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CSI to host conference on enterprise solutions

Brace yourself. For yet another IT conference and exhibition billed as a 'mega event'. But this time there is a difference. (As it always is). The exhibition is in Bombay!

The CSI-ESS '99 is a conference on 'enterprise solutions and services'. It is being hosted by the Computer Society of India's Bombay chapter.

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It will be held from January 7 to 9 at the Nehru Centre. Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi is slated to inaugurate the event.

But what is the need of yet another IT event? The industry is already up to its gills in it.

Pradeep Pendse, one of the organisers of the conference, explains: "We had done an exclusively technical event some months back. We then realised that there are a lot of tech talks in the industry. IT has matured and is being employed on a large scale. The issue of managing IT has now become important. So we thought of having a conference with the theme of ERP."

But how would this conference be any different from the numerous others that has dotted the industry's horizon in the last few months?

Pendse is quick to extol the conference's virtues. "Basically knowledge dissemination is our aim. Ours is never a product presentation. We concentrate more on the technology and less on the product that is based on that technology," he assures.

Yet, the most common complaint at all such conferences is that speakers turn the sessions into a product presentation.

Pendse falls back on the long experience of CSI and hopes that this will not happen. "We have around three seminars and tutorials every month. Though the guy who stands there is an IT professional and his knowledge comes from his experience in the company, the emphasis is on experience. We have also requested the speakers to ensure that the session does not turn into a product presentation."

The list of speakers for the conference sessions includes IBM Global Services President Pawan Kumar, National Stock Exchange of India Managing Director R H Patil and Price Waterhouse Coopers Principal Consultant Prithwis Mukherjee.

"We conducted four to five theme chairs. It had experts from the industry who guided us on different topics. We also had several brainstorming sessions to recommend the names of different speakers," Pendse explains.

The conference will have five tracks running through it:

• Digital economy,
• IT in finance sector,
• ERP and beyond,
• IT as a business enabler and
• Network infrastructure and services.

Pendse reveals that over 100 participants have already registered for the conference.

The mandatory tutorials and an exhibition will be held along with the conference sessions.

The tutorial sessions will focus on:

• Developing effective intranets,
• ERP functionality and implementation,
• Information systems audit,
• Information security and automated technology option and
• Data warehousing.

Pendse elaborates on the reasons for the bifurcation of the conference sessions into keynotes and tutorials. "Tutorials will provide a more in-depth teaching kind of exercise where anyone with a technical bent of mind can attend and understand the issue being discussed. The keynotes are for those who have a strong understanding of the concepts behind the topic."

For registration and further information:
http://www.csimumbai.org

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