In the continually changing climate of the technology sector, innovation and evolution are to be expected. Industry executives and FACC members gathered on Wednesday, April 4, at the Intercontinental to discuss such evolutions, trends, and updates during a luncheon and roundtable discussion.

Participants included application software providers and designers, software systems integrators, telecommunication services, and on-line service providers. Moderated by Saul Shapiro, head of the information and technology desks at the New York Economic Development Corp., Aaron Rorstrom of Capgemini, provided an in-depth presentation of the industry, followed by a lively question and answer session and discussion.

As a Certified Enterprise Architect, Intelligent Enterprise, Rorstrom gave an expert keynote address which focused primarily on Intelligent Enterprise, specifically "Gaining Competitive Advantage and Reducing Costs through Creating an Intelligent Enterprise". According to Rorstrom, we are currently in the early phase of the next Information Revolution. Most organizations are not equipped for this phase, which has in turn created a large market opportunity to deliver new services; namely document management, search engines and process automation. Rorstrom addressed differences between data and information, the speed required to make intelligent management decisions, and the impact of timing and information on an organization's success. Rorstrom strongly recommended adjusting from a "traditional" approach to one highlighting Intelligent Enterprise, an approach featuring an information-centric view coupled with Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), across people, and process technology, in order to support better decision making. Success resulted from visible executive sponsorship, focus on business outcomes, active engagement of affected business user communities and stakeholders, use of a pragmatic approach on strong prioritization, building a "one team" with the best-of-the-best with clear roles and responsibilities and rapidly building and maintaining strong organizational momentum.

The participants' discussion included questions regarding the use of Intelligent Enterprise and Technology as well as its impact on the cell phone industry, the relevance of IE to small and medium size organizations, and ways to enable successful transformation into an Intelligent Enterprise via critical success factors.

In conclusion, a focus on information, rather than technology, enables a company to successfully evolve into an Intelligent Enterprise, which will aid them in establishing themselves as a leading organization in today's competitive market.

The FACC thanks Capgemini for their support and sponsorship of the event.