Open Group Conference Outlines Critical Requirements for Enterprise Architects During...

Open Group Conference Outlines Critical Requirements for Enterprise Architects
During Global Economic Recession

Industry Leaders from Credit Suisse, Transport for London, Forrester and
Capgemini to headline 22nd Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference

READING, England and SAN FRANCISCO, March 27 /PRNewswire/ -- The Open Group, a
vendor- and technology-neutral consortium focused on open standards and global
interoperability within and between enterprises, today announced the program
agenda and preliminary speaker line-up for its 22nd Enterprise Architecture
Practitioners Conference to be held in London, April 27 - 30, 2009 at the
Central Hall Westminster. Realizing the increasingly critical role of
enterprise architecture (EA) in effecting greater alignment between business
and IT and creating internal efficiencies, The Open Group will assemble
industry veterans and thought leaders to discuss the how enterprise architects
can help chart organizational change during these turbulent times.

The opening plenary sessions on Tuesday, April 28 will formally launch
TOGAF(TM) version 9 in Europe with keynote sessions presented by Mike Turner,
enterprise architect, Capgemini and Steve Kirby, principal enterprise
architect, SAP. In addition, Judith Jones, CEO, Architecting the Enterprise,
will outline how TOGAF 9 facilitates the alignment between business and IT -
an essential function during an economic slowdown to demonstrate immediate
business benefits and faster return on investment on EA infrastructure
projects. As part of a special spotlight on the global recession, targeted
session streams will address how to use EA to focus on a client's strategic
objectives and how to get serious about EA. Presenters include Grant Brown,
senior manager, Performance Improvement Consulting, PricewaterhouseCoopers,
and Bhavish Kumar, deputy practice leader, Cognizant Technology Solutions.

Enterprise architecture can be the backbone that supports organizations as
they weather today's relentless changes - be it from mergers and acquisitions,
organic growth, leadership or technological advances. It is all the more
imperative for business leaders and enterprise architects to reinforce an
organization's existing IT architecture to best withstand the negative impacts
of a global recession. As such, The Open Group will host a plenary panel on
Tuesday, April 28 that will discuss in detail the role that enterprise
architecture and EA frameworks, such as TOGAF, play in the economic downturn.
Moderator Kevin White, content director at CIO Connect, the leading
independent membership and development organization dedicated solely to the
CIO, will lead the interactive discussion between Capgemini's Mike Turner,
Forrester principal analyst Henry Peyret, Infosys principal architect Thomas
Obitz, Transport for London group CIO Phil Privett, and MITRE Corporation
associate department head Terry Blevins.

The conference will also hold a variety of focused tracks addressing key
issues facing the enterprise architecture community, such as business
architecture and business analysis, SOA, enterprise financial systems
architecture, EA governance and best practices and the EA lifecycle. Ron
Tolido, CTO Continental Europe & Asia Pacific, Capgemini will host a detailed
stream of sessions focused solely on business analysis relative to the current
economic environment. Additional session speakers include: Ann Rosenberg, BTC
Global Practice Ownership for Business Process Management, SAP; Dr. Nigel Dix,
chief architect, London Underground Information Management; John McNaughton,
The Salamander Organization; Ahmed Fattah, executive IT architect, IBM; and
Tarmo Ploom, Credit Suisse.

"With no business today being immune to the economic recession, the
advancement of thought-leadership and proven standards related to enterprise
architecture are more important than ever," said Allen Brown, president and
CEO, The Open Group. "Effective enterprise architecture is a critical
component in creating robust, efficient organizations that can stay
competitive, both in good times and in bad. We're pleased to be able to bring
together experts at some of the leading end-user and vendor organizations in
the world to focus on this critical subject at our London conference."

Registration, Sponsorship and Exhibit Opportunities
Registration is open to both members and non-members of The Open Group. For
more information, or to register for the conference in London please visit:
http://www.opengroup.org/london2009-apc/. Registration is free for members of
the press and industry analysts.

The Open Group also offers various sponsorship and exhibit opportunities. For
more information, please visit:
http://www.opengroup.org/london2009-apc/sponsor-exhibit.htm.

About The Open Group
The Open Group is a vendor-neutral and technology-neutral consortium, which
drives the creation of Boundaryless Information Flow(TM) that will enable
access to integrated information within and between enterprises based on open
standards and global interoperability. The Open Group works with customers,
suppliers, consortia and other standard bodies. Its role is to capture,
understand and address current and emerging requirements, establish policies
and share best practices; to facilitate interoperability, develop consensus,
and evolve and integrate specifications and open source technologies; to offer
a comprehensive set of services to enhance the operational efficiency of
consortia; and to operate the industry's premier certification service.
Further information on The Open Group can be found at
http://www.opengroup.org.

Note to Editors: Boundaryless Information Flow and TOGAF are trademarks of The
Open Group.

SOURCE The Open Group

Bill Bourdon of The Bateman Group, +1-415-602-1491,
opengroup@bateman-group.com