Dubai, February 26, 2014 - With the focus firmly placed on its recently announced 'IT Meets Business' theme, IDC launched the 8th annual edition of its Middle East CIO Summit, with this year's installment once again hosted under the patronage of Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, the UAE's Minister of Culture, Youth, and Community Development. With delegates drawn from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, the event represented the largest gathering of CIOs, business heads, and ICT thought leaders ever assembled in the Middle East.

Jyoti Lalchandani, IDC's Group Vice President and Regional Managing Director for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa, got the day's proceedings underway by stressing the need for ICT chiefs and line-of-business executives to invoke the spirit of cooperation as they embrace ICT in their quest to facilitate key corporate objectives. "There can be little doubt that the 3rd Platform of computing is now in full swing, with cloud, big data, mobility, and social business set to account for one-third of all IT spending in 2015 and 100% of the market's growth," said Lalchandani. "But the focus of CIOs across the region is already beginning to shift to the new wave of disruptive technologies that are heading their way, with unprecedented opportunities to drive innovation and value creation across all facets of the organization. This will not only require a new breed of CIO leadership, but also a whole new era of collaboration right across the CxO value chain."

The next session offered insights into how ICT leaders are creating value in new ways as they look to accelerate the speed of digital transformation within their organizations. "Across industries, businesses everywhere are transforming the way they engage with customers and deliver their products and services," said Crawford Del Prete, IDC's Chief Research Officer and Executive Vice President for Worldwide Research Products. "The transformational technologies of the 3rd Platform are leading the way in this regard, but new and emerging innovation accelerators such as cognitive computing, natural interfaces, 3D printing, robotics, and next-generation security are also beginning to shape the future landscape, and it is critical that internal IT departments evolve quickly enough to keep pace with these game-changing innovations."

Frank Gens, IDC's Senior Vice President and Chief Analyst, then addressed the need for businesses to sense and respond to their customers and markets faster than ever before. "Ultimately, this calls for cross-functional agility, and the CIO is perfectly positioned to help facilitate such a state," said Gens. "This can be achieved by ensuring that all departments have access to data and are able to collaborate efficiently and effectively, and by creating high levels of transparency and disassembling unproductive and ineffective silos. By enabling true cross-functional agility, companies and their employees are able to achieve better levels of performance, and it is crucial that the IT department is seen as the enabler of this shift in organizational culture."

Far from being a purely CIO-focused event, this year's Summit saw the agenda tackle a broad range of business issues, with IT leaders joined in the audience by their counterparts from the worlds of marketing, finance, HR, and operations. One such session featured a panel discussion chaired by Joseph Pucciarelli, IDC's Group Vice President and IT Executive Advisor, during which the assembled experts explored the ways in which finance leaders can drive greater synergies with their CIOs. "In a bid to balance total cost of ownership and ensure resources are performing efficiently, Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) are increasingly becoming major influencers when it comes to enterprise technology adoption plans," said Pucciarelli. "It is indeed prudent for CFOs to become actively involved in approving IT investments to ensure that the solutions benefit the organization's strategic direction and overall goals. But for this to work effectively, they must develop a clear understanding of the inherent technology benefits and align themselves more closely with the CIO so as to enable the development of a coherent and mutually agreeable ICT adoption roadmap."

The 300 delegates in attendance at the Middle East CIO Summit 2015 were drawn from a total of 13 diverse industry sectors, with senior IDC analysts from across the globe available for private one-to-one meetings throughout the course of the event, offering strategic advice on the most pressing concerns troubling the region's business and technology leaders today. The Summit also featured six in-depth workshops tailored around IDC's recently launched IT Executive Program, a series of breakout tracks that zeroed in on matters relating to the areas of security, enterprise mobility, digital transformation, and cloud computing, and three vertical-specific sessions dedicated to the challenges facing organizations from the oil & gas, banking & finance, and government sectors.

Other sessions played host to senior representatives from some of the world's foremost technology vendors as they offered strategic advice on a broad range of issues like accelerating innovation and growth on the 3rd Platform, enabling resilient and efficient IT services, working with CxOs to achieve IT and business objectives, and using cognitive systems to manage data. The final presentation of the day saw Pucciarelli bring the curtain down on another hugely successful Middle East CIO Summit by outlining IDC's top decision imperatives for the 2015 CIO agenda. Aimed at helping CIOs step up to the next stage of leadership, these decision imperatives provided the strategic context required for them to transform their enterprises through the creative application of technology to everyday business challenges.

To ensure the very latest technologies were covered at the Middle East CIO Summit 2015, IDC partnered with some of the world's foremost ICT players, including: Dubai Internet City as ICT Partner; Samsung, EMC, HP, and Intel as Summit Partners; Eaton, CSC/Amazon Web Services, SAP, and IBM as Platinum Partners; Cognizant, HCL, Citirx, Blue Coat, F5 Networks, Wipro, VMware, Hitachi Data Systems, Schneider Electric, FireEye, Sanovi, and First Information Security as Gold Partners; OpenText, Oxygen, Aruba Networks, Automic, and OutSystems as Banking & Finance Track Partners; McAfee, IBM, Juniper Networks, ITQAN, and Riverbed as Oil & Gas Track Partners; Veeam Software, CommVault, ComGuard, and NetApp as Givernment Track Partners; Centrify, Vision Solutions, Trianz, and AashnaCloudtech as Lunch Partners; Orange Business Services and AGC Networks as Gala Dinner Partners;  E-Kalite, Global Knowledge, FVC, Polycom, Solutions Middle East, Tripwire, Infoblox, Redington Gulf, Simplivity, Box, and Cyberoam Technologies as Exhibit Partners; and Gulf Africa Review, Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East, AIT News, Capital Business, Business Islamica, TRENDS, Saneou Al Hadath, and AMEinfo as Media Partners.

For more information about the IDC Middle East CIO Summit 2015, please contact Ms. Ronita Bhattacharjee, associate vice president for conferences at IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, on +971 4 391 2747 or at rbhattacharjee@idc.com

About IDC
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For more than 50 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com.

IDC in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey

For the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey region, IDC retains a coordinated network of offices in Riyadh, Casablanca, Nairobi, Lagos, Johannesburg, and Istanbul, with a regional center in Dubai.  Our coverage couples local insight with an international perspective to provide a comprehensive understanding of markets in these dynamic regions. Our market intelligence services are unparalleled in depth, consistency, scope, and accuracy. IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey currently fields over 130 analysts, consultants, and conference associates across the region.

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© Press Release 2015