Classroom 1—Management of IT
Session: State of the Market—SAP and Oracle
By Jim Shepherd, Vice President, AMR Research;
Bill Swanton, Vice President, AMR Research

The enterprise application market has been rapidly consolidating and the vast majority of global companies are using, deploying, or considering either SAP or Oracle systems. These vendors and their applications have changed dramatically in the last few years, and they will change even more over the next five years. Because they have become such a vital part of how companies run their business, it is critical that managers have a clear understanding of their vendors’ business and product strategies. This session will explore:

• SAP’s and Oracle’s business strategies and how they will impact customers.
• The current product lines and likely developments and acquisitions for each vendor.
• What opportunities and risks are emerging as SAP and Oracle expand their partner ecosystems.

Classroom 1—Business
Session:  Serving the Office of the CFO
By Nigel Montgomery, Vice President, AMR Research
Dave Kasabian, Research Director, AMR Research

The needs of the CFO and the finance organization have a direct impact on the IT organization. With disparate systems producing disparate information, the CFO needs a trusted source of providing the true finger on the pulse of organizational performance, enc

ompassing processes, people, and technology. IT can be that trusted source, but only if alignment and commitment are delivered properly. This session will explore:

• Pressures on the CFO that are addressable by the IT organization.
• Technology investments for finance.
• Performance measurement and management.

Classroom 1—Emerging Technologies
Session: Enterprise Architecture Planning To Prepare for Strategic SOA Deployments
Ian Finley, Research Director, AMR Research

As the perspective of enterprise architecture has evolved in the market and the organizations the market serves, the architects responsible for that architecture must rationalize between today’s applications environment and the platform of the future. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is not considered strategic to many organizations, which need to determine how SOA fits into future architecture plans. This session will address:

• How enterprise applications investments fit into an enterprise architecture strategy.
• How organizations can properly plan for SOA.
• What pitfalls to avoid when deploying various architecture approaches.

Classroom 2—Management of IT
Session: Critical Operations for Large ERP Instances in The Terabyte Club
Bill Swanton, Vice President, AMR Research
Derek Prior, Research Director, AMR Research

For the last five years, more enterprises have busily been building consolidated ERP production systems or instances. The problem is that these mission-critical systems just keep getting bigger, but everyone casually assumes that their system managers will have no problem at all keeping them up and running reliably. But for ERP customers in The Terabyte Club (i.e., with databases above 1 terabyte), how do their system managers rise to this challenge? This session will identify:

• How these system managers balance the system upkeep with the meeting of the business needs of higher service levels.
• The critical operations procedures that the system managers are most challenged by and how they should tame them.
• Best practices.

Classroom 2—Business
Session: Vision of Enterprise Performance Management
By John Hagerty, VP and Research Fellow, AMR Research
Dave Kasabian, Research Director, AMR Research

With the recent vendor consolidation, business intelligence and enterprise performance management are converging into a single discipline we define as pervasive performance management. The vision of pervasive PM is of a unified BI platform for all performance management and analytic applications across the enterprise. And through acquisition and market consolidation, ERP, BI, and performance management vendors are embracing this vision. This session will explore:

• The definition of pervasive PM.
• Challenges vendors face in delivering on the pervasive PM vision.
• Client considerations for embarking on a pervasive PM strategy.

Classroom 2—Emerging Technologies
Session: Why You Need To Embrace Enterprise Mobility—Today
By Chris Fletcher, Research Director; AMR Research
Rob Bois, Research Director, AMR Research

Everyone talks about enterprise mobility, yet few companies have actually deployed mobility or done so in an effective, reliable, and meaningful way. Leading organizations in a variety of industries are extending corporate applications, data, and tools to employees, executives, and partners to maximize profitability, reduce costs, and optimize customer interactions.
This session will answer:

• What are the high ROI mobile applications that I should focus on?
• What resources, technical and organizational, do I need to invest in mobile initiatives to ensure success?
• Which industries can I look to for examples of mobile best practices?