Building a Successful and Sustainable Cloud Center of Excellence

The biggest challenges of scaling a cloud environment often involve aligning people and processes to manage the organization-wide impact on financial management, operations, and security and compliance. Many organizations establish a cross-functional team of stakeholders responsible for addressing these challenges, often referred to as a Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE). However, a CCoE will only be effective if it is aligned on core objectives, priorities, and KPIs to track progress. This session will walk through a framework based on proven best practices in cloud management to help you identify areas for improvement and maintain alignment on cross-functional efforts.

Jonathan Morin Group Product Line Manager, CloudHealth by VMware

Unlikely alliances in Ai, deconstructing a success story

A session exploring an approach to create opportunities from unlikely alliances when developing Ai Solutions. Exploring the real-world success story in which nybl & Commtel partnered to deploy Ai solutions above and beyond their expectations.

Shriprakash R. Pandey Founder, Chairman, and Managing Director, COMMTEL

Girish Dev Head of the AI and Digital Transformation Business Unit, COMMTEL

Rami Osman Head of Sustainable Energy & Corporate Strategy, nybl

Track 1: Critical Links – Different Approaches To Getting Closer To The Business

What emerging leadership skills are required of CIO’s to create fusion teams that do not have traditional reporting lines?

Sheryl Koenigsberg VP of Global Product Marketing, Mendix

Track 2: The key to a sustainable future - Driving ESG through technology

There is no question that the responsibility to improve the environment, social and governance metrics is becoming one of the most important features of corporate strategy. Yet how does this need conflict with the call for even faster digital transformation? One of the biggest governance issues impacting AI and ML is bias together with how already fragile communities are protected through reskilling in the transition to a tech first economy.

Allan Coulter Distinguished Engineer, Global CTO for SAP Services, IBM,

Track 3: Leading A Frictionless Total Experience

This roundtable explores how CIO’s are increasingly being called on to take responsibility to provide a frictionless experience now that workplaces, digital channels and post pandemic operating processes become more standardised. One thing is for sure, the pandemic can no longer be used as an excuse for a poor experience.

Philip Alfano Field CTO, Apptio

Michael Sun VP of Data Science, Rocket Mortgage

From Back Stage to Centre Stage: The Increasingly Critical Role IT Plays in the Future Digital Workplace

As employees and their devices become more distributed, and maximizing productivity depends on enabling work from anywhere operations, the role of IT is fundamentally shifting from that of a mere cost-centre to a critical business partner that enables organizational efficiency and effectiveness. But as employees have become even more dependent on technology for collaboration and getting their jobs done, this new relationship with IT requires a new operational model. Specifically, one in which a traditionally reactive IT posture is replaced by one where proactive support is the new BAU, and a deeper understanding of employee’s digital experience can better guide IT operations. Ultimately, IT teams that are able to reduce digital friction and democratize digital dexterity for their employees will be essential to giving their organizations a sustainable competitive advantage in today’s marketplace.

Jason Coari Senior Director of Product Marketing, Lakeside Software

Creating a Common Experience for Applications and Data to Maximizes Business Value

Businesses and their IT leaders must balance security, with innovation and speed - and are asked to create IT environments that can adapt to spikier workloads, interdependent applications, and more data at the edge, even as cyber-attacks and ransomware increase. However the sheer number of applications and environments that they support, flat or reducing budgets, and maintaining a talent pool skilled is a constantly changing environments. This often means that they must make work a mix of multiple clouds and on-premises infrastructure, relying heavily on their developers, engineers, and architects to keep it interconnected and secure. This session will discuss how to create a modernized infrastructure so clouds can work together seamlessly, and securely, and flexible consumption can increase capacity as needs fluctuate so teams can manage, create, and innovate for greater business value and enhanced end-user experiences.

Aparna Sharma Managing Partner, Hybrid Cloud Transformation, IBM Consulting,

Rohit Badlaney Vice President - Product Management and Strategy, IBM Cloud,

How to Improve the Automated Customer Experience through Digital-First Engagement

With more and more customers interacting in digital channels – yet still expecting the same level of service they’d get from a human agent – companies have had to quickly adapt a holistic CX approach. The boom in digital-first engagement has been met by a range of sophisticated solutions that allow companies to not just meet these rising customer expectations, but also provide actionable resolutions, even amid major disruptions and changing customer behaviors. In this session, you’ll hear from one of the companies that’s ahead of the game when it comes to digital-first engagement. Ibrahim Khoury, Director of Product Development and Innovation at Alight Solutions, a business outsourcing company, discusses how Alight’s use of “Lisa” a conversational AI-powered virtual assistant created by Verint, and capable of empathetic, personalized, and human-like interactions, has been able to quickly adapt to changes in needs from its clients’ employees.

Jen Snell VP of GTM for Conversational AI, Verint

Ibrahim Khoury Director of Product Development and Innovation, Alight Solutions

Driving performance while protecting society - a conversation about ethics in AI

What are the important things technology leaders need to think about with ethics? What are the emerging issues that companies did not foresee?

Roland Scharrer Chief Data & Emerging Technology Officer, Axa

Quintin McGrath Senior Managing Director Technology at Deloitte (On academic retirement),

Aleksandra Mojsilovic Head of Trustworthy AI at IBM Research and an IBM Fellow, IBM

Chloe Autio Advisor and Senior Manager, The Cantellus Group

Abhishek Gupta Founder and Principal Researcher, Montreal AI Ethics Institute