Transformation: one of the more overused terms in the short history of IT. But as we work our way through the worst economic slump in recent memory, transformation takes on a real meaning. Think of the changes leaders face: customers and employees, demographically and geographically dispersed, creating new ways of doing business; myriad cloud-based or other lighter, fit-to-purpose delivery models available; and of course, fiscal and regulatory pressures not seen in decades.

These trends and others are combining to make technology more ubiquitous and core to all domains of the business, not just the cow paths of old. Thus, leaders outside IT need to engage more inside IT. And as the clouds of recession begin to lift, these stakeholders want to move faster. This time, the need for transformation is real.

But it’s also a time for some soul searching in IT, a time to learn from past lessons and create a better way. Forrester calls this new mandate business technology (BT), where every business activity is enabled by technology and every technology decision hinges on a business need. But like you, we’re asked to make BT more than a name change, to bring the concept down from the ether and into reality.

At this Event, we’ll help each of the roles we serve lead the shift from IT to BT, but we’ll do so in pragmatic, no-nonsense terms. We’ll break the transformation into five interrelated efforts:

• Connect people more fluidly to drive innovation. You serve a more socially oriented, device-enabled population of both information workers and customers. You want to empower both groups without losing control of costs or hurting productivity.
• Infuse business processes with business insight. You support structured business processes but lose control as they bump heads with a multitude of unstructured processes. You want to connect both forms of process to actionable data, but you struggle with data quality and silos.
• Simplify always and everywhere. You have the tools to be more agile, but you face a swamp of software complexity and unnecessary functionality. You want technologies, architectures, and management processes that are more fit-to-purpose.
• Deliver services, not assets. You want to speak in terms that the business understands, but you find your staff confined to assets and technologies. You want to shift more delivery to balance-sheet-friendly models but struggle to work through vendor or legacy icebergs.
• Create new, differentiated business capabilities. Underpinning all of these efforts, you want to link every technology thought — from architecture to infrastructure to communities — to new business capabilities valued by your enterprise.

Each of these efforts represents both challenge and immense opportunity. Addressing them collectively rather than independently will help IT resurge and ultimately will enable the BT transformation to take root. At IT Forum 2010, we’ll help you accelerate that journey.

Actionable Advice Tailored To Your Role

IT Forum is Forrester’s annual flagship event designed to help IT professionals tackle shared matters like the interrelated efforts we just introduced. As always, we will address these through the eyes of each of the 10 roles the Event serves.

• Application Development & Program Management Professionals
• Business Process & Applications Professionals
• CIOs
• Enterprise Architecture Professionals
• Information & Knowledge Management Professionals
• Infrastructure & Operations Professionals
• Security & Risk Professionals
• Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals
• Technology Product Management & Marketing Professionals
• Vendor Strategy Professionals

We’ll offer dedicated tracks for each of these 10 roles, categorizing the sessions by the initiatives that will help you lead the shift from IT to BT.

Why Attend?

Clients and Forum attendees turn to Forrester for credible and actionable advice. This Forum is designed to deliver just that, so its sessions will include:

• A wealth of best practices, success stories, and lessons learned aimed at improving speed, differentiation, and simplicity.
• “Last-mile” tools to gauge your progress and chart road maps for moving forward.
• Community-based sessions facilitated by attendees themselves.

Other Benefits Of Attending

• One-On-One Meetings with more than 100 Forrester analysts
• Compelling keynotes from leading executives on the topic of IT’s value to the enterprise
• Case studies showcasing success stories and lessons learned
• Peer-networking opportunities with more than 1,000 attendees
• Insight into technology solutions from leading technology vendors