Inaugural St. Louis IT Symposium, hosted by SIM : Detailed Agenda

Detailed Agenda

Wednesday November 15, 2006

Sheraton St. Louis City Center

Sponsors

Software Plus

ASAP Software

SAS Institute, Inc.

CommVault Systems

Cast Iron Systems

Tata

Oracle

Network Appliance

Forrester Research

Inaugural St. Louis IT Symposium, hosted by SIM

8:00 am	Attendee Check-In; Breakfast Buffet Served
8:50 am	Welcome Message
9:00 am	Is There Still Life in the IT Career
	Phil Zwieg Former VP of IS Northwestern Mutual Enrollment in IT related majors has been steadily and rapidly declining in the US and Europe since 2000. Many potential students have been scared away by overhyped news stories about offshoring and its impact on jobs in the US. Baby boomers are rapidly approaching retirment age. Birth rates are down across the globe. Other science and math related job opportunities are competing for scarce resources. For those who look to manage this industry in the future, the combination of truth and fiction makes it difficult to determine the appropriate path. This presentation will focus on dispelling myths, reviewing the skill sets that will become critical in the future and talking about strategies to insure the "pipeline" for filling jobs will not dry up.
10:15 am	Moderated Best Practice Discussions
	Simplifying Your Data Center Thought Leader: Jeff Maynard, Director Infrastructure Technology, Thompson Coburn Simplifying the management of any data center is challenging. Thompson Coburn has implemented an IT infrastructure that has significantly reduced their IT costs while accomplishing the firm's technology objectives. The technology infrastructure includes SAN boot, dynamic storage allocation, tapeless back-ups and site-to-site replication. Understand what Thompson Coburn did to achieve their technology objectives and simplify the data center. Sponsored by Network Appliance Software License Management and Compliancy Advisor Thought Leader: Linda Platt, Distributed Support Management - License Manager, US Bank Managing Volume Licensing Contracts and Compliancy Issues can prove to be a very complicated and time-consuming responsibility. Software Plus has helped US Bank uncover ways to reduce costs and maintain compliancy by assisting them with their Microsoft Enterprise Agreement and tracking products they have deployed to make sure they are aware of current releases. Sponsored by Software Plus
11:30 am	IT Solutions Driving Scientific Achievement and Competitive Advantage
	Dr. Jason Bull Enterprise Applications Strategy Lead Monsanto Monsanto is a leading provider of agricultural products and solutions. Monsanto leverages unparalleled innovation in plant biotechnology, genomics and breeding to improve productivity and to reduce the costs of farming. We produce leading seed brands, including DEKALB and Asgrow, and develop biotechnology traits that integrate insect and weed control into the seed itself. Leadership in Seeds and Genomics requires integration of global businesses with scientifically complex technology platforms in plant genomics to deliver novel and genetically enhanced products to our customers. A significant component of our competitive advantage is our ability to rapidly leverage information to make product advancement decisions, enable operations globally and drive scientific discovery to invent new and valuable product concepts. Our IT organization must align Monsanto's business with speed and scale in field and laboratory operations while driving and integrating new scientific discovery to deliver new product opportunities. A product pipeline based on advancements in science and technology has required systemic and focused cultural change in IT: Right Focus - Transform the business Improve business processes Automated quality control Productivity enhancement through workflow automation Right Approach - Transform our ability to deliver solutions State-of-the-art technical, functional and data architecture Workflow encapsulation Functionally abstracted business components Right results – Tactical and Strategic Business Advantage Operational innovation and productivity Platforms for future growth Systems that adapt to change in science in technology Centralized and standardized data for IP protection and data mining
12:15 pm	Lunch Buffet Served
1:15 pm	The Anheuser-Busch IT/Business Partnership – From Strategy to Implementation
	Mark A. Schmitt Senior Director, Supply Chain & Administrative Systems Finance Division Anheuser-Busch Information Technology Anheuser-Busch Information Technology continually works to create a strong partnership with its business customers. To that end, Anheuser-Busch has created a framework that looks at IT from strategy to implementation. The framework includes the business strategy, the five year IT strategy and the current year’s project prioritization, approval, management, control and metrics. Mark Schmitt, Sr. Director of Information Technology, will share how Anheuser-Busch has progressed to their current state of partnership using this framework. He will also discuss some of the challenges encountered along the way. This effort will always be a work in progress, and Mark will cover the activities that have proven beneficial in improving the IT/Business partnership.
2:15 pm	Moderated Best Practice Discussions
	Preparing Your Litigation Response Plan Thought Leader: Stephen Stewart, Subject Matter Expert - Compliance and Regulatory Issues Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure go into effect on December 1, 2006. The amendments are aimed at reducing the ambiguity and complexity associated with responding to e-discovery and preservation orders, in part by forcing the topic of electronic discovery to the early stages of any legal action. Understand the amendments and how they will drive collaboration between legal and IT. Sponsored by CommVault Winning Back Customers Through Analytics Thought Leader: Executive Director of Enterprise Business Intelligence of Prominent Telco Nowhere is customer acquisition and retention more important than in the telecommunications industry. Customer defection costs companies around the world tens of billions of dollars each year and annual churn remains high. Learn how one major telco's IT staff stepped up to provide the correct performance management solution, winning back customers who had churned and retaining their loyalty. Sponsored by SAS Institute
3:15 pm	CIO Panel Presentation
	Natan Abraham Sr. Advisor CIO Group Forrester Research, Inc.
	Michael T. Abbene VP & CIO Arch Coal, Inc	Christoph H. Schmidt SVP of Planning & IS CSI Leasing, Inc.
	Eric S. Nichols VP of IT & CIO Solutia Inc.	Debbie Erickson VP & CIO Metro St. Louis
4:15 pm	Closing Remarks, Cocktail Reception with Hors d'oeuvres

advanced search »