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Global marketplace conference focuses on buying and using IT to achieve business benefits CBS.12 Talking the language of business, not just of technology, was the message to IT vendors and users at the conference of the UK Industrial IT Forum on "The Global Marketplace", held in Birmingham on 26 September 1997. Both the keynote speakers, Dr Richard Sykes of ICI and Professor Richard Scase of the University of Kent, stressed the need to select and implement IT systems not merely in terms of their technical superiority, but primarily on how well they will contribute to the achievement of overall business objectives. The UK Industrial IT Forum conference typifies Cambashi's unique ability to bring together leaders from the IT industry, manufacturing industry, and national and international government agencies to help form opinions and policies. Supported by the DTI and EPSRC (the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council), the conference saw top directors and programme managers from the DTI, the European Commission, the National Engineering Laboratory, leading research universities, IT suppliers such as Netscape and Microsoft, and users such as ICI, British Aerospace and Tate & Lyle involved in lively debate about the future place of IT in industry. Subjects covered included the business opportunities offered by electronic commerce, the likely future direction of technology development and usage, and the roles of the British Government and the European Commission in steering technology for business and industry. Dr Sykes, who is Vice President of IT for ICI, and Chairman of Prima (Process Industries for Manufacturing Advantage) and the ITSF (IT Skills Forum), described this as the "really challen-ging challenge" facing today's IT vendors. "Over the past couple of decades, companies have been investing heavily in IT, but there is considerable management scepticism that they are really getting value from this," he said. In his talk entitled "Four languages to value - integrating IT strategy into business strategy", he outlined ICI's vision of how to deliver real business benefits through the implementation of IT. He pointed to the need not only to strive for better delivery of new products and services, but also to encourage and reward talented people and to care for the environment. "To achieve the full potential of IT," he claimed, "vendors and their customers must talk four languages: those of capabilities, of business, of people and of architecture." The second keynote speaker, Richard Scase, built on this theme with a talk on "The transforming international business and information technology". Professor Scase, who is professor of organisational behaviour at the University of Kent, examined the changing nature of international business over the past few decades. "In the 1980s, companies assumed a flatter structure with a series of devolved, fragmented organisations," he said. "IT became increasingly disparate and incompatible. With this barrier to communication and shared information, organisations found they had real problems trying to coordinate their different business interests." He demonstrated that technologies such as intranets and the internet are helping to streamline business processes, but he sounded a word of warning. "The challenge now is to change business culture. Only by transforming management practices and encouraging real collaboration between partners in the supply chain can IT begin to have a real impact. What is needed is better business training." After this thought-provoking start, the 70 delegates split into three parallel streams which respectively discussed the business opportunities offered by IT, the issues raised by emerging technologies, and government policy and funding. The business opportunities stream addressed the current and future trends in electronic commerce, with presentations from Cambashi's Peter Thorne, and Bryan Stone, an international transportation consultant based in Ettingen, Switzerland, who discussed the political and economic role of intermodal transportation and the opportunities for IT in today's trade and logistics world. Stephen Voller, managing director of Netscape UK, began the presentations in the technology issues stream with a look at the future of the world wide web. Paul Siodmok, marketing director of Octo Design, then gave an intriguing demonstration of the latest rapid prototyping and media rich interactive communications technology used in product development and manufacture, and in the advertising and information industries. Presentations were also made on the similarities and differences between the Open Applications Group and the Object Management Group, both of which aim to set data communications standards for enterprise-wide computing. The policy and funding stream looked at the various British, European and international initiatives involved in sponsoring IT research and development. Speakers included John Gillis of the DTI, talking about ESPRIT; Vince Osgood of EPSRC; and David Baxter, project director of the DTI's Information Society programme. The day ended with presentations by Nick Horslen of Microsoft and Dr Rosalie Zobel of the Commission of the European Communities. Talking on "Knowledge transfer into the emerging electronic commerce markets", Mr Horslen emphasised the huge opportunities offered by global communications not just for international design and manufacture, but for everyday life. He envisaged a world in which there would be a single, global environment for everything from banking to marketing, sales and fulfilment. "The USA is already seizing the opportunities offered by the world wide web. There are still some barriers in Europe, but it should be possible to overcome these with cooperation from telecommunications suppliers and national agencies," he said. "I believe that electronic commerce will expand across the globe because it is extremely convenient, it lowers operating costs and prices, it works faster than alternative commercial systems, and it provides a good means of servicing the customer's needs." Dr Zobel summed up with a look at the state of the global technology market in the year 2000, and the enormous financial contribution that the European Commission is making to modern technology development. However, she stressed the need to plug the gap between vision and reality, pointing to the need for international agreement on copyright protection, privacy and consumer protection, information and network security, and an established fiscal environment. Note to editors: Members include board and senior managers from some of the UK's leading manufacturing companies as well as academics and IT vendors. They receive regular newsletters and market analysis, and can also attend regular focus group meetings at different regional venues, where the discussions cover subjects such as business processes, workflow, supply chain management and the impact of electronic communications. |
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