Microsoft EMEA CIO Summit 2009, Portugal

Central and Eastern Europe CIOs see economic climate as opportunity for businesses to accelerate key business strategies through the latest technology

Microsoft’s annual CIO Summit sparks upbeat debate on benefits technology can deliver to businesses in a downturn

Munich, Germany – 16 March 2009: Microsoft’s annual forum for CIOs to discuss best business practice took place in Lisbon this month. The debate focused on business strategy in a downturn and what technology could offer organisations seeking to streamline systems and ease the burden of operational costs in today’s climate. The attending CIOs were positive about the opportunities which the downturn offered, seeing it a chance to rationalise business infrastructure and change the organisation for the better.

Referencing the conversations which took place during the event, Tony Scott, Microsoft Chief Information Officer, said, “I think there are two paths a CIO can take. One is just to stop spending money on things and that leads to a certain outcome normally, which is not a happy one. Or you can do what we are doing at Microsoft and what I see some of our more innovative friends in the outside world doing, which is invest in sustainable long term business benefits and better efficiency and reduced costs. And those investments at the end of the day are the things that turn out to be the most important.”

Over 140 CIOs attended the CIO Summit, hailing from the financial, banking, utilities, telecommunications, manufacturing amongst other industries. A series of keynotes were presented throughout the day and half long event covering leadership in a downturn, the strategic role of the CIO today, the CIO/CFO partnership, maturing your IT, running IT as a business, and reducing costs with management tools to use in a downturn.

“The economic backdrop to this year’s CIO Summit has meant the presentations we have seen and the discussions we have had throughout took on a particular relevance. We see a lot of potential positive change for 2009 as businesses seek to use innovation in approach and in adopting new technology to minimise the effects of the downturn,” said Aivo Adamson, Chief Information Officer, Swedbank Baltic Banking. “I was particularly interested in the fresh opportunities available for organisations to build a strong future in 5-10 years. For me, this encapsulates the role of a CIO – to protect and grow the organisation.”

“What I see, especially in Central and Eastern Europe which has enjoyed good times over the last couple of years, is when business was growing, people were not looking at the bottom line or efficiency but how they could outgrow competition, grow faster,” said Tomek Bochenek, vice president of sales, marketing and services group, Microsoft Central and Eastern Europe. “Today, CIOs are thinking ‘how can I make my organisation more efficient, how can I generate more revenue, how can I understand which customers or which market segments are giving me more benefits or m ore profitability than the others? And of course on the other hand, how can I save costs? What technologies can I leverage to help me improve my bottom line? Business intelligence is a good example as you can learn more about your customers and more about your market, for example.”

Microsoft’s annual EMEA CIO Summit is a key agenda-setting event that brings together some of the most influential CIOs in the region with senior Microsoft executives. This year’s event took place on the 3-5 March at the Ritz Four Seasons Hotel, Lisbon, Portugal.

The theme of this year's Summit is ‘Weathering the Economic Storm and Positioning IT for the Future’, bridging the idea of continuing IT transformation and the current reality of making do with less money, less resources, and less time to make critical business decisions. The Summit aims to tackle issues many of Microsoft’s customers are facing, providing them with an idea sharing forum as well as vital tools and information to deal with the current economic crisis.

Resources
Microsoft Central and Eastern Europe Customer Evidence – July 2008

Software Enabled Earth: Microsoft’s Environmental Sustainability Blog

Moscow City Government Case Study

Feature Stories
Microsoft looks to CEE – The Baltic Times - March 31, 2009

IT nexus opens in Kaunas – The Baltic Times - March 31, 2009