The first African Gartner Symposium and ITxpo Africa 2001 kicked off at the Sandton Convention Centre this morning, with opening addresses by Rene Jacobs, MD of IT Management Advisory Service, and Leon Shapiro, senior VP and GM of Gartner Community.
The opening presentation was facilitated by Stephen Prentice, VP and director of research (EMEA) for Gartner Research, and included contributions from David Flint, research director in Gartner`s Business Management Research team, Roger Cox, VP and research director in EMEA strategic sourcing practice, and Andy Kite, VP and research director in Gartner Research.
The analysts agreed that while e-business was currently in the now infamous Gartner Trough of Disillusionment, businesses should continue to focus on this aspect of business, in addition to maintaining a holistic management of their overall business strategy.
And while companies` erstwhile investment in ERP has been considerable, the analysts believe that such investment is just not the end goal - just the end of the beginning. The next step, they say, is to focus on the extended enterprise, with the goal of "inter-enterprise interaction".
The symposium continues until Wednesday, 1 August. For further information, visit www.gartner.com
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