IP Forum

The first edition of the IP-Forum took place on October 16, 2009. The objective was to allow companies to decipher in a concrete way IP technology, its challenges and its opportunities.

With IP technologies, companies' means of communication evolve and offer new perspectives. Thanks to the unification of voice and data networks, IP today provides businesses with new integrated communication tools: voice, video and data, wired or wireless. Applications such as IP telephony, unified messaging, and even video conferencing provide companies with significant benefits (reduction in telephone bills and operational costs, ease of network management and increased possibilities for integration). However, today there are still major questions regarding the implementation of these technologies (standards, QoS, security, etc.) and the identification of the ROI.

During this second edition of the IP-Forum, AWT and Aastra proposed an event on the theme: how to set up a quality IT infrastructure adapted to the specific requirements of my company?

The evolution of ICT, the financial crisis and environmental challenges are leading to an overhaul of the business strategies of the company which, in order to maintain and increase its profits, must rethink its economic model. New technological trends such as Green IT, collaboration and unified communication tools are all elements making it possible to meet these challenges. Integrating new economic models thus allows the company to better meet market needs but also to create a competitive advantage.

What are the opportunities and challenges of Cloud Computing and the "Software As a Service" model for businesses? This was the theme of the third edition of the IP-Forum which brought together more than 100 participants.

The concept of the Cloud refers to the de-materialization of IT resources for the benefit of an on-demand service. This technological model strategically tends to impose itself for companies but it could above all reshape the professional IT landscape to bring it towards a new paradigm.

Applications, platforms, storage or even infrastructures, are now considered as "simple services" used according to the real needs of the company. Concretely, the company only pays for what it consumes, but always has its IT resources when it needs them.

Once you've crossed the psychological barrier of outsourcing, the benefits of Cloud Computing are numerous. In particular, it reduces the costs of installing and operating IT infrastructures. This edition was an opportunity to take stock of the real challenges of this technology:

• understand the concepts of Cloud Computing,

• discover the opportunities of the Cloud through the different market offers,

• adopt the Cloud Computing model by controlling the impacts and risks.

During the fourth edition of the IP-Forum, we took stock of innovation in Green IT. A panel of international players presented the issues and opportunities in this area.

Green business is becoming a strategic variable for companies. Awareness is growing more and more among decision-makers and IT is in turn gradually going green. For companies, the challenge is no longer just that of their ability to limit the energy bill, but of placing energy performance at the center of their IT strategy.

The fifth edition made it possible to discover the perspectives and opportunities offered by the Internet of Things. Various renowned speakers presented their vision of this new world where everything will be connected.

The development of RFID (radio-frequency identification) and related (contact less) technologies is at the origin of a general trend where all objects will become the building blocks of information systems, with the ability to capture, calculate , communicate and collaborate around information. It is the Internet of Things, a phenomenon whose era of industrialization has begun. Equipped with sensors, triggers, and communication capabilities, these objects will be able to absorb and transmit information on a massive scale and, in some cases, automatically adapt and respond to changes in their environment.

These intelligent objects will make it possible to develop more efficient processes, to equip products with new capacities, and, above all, to bring about new business models, including in traditional fields, such as automobile insurance for example.

Information has today become the central issue in the relationship between healthcare establishments and the patient. This now compares the services and services offered with the information available on ever-expanding channels. This was the focus of the sixth edition of the forum.

On the occasion of the seventh edition of the forum, the program focused on the theme of Smart Cities. On the occasion of this special Smart Cities edition, a competition was set up to select three start-ups who had the opportunity to present their project during the event.

The irruption of ICTs in urban space opens the way to new services, new forms of management and new modes of governance for our municipalities, ... in short, a new way of "living the city".

Various projects are emerging today in Belgium and abroad. They demonstrate the interest cities have in these new systems, but also the underlying industrial issues. While ICTs can help make cities more sustainable, their development is not without raising questions both in terms of social acceptability and of their mode of financing or the transformations they induce in the nature of services rendered and the relationship of citizens / users to the city.