COLLABORATE 2010 is a mere 11 days away (thanks for the
reminder @ocp_advisor). Every year I publish my a list of the sessions I think
reflect some of the more interesting people/trends in enterprise IT. I should
be at all of these sessions, so drop by for a chat--I'll be the guy tapping out
emails on my iPad...
Monday, April 19
9:15 a.m. - Keynote: Transforming Customer Value, Delivering
Highest Customer Service
Location: Keynote Hall
I never miss Charles
Phillips when he speaks--it's one of the best opportunities to get an update on
Oracle product developments and strategy. And there's certainly occasion for an
update: this will be Phillips' first big presentation since the Oracle + Sun
Strategy Update in late January. Phillips is appearing with Oracle Executive
Vice President of Development Thomas Kurian which means there should be some
excellent information about how customers are using Oracle's complete software
and hardware stack to address enterprise IT challenges. The session should
provide some excellent context for the rest of the week's session...don't miss
it.
10:45 a.m. - Oracle Fusion Applications: Functional Overview
Location: South Seas FI met Basheer Khan at
COLLABORATE 08 in Denver and have followed his work ever since. He's a former
member of the OAUG Board of Directors, an Oracle ACE, and a charismatic
enterprise IT expert. Having worked with the Oracle Usability Advisory Board,
Basheer should have some fascinating insights to share about the features and
interface of Oracle's Fusine Applications. This session, along with Nadia
Bendjedou's "10 Things You
Can Do Today to Prepare for the Next Generation Applications" (on
Tuesday, April 20 8:00 a.m. in room 3662) should give attendees the update they
need about Oracle's next-generation applications.
1:15p.m. - E-Business Suite in the Amazon Cloud
Location: South Seas HI did my first full-fledged cloud computing coverage at last
year's COLLABORATE show (check out my interview with Oracle's Bill Hodak), where I first learned about Amazon's EC2 offering. I've since talked with
several people who have provisioned server space on Amazon's cloud with great
results. So I'm looking forward to watching the audience configure an instance
of the Oracle E-Business Suite release 12 on the cloud while Chuck Edwards from
Blue Gecko drives. This session should take some of the mist and vapor out of
the cloud conversation.2:30 p.m. - "Zero Sign-on" to EBS - Enabling 96000
Users to Login to EBS Without User Maintenance
Location: South Seas HI'll be sitting tight in South Seas H for the next session
on Monday where Doug Pepka, a ten-year veteran of communications giant Comcast,
will be walking attendees through a massive single sign-on (SSO) project across
the enterprise. I'm working on a story about SSO for the August issue of
Profit, so this session has real practical value to me. Plus the proliferation
of user account logins--both personal and professional--makes this a critical
usability/change management issue for IT leaders planning for successful long-term
IT implementations.
Tuesday
8:00 am -
Information Architecture for Men in Kilts
Location: SURF AGetting to a 8:00 a.m. presentation is a tall order in Las
Vegas, but presenter Billy Cripe will make it worth your effort. Not only is
the title of this session great, but the content should appeal to any IT
strategist looking to push the limits of Web 2.0 technologies in the
enterprise. Cripe is a product management director of Enterprise 2.0 and
Enterprise Content Management at Oracle, author of Reshaping Your Business with
Web 2.0, and a prolific blogger--he knows how information architecture is critical to and enterprise 2.0
implementation. 10:30a.m. - Oracle Virtualization: From Desktop to Data
Center
Location: REEF FData center virtualization is still one of the best ways to
reduce the cost of running enterprise IT. With the addition of Sun products,
Oracle has the industry's most comprehensive virtualization portfolio. I must
admit, I'm no expert in this subject. So I'm looking forward to Monica Kumar's
presentation so I can get up to speed.
Wednesday
8:00 a.m. - The Art of the Steal
Location: Mandalay Bay Ballroom JMany will know Frank Abagnale from Steven Spielberg's 2002
film "Catch Me if You Can." The one-time con man and international fugitive who
swindled $2.5 million in forged checks went on to help U.S. federal officials
investigate fraud cases. Now the CEO of Abagnale and Associates, he has become
an invaluable source to the business world on the subject of fraud and fraud
protection. With identity theft and digital fraud still on the rise, this
session should be an entertaining, and sobering, education on the threats
facing businesses and customers around the world. A great way to start
Wednesday.1:00 p.m. - Google Wave: Will it replace e-mail as we know
it today?
Location: SURF EBy many assessments (my own included), Google Wave is a bit
of an open collaboration failure. It may seem like an odd reason for me to be
excited about this session, but I'm looking forward to the chance to revisit
the technology. Also, this is a great case study in connecting free, available
Internet tools to existing enterprise computing environments--an issue that IT
strategists must contend with as workers spreads out and choose their own productivity
tools.
