Datamatix Gitex 2004 Conferences open

The conferences, held in conjunction with Gitex, is sponsored by IT majors Hewlett Packard (HP) and Intel.

In his keynote speech, Mr. Joe Clabby, President of the Boston based Clabby Analytics said "Only one country - UAE - is leading the charge in IT with solid investment into IT firm expansion, egovt facilitation and infrastructure investment. The region needs to start thinking about how to build service supply chains if it is to compete with other countries in world markets." Mr. Clabby in his address also threw more light on 'The role of Ministers, CEOs, and Chairmen in building Middle East's information and knowledge society'.

Andy Takieddine, Senior Architect, Adaptive Enterprise HP Middle East delivered an interesting presentation on the topic 'Why Regional Multi-million Dollar e-Projects Fail to Achieve the Desired Results?' Mr. Takieddine explained the reasons for regional IT project failures and also outlined possible solutions for CIO's and IT managers.

A joint session on 'Building the Next Generation Chief Information Officer (CIO)' was taken by Dr. Hellmuth Broda, CEO EMEA, Sun Microsystems and Mr. Jorge Sebastiao, President and CEO, ESGulf Middle East. The session revealed several strategies for transforming the IT manager into the CIO.

Mr. Osama Manzar, Founder Director, Digital Empowerment Foundation spoke on 'The Future of Outsourcing as an Effective Business Model for the Region.' Mr. Manzar also presented a case study on the Indian outsourcing industry.

The first day of the conference ended with a session on 'How Effective Change Management Can Enable Industry CXOs and IT Decision Makers?' Mr. Roland Devolder, Business Consultant - Change Management Zayed University - Smart Square spoke on the topic and also presented a case study on Change Management based on the Balanced Scorecard Methodology.

Speaking about the day's proceedings, Mr. Ali Al Kamali, MD of Datamatix Group said "The conferences got off to an impressive start today, with sessions directed towards IT issues relevant for the region. The topics of information society, outsourcing, change management, ensuring IT project success and the role of the CIO are key issues for the Middle East IT industry and they were addressed effectively today."

Gitex 2004 Conferences are organized every year in conjunction with the Gitex exhibitions and are the largest IT conferences in the Middle East. The sessions were attended by IT professionals, senior government officials and top level executives from the Middle East region.