Shift Technologies, Open Group Arabia host Open Group Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference in Dubai

The event also recognized outstanding achievements of industry professionals in the field of Enterprise Architecture and relevant excellence practices through the awarding of The Open Group Awards for Enterprise Architecture Excellence.

Enterprise Architecture is an international best practice that has been adopted by key organizations in the Middle East region that provides a discipline, methodology, and practice for translating business vision and strategy into the fundamental structures and dynamics of an enterprise at various levels of abstraction. The models, principles, guidelines, and policies focus the creativity of the organization in areas that need innovation and transformation to establish organizational capabilities aligned with the business strategic intents.

The event featured global leaders in the Enterprise Architecture field including Allen Brown, the President of The Open Group, Abdallah El Kadi, Managing Director of Open Group Arabia and CEO of Shift Technologies, Jim Hietala, the Vice President of Security for The Open Group, and Dr. Pallab Saha, of the National University of Singapore, who is the primary author of the Methodology for AGency ENTerprise Architecture (MAGENTA) for the Government of Singapore. The event also featured implementation testimonies from organizations including the Abu Dhabi Judiciary Department and Dubai Customs that have endorsed an Enterprise Architecture driven approach to deliver successful transformation results. To complement these topics the event also featured IBM, the international leader in Enterprise Architecture solutions, who demonstrated how effective tooling is used to achieve effective Enterprise Architecture results.

The event celebrated the outstanding achievements of industry professionals in the field of Enterprise Architecture and relevant excellence practices through the awarding of The Open Group Arabia Awards. The winners of the awards included Ministry of Labor in the category of Organizational Excellence, Dubai Police in the category of Strategic Planning, Dubai Customs in the category of Corporate Performance Management, Dubai Roads and Transport Authority in the category of Organizational Development, and Abu Dhabi Judiciary Department in the category of Technology Excellence.

Abdallah El Kadi, Managing Director of The Open Group Arabia, said:

"This event represents the starting point of a long term engagement for The Open Group in the Arab world. Our mission at The Open Group Arabia is to work closely with regional professionals to develop a working group that can effectively contribute to the initiatives of the architecture forum. In the process, The Open Group Arabia will focus on raising the awareness of the local governments and private companies about the value of enterprise architecture and its associated methods, processes and tools."

"We are planning monthly activities for the new members of The Open Group Arabia and a number of seminars and workshops around the Arab world to help establish a common understanding of what enterprise architecture means and how it can be applied effectively to provide a solid platform for effective organizational transformation," he added.