Influential ICT leaders head to Jeddah Hilton for second day of IDC CIO Summit

The world¡¦s premier IT and communications market intelligence and events firm ran this year's edition under the banner 'Driving the Agenda for Business Success' and, together with representatives of the world¡¦s leading ICT vendors, provided invaluable advice on implementing IT strategies, processes, and technologies that enable business agility and improve operational efficiencies.

With CIOs in attendance from across the Kingdom, IDC¡¦s second annual Saudi Arabia CIO Summit offered unparalleled opportunities for networking with the region's foremost technology experts.

Senior international IDC analysts and high-ranking regional thought leaders from some of the world¡¦s most innovative ICT suppliers delivered a series of fascinating presentations to the assembled delegates, who came from a diverse range of verticals that included government, oil and gas, telecommunications, construction and real estate, banking and finance, group companies, aviation, education, and manufacturing.

IDC's senior vice president and chief analyst, Frank Gens, opened the day's proceedings by hosting a panel discussion on the challenges facing Saudi Arabia's CIOs as they wrestle with the often-conflicting demands of optimizing costs, ensuring returning on IT investment, and adding value to the business. Featuring the director general of Saudi Arabia's egovernment program Yasser, Ali Bin Saleh Al Soma, and the University of Dammam's IT director, Dr. Saad Al Amri, the panel assessed the merits of technology game changers such as cloud, mobility, social, and big data analytics, examining not only the undoubted opportunities they offer but also the significant challenges they bring in terms of complexity and manageability.

In the next session, senior representatives from Fujitsu, Schneider Electric, and Arab National Bank addressed the issue of datacenter management, arguing that the importance of datacenters can no longer be underestimated as they both underpin and enable the businesses that they serve.

Recognizing that the spiraling costs associated with datacenters have become a real issue for today's CIOs, they explained that significant inefficiencies still exist in spite of the large investments made in modern datacenters. Against this backdrop they presented the case for implementing effective management strategies that can help improve the efficiency, utilization, and availability of the datacenter.

IDC's research director for software and IT services, Ranjit Rajan, then led a panel of experts from SAP, Devoteam, and the Saline Water Conversion Corporation in a session that outlined a series of best practices and critical success factors for realizing IT and business transformation. Arguing that transformations in IT and business will need to be realized in parallel to each other, they served up advice on how to optimize IT investments, manage IT risks, improve governance, and streamline processes through intelligent implementations of mobility, business analytics, and cloud.

Following a break for lunch, Lexmark's general manager for the Middle East, Mathias Militzer, showed how managed print services can help optimize and drive efficiencies into company-wide printing processes, resulting in long-term savings and long-lasting business-process improvements.

He was followed by Canon's business development manager for office copiers and solutions in the Middle East, Bassem El Halabi, who detailed the importance of an effective office print strategy in driving organizational efficiency and explained how companies can save up to 30% by paying closer attention to multifunction devices and printer fleets.

IDC's senior vice president for EMEA and managing director for CEMA, Steven Frantzen, then brought the day's proceedings to a close with his presentation, 'Key Trends To Watch Out For', by stating his belief that the coming years will be a fascinating period for the development of Saudi Arabia¡¦s IT and communications markets as some organizations continue to develop their infrastructures, while others surge forward, implanting cutting-edge technologies that disrupt traditional business and IT models.

To ensure that the Saudi Arabia CIO Summit 2012 covered the very latest technology developments, IDC partnered with a host of leading global, regional, and national vendors:
- Strategic Partner: Ministry of Communications and Information Technology
- Summit Partners: Intel, STC, IBM
- Platinum Partners: Fujitsu, Schneider Electric, Devoteam, Lexmark, Canon, and SAP
- Gold Partners: Riverbed, Cognizant, Kaspersky Lab, McAfee, First Information Security, Citrix Systems, Secureway Network Distributors, Fortinet, and Hitachi Data Systems
- Exhibition Partners: AirWatch, Dell, SonicWALL
- Lunch Partner: Interactive Intelligence Group
- Gala Dinner Partner: Future Systems
- Airline Partner: Saudi Arabian Airlines.