To reduce product and service delivery cycle time, companies need to reduce uncertainty and accelerate the speed of planning, urges Meta Group`s Willie Appel, keynote speaker at the Brainstorm 2002 conference.
Appel, Meta Group`s VP of International Executive Services, will deliver a keynote address, "The next tsunami: The changing landscape of IT", at the Brainstorm 2002 conference which runs alongside Computer Faire in Midrand later this month.
His keynote will identify the various aspects of "the new economy" - the information economy, the idea- or knowledge-based economy, or the risk economy - which "are converging into a major drive: to reduce product and service delivery cycle time, companies need to reduce uncertainty. The need to make sure that the right products are selected within an uncertain environment will in turn drive technology innovation."
Other key issues that will drive the economy, says Appel, are the need to reduce the risk associated with financial investments and to increase productivity.
Appel will look at these business needs against the backdrop of the most dominant macro trends, such as "the idea of speed, the increase in microchip explosion - the idea that you`ll have a processor in virtually anything, even in the clothes you wear", the plummeting cost of computing and bandwidth, and the earnings gap.
Other macro trends Appel will highlight are the growth of e-commerce, the pervasiveness of connectivity, and the spread of Net access. "Pervasive connectivity drives the idea that information is becoming key, and that key activities will be centred around generating information processes and using information to provide the right services."
And there is no slowing down, warns Appel. "As the velocity of change continues to accelerate, it requires that the speed of planning becomes more important than the breadth and depth of planning. Innovation will really become the driving force, driven by key understanding of information."
Appel`s keynote will also shed some light on "how IT is going to become a trusted provider of services to support the acceleration of change and what will be key in developing a trust relationship between IT and business".
The four-day conference, Brainstorm 2002, will run alongside Computer Faire 2002 from 21 to 24 May. Appel`s keynote address is at 8.45am on 22 May.
(The conference is organised by ITWeb.)
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