On September 26 and 27 more than 500 people attended IDC’s 15th European IT Forum in Paris. This year’s theme was IT innovation and business transformation. In addition to an overview of the main trends characterizing the European ICT market, the audience heard about the business, economic, and social impact of technology from the forum’s keynote speakers.
Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, focused on the promise of Europes future. While a third of Americans say they no longer believe in the American Dream, a new European Dream is capturing the attention and imagination of the world. With 25 nations and 455 million people coming together, the new European dream is focused on sustainable development, quality of life, and the nurturing of community. All this puts Europe in a favorable position to meet the challenges of an evolving global economy.
A contribution to the sustainable evelopment also came from Nicholas Negroponte, founder and director of MITs Media Lab, who presented on the OLPC (One Laptop per Child) project, aimed at reducing the digital divide for developing countries. The initiative will allow the distribution of laptops for only $100 (with the laptops to be purchased and distributed free of charge to poor students).
This sentiment was echoed by French Minister of Industry François Loos, who underlined the importance of research in Europe to support innovation as a key driver for growth and competitiveness in a more globalized market. He announced the launch of a plan to support ICT implementation among small and medium businesses that traditionally do not invest enough in this sector. The plan will be realized through efforts to standardize the formats for the exchange of data and information between enterprises and vertical markets.
In addition to Rifkin and Loos , other keynote speakers included Lester Thurow, professor of management and economics, Sloan School of Management, MIT, who focused on the social and economic systems required to launch the global economy into the third industrial revolution.
Other speakers were Peter Weill, director of the Center for Information Systems Research, Sloan School of Management, MIT; Luc Soete, director of the United Nations University Institute for New Technologies (UNU-INTECH) and the Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT); John Gantz, IDC’s chief research officer; and Frank Gens , senior vice president of research at IDC. Attendees also heard from ICT experts, IDC analysts, CIOs of leading European corporations, and key ICT vendors.
This year IDC launched the IDC EMEA Award for ICT Innovation and Business Innovation, to recognize organizations that have demonstrated leadership in leveraging IT to improve customer experiences, extend and enhance supplier networks, streamline the supply chain, or deliver other important forms of business value. The first winner, representative of the power of IT to improve the human condition, was Hospital Son Llatzer in Mallorca (Spain). Designed from the ground up on the concept of integrated clinical, administrative, and management processes, the hospital delivers shorter patient stays, higher patient satisfaction, higher physician satisfaction, and a lower administrator-to-doctor ratio. The second winner was Nordzucker AG, the large German sugar manufacturer and distributor. Nordzucker leveraged IT successfully to transform the supply side of its business, creating a Farmer Portal to streamline communication and bring greater speed and accuracy to its supply chain. The third winner was METRO Group, the worlds third-largest retailer, which won the award for a follow-on to its Future Store pilot.
The European IT Forum 2005 was organized in collaboration with the following IT operators: HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, SAP, Sun Microsystems, Cognos, Ericsson, Exact Software, Lucent Technologies, MCI, Symantec, Foundry Networks, FreeMove, Novell, Secuware, InvestInItaly, and Xerox.
Notícias – Press-Releases