We're all done with our 2023 Connect Summit Europe. After a long first day, we wrapped early on the afternoon of May 10, but we still have so much to talk about from our inspiring morning sessions. Let's get into it.
After day one of our Connect Summit Europe ended with our customer awards ceremony and then ran through dinner and on into the night, we all assembled refreshed at 9am for an equally exciting day two of the event.
There's still time to register for access to recordings of all the deep-dive presentations on enterprise architecture best practice from Connect 2023:
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Let's quickly run through all the insights and innovations on show at day two of Connect 2023.
The Connect Main Stage
Mark Jeffries kicked us off once again with a recap of the partying from the night before and a giveaway of LeanIX socks, which Mark was proud to model for us. After another tip on public speaking and how to win over the people in the audience who look like they're imprisoned at your show, Mark introduced Markus Rink from E.ON.
E.ON On Becoming a Cloud-Native Company
Markus opened with a thank you to LeanIX for bringing the enterprise architecture community back together after lockdown separation before explaining why and how E.ON intends to become a cloud-native company. Markus explained that dealing with the complexity of providing power to Europe requires all energy companies to undergo a cloud transformation within the next decade.
Markus told us that no-one can follow a plan that has more than four steps, as it becomes too complicated. As such, he introduced E.ON's four-step plan to cloud transformation:
- Define a cloud-centric target architecture
- Perform application and technology assessment
- Create a modernization roadmap per unit
- Transform and measure success
Supporting them throughout this process, Markus explained, was the LeanIX Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) platform. Now all applications used by E.ON are designed and tracked in the LeanIX EAM.
Innovation, Orchestration, And Transformation In Unpredictable Times
Next, Mark introduced Thomas Meyer from IDC Europe. Thomas ensured us that he had enough slides to scare the "prisoners" Mark identified in the audience.
Throughout the industry, Thomas explained, cloud is both a key goal and a concern as costs and risks escalate. Cyber security regulation is a particular issue as funding security is becoming a cost you cannot afford to cut back on.
The key, Mark explained, is to connect IT with the business and show everyone the value and necessity of investing in cloud technology and application modernization, despite the cost of cyber security. The only people who can bridge that gap are enterprise architects.
Overall, Thomas' session was dense, with a tremendous amount of insight. We'll be doing a full summary before the end of the month, but in the meantime, you can view the entire presentation by registering for free:
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How To Save 15% On SaaS Bills With LeanIX
Next, Mark introduced last night's award winner OpenClassrooms to discuss saving money on SaaS contract expenditure. Jonathan Lefebvre, VP of Business Technology, explained OpenClassrooms was one of the largest online schools in Europe.
OpenClassrooms has been a LeanIX customer for just a year. In fact, they have only had an enterprise architecture function for around the same length of time.
Last year, the French firm had around one SaaS application for each employee, but their IT team was entirely focused on workplace engineering. After just 12 months engaging in enterprise architecture with the LeanIX platform, OpenClassrooms is a different business.
Application rationalization isn't always negative either. In the process, for example, OpenClassrooms found that most of their organization was using the Miro visual collaboration platform, rather than a company-approved alternative. As such, OpenClassrooms migrated all their users over to Miro.
Finishing up in record time, Jonathan's speech nevertheless perfectly summed up the simple value that LeanIX can offer.
LeanIX and Collibra Unlocking The Full Potential Of Data
Our Director of Engineering EAM Integrations, Per Bernhardt, dove further into our latest partnership, announced yesterday at Connect. Working with Collibra, the data intelligence company, we hope to optimize the data flow into our Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) platform.
Joining Per, Steffen Wax of Collibra explained the ugly truth that without five key aspects to data intelligence, your data is essentially worthless:
- Governance
- Lineage
- Privacy
- Quality
- Catalog
Feeding intelligent data into the LeanIX platform makes for a powerful combination. To find out more about our collaboration, read:
LeanIX Platform Powers Up Data Governance With Collibra
The Superfluid Enterprise: Architecting For Change In The Never-Normal
In our last main-stage keynote for Connect Europe 2023, Peter Hinssen took the stage. Peter, author of The New Normal: Explore The Limits Of The Digital World, explained that "the new normal" has since become the "never normal".
Our hyper-connected world is spreading change at a much-faster pace than ever before. In this environment, Peter says, you must avoid using yesterday's insight in tomorrow's world. As such, IT in the never-normal is far more 'information' than 'technology'.
We tend to spend the majority of our time on today and tomorrow, and not nearly enough on the future. This isn't enough in the never-normal.
Peter quoted a well-known Formula One driver:
"If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough"
Mario Andretti
As such, we need to learn to be less risk-averse and more experimental. This is much more simple when you have a better idea of your IT landscape with accurate, real-time data.
Much more to see...
Still, there was more to see. Throughout the Messe Center, there were a range of booths showcasing enterprise architecture best practice and innovation. There were also some fantastic conversations on our breakout stages:
[bullet]Large scale integration in automotive with ITM
[bullet]Accenture explaining reducing CO2 emissions by simplifying architecture
- 10 things enterprise architects need to know about SAP
- Transformational enterprise architecture from strategy to execution
- A panel discussion on the impact imperative driving modernization
- ...and much more...
So long and good afternoon
Finally, Mark and our CEO, André Christ, closed out our European event for 2023 by thanking all the 1,000 in-person attendees and equal number of online viewers for joining us and bringing plenty of energy to the event. They particularly highlighted the dominance of application modernization, cyber security, and SaaS contract management in the topics discussed.
André highlighted the role of enterprise architects in shaping the future of enterprise. This is most important in environmental, social, and governance (ESG), so André was excited to see a great deal of attendance at our ESG talks.
Generative AI is also a growing topic, but André sees the question of how and where AI will be utilized as key. That's a question that enterprise architects can answer.
We're looking forward to bringing our Connect Summit to New York, San Francisco, and finally Australia's Golden Coast over the coming months. To revisit this event, be sure to register for free:
