THIS year's GITEX Technology Week conference program, which runs on Oct.14-18 at Dubai World Trade Centre, continues to be the region's largest and most high profile Information and Communications Technology (ICT) forum, attracting senior decision makers across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. This year's theme is “Where Technology Means Business”. Borne of out of a demand for more industry-focused peer-to-peer discussions, the event has introduced exclusive Industry briefing sessions for oil and gas, banking and finance, education, healthcare and government sectors. The briefings will be led by top thinkers and technology leaders, addressing trends and challenges that are unique within each of these areas. SAP, which is among the market leaders in enterprise application software, is a strategic sponsor of the industry briefings at this year's event. Of particular importance to this region is the oil and gas sector, with IT innovation a key to unlocking the potential of digital oilfield technologies across the oil and gas value chain. Analysts believe that digital oilfield technologies could increase the net present value of oil and gas assets by 25 percent, representing a significant opportunity for oil and gas companies to harness IT spending. Similarly, given the recent brutal post-crisis cuts of recent years, the banking and finance sector should look to improving speed-to-market and customer-centricity through the use of emerging technologies. The emergence of new payment methods and platforms has threatened the positions of the banks as middlemen, and banking IT decision makers need to address the hot technologies, trends and players for the years ahead. Banks must use technology to align business objectives with an enterprise-wide view of customers – but in reality, a bank's already stretched IT resources are already overburdened by demands from business and the challenge of maintaining an ever-growing portfolio of technology solutions. There are also ample opportunities within the public sector to improve service delivery and build a collaborative and effective government, with technology driving the changing authoritative face of the sector. Governments continue to adopt a citizen-friendly approach to reach out to their residents, and the future shape of public services and communities will be determined by the ability of organizations to utilize modern technology to meet pressing economic, environmental and social challenges – bridging the apparent gap between the complexity of government and the need for 21st century tools. – SG
