,Chief Business Analyst, Argonne National Laboratory
Hemant Javeri, Technical Architect, Derivatives Technology, The Northern Trust
and other professionals from IT departments

Moving forward with any large scale IT investment requires organizations to ask the following questions.

1. How will this improve business processes?

2. What is this going to cost?

3. What new services can be expected to be rolled out?

4. What is the ROI?

5. How long will this take to achieve ROI?

6. Can this new technology lead us down the path of innovation?

In this session attendees will learn from IT leaders as to how they have answered these questions and taken their organizations to the next level.

Conference price: $219 per person.

Each attendee will receive a certificate awarding 7 CPE credits for CISSP continuing education, in addition to 0.7 CEUs and 7 PDUs. CISSP is a registered certification mark of (ISC)², Inc.