Zach Thomas By Zach Thomas

Forrester concluded its Business & Technology Leadership Forum yesterday in Orlando, FL. The theme: “Embrace Technology Chaos. Deliver Business Results"

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The event was loaded with content from Forrester analysts and industry experts, and included several “roll up you sleeves” sessions where attendees worked hands-on.

Below is just a sampling of some of the content and themes from the event — we look forward to seeing you at BTLF next year.

Chaos? Or Emerging Opportunity?
Sharyn Leaver, Forrester VP and Research Director, kicked off the forum by introducing how chaotic technologies are entering the workplace (e.g. Google apps, personal devices, social networks, and self-generated apps like Sharepoint). She talked about how IT is getting pushed out of the way, and their general response is putting into place new policies. Instead, businesses should embrace these chaotic technologies like Dell’s Ideastorm and Starbucks’ My Partner Career (internal social network) to deliver business results.

Thriving In The Age Of Technology Populism
Matthew Brown, Forrester Principal Analyst and Research Director, explored the idea of Technology Populism — peoples’ ability to provision their own technology tools. He segmented the workforce based their propensity to use technology and interest in their career — surprisingly the largest group was neither career intense nor technology enthusiasts. So the key takeaway was to understand the different segments and equip and unlock their value by providing and allowing appropriate technologies.

Smart SOA™ Powers Smarter Business Outcomes
Sandy Carter, VP of SOA and Websphere Strategy, Channels and Marketing, and author of The New Language of Business, presented survey results from over 1,100 CEOs. They said that organizations must: lead with agility, harness the power of data, and reach today’s connected customer through new technologies, to name a few data points.

Business Applications Of 2020: A Three-Role Perspective
Ray Wang, Forrester VP, hosted a panel with Bobby Cameron, Forrester VP, Rob Koplowitz, Forrester VP, and George Lawrie, Principal Analyst predicted what technology would look like in the year 2020. This humorous panel speculated that packaged apps as we know them today will be obsolete and replaced by services in the cloud. They went on to say software development was no longer a code writing exercise, rather they would define processes and someone in the “cloud” would deliver product in the next few hours.

Other key topics discussed were:

  • Collaboration strategies that work
  • Continuous improvement delivers business value
  • How to deliver results via virtual worlds
  • How to manage the changing workforce
  • Enterprise security and privacy in a Web 2.0 world

Let us know what you thought of the event and what you would like to see at future events.