As part of events marking its 50th year of delivering leadership
in global IT advisory services, IDC Tuesday inaugurated a West Africa CIO
Summit, held under the patronage of Mr. Adebiyi Mabadeje, Honorable
Commissioner for the Ministry of Science and Technology, Lagos State, reports DigitalSENSE
Business News.
Delivering the Summit's keynote address to the senior technology
decision makers in attendance, Mr. Mabadeje noted this gathering represented
the largest social network of CIOs, IT thought leaders, and vendors in West
Africa, with industry experts on hand to explore the pivotal role of the CIO in
the new business world of technology transformation.
DigitalSENSE
Business News was told by Jyoti Lalchandani, IDC's group vice
president and regional managing director for the Middle East, Africa, and
Turkey that the last five years have seen the emergence of a new era in
computing, called 3th platform.
"We call this new era the 3rd Platform. Harnessing the
power of key technology pillars such as Big Data, mobile, cloud, and social
media, this unstoppable force is driving an evolution in the role of the CIO,
transforming entire industries, and empowering customers in new ways,"
Lalchandani said.
The day's proceedings got
underway with an assessment of the ways in which this new era of transformation
will impact the West Africa IT landscape over the coming years. This was
followed by an eclectic mix of insightful presentations and informative panel
discussions on everything from Big Data analytics and datacenter strategies to
CIO best practices and ICT predictions for West Africa.
"Our extensive research
shows the region's technology leaders are primarily concerned with driving
innovation through IT, managing growing expectations from users, and measuring
the ROI of their IT initiatives," says Bola Adisa, country manager, IDC
West Africa. "The coming years will be a fascinating period for the
development of West Africa's IT and communications markets. While some
organizations are still building their infrastructures, others are surging
forward, implanting cutting-edge technologies that disrupt traditional business
and work models while creating opportunities in lines of business and in the
optimization of workflow.
"The proliferation of 3rd
Platform technologies is not only changing the solutions that CIOs need to
implement, but also fundamentally affecting the role of IT in the organization,
the tasks and responsibilities of the IT department, and the skill sets
required by CIOs and their IT staff."
The delegates in attendance
represented a variety of industry sectors, including banking and financial
services, government, oil and gas, construction and real estate, utilities, and
healthcare. Senior IDC analysts from across the globe were available for
private one-to-one meetings throughout the course of the Summit, offering
strategic advice on the most pressing business and technology concerns facing
the region's CIOs today. The event came to an end with a lavish gala dinner and
evening of entertainment laid on for the CIOs and technology partners.
To make sure the very latest
technology developments were covered at the Middle East CIO Summit 2014, IDC
partnered with some of the world's foremost ICT vendors, including: Microsoft
and EMC (in partnership with Resourcery) as Summit Partners; HP, Huawei, and
MTN Business as Platinum Partners; Oracle, FireEye, APC by Schneider Electric,
CommVault, and SAS as Gold Partners; MainOne, Global Knowledge, and Check Point
Software Technologies as Silver Partners; and IT Edge Magazine as the event's official Media
Partner.
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