WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 14, 2003-- Financial Services and Insurance industry firms, and the software and services vendors that serve them, will be converging at the ZapThinkTank 2003 event at the New York Helmsley Hotel on October 28, 2003 to discuss and learn from their peers about cutting-edge Web Services and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) implementations. ZapThink, the leading industry analyst and market intelligence firm focused on XML, Web Services, and SOAs, is hosting this event to help spur continuing growth of the emerging Web Services market.
"Financial Services and Insurance firms, like most large businesses, are grappling with how to realize continued return on investment for information technology, while lowering the cost of IT infrastructure. Web Services and SOAs are at the forefront of this trend," said Ronald Schmelzer, senior analyst with ZapThink, LLC. "ZapThinkTank 2003 is the one industry event focused most on the emerging best practices for making Web Services and SOAs work in the enterprise."
At ZapThinkTank 2003, ZapThink analysts Jason Bloomberg and Ron Schmelzer will provide a comprehensive, one-day workshop on Web Services and SOAs for the financial services and insurance industries. This one-of-a-kind conference will educate and inform IT executives and enterprise architects about the real-world uses of Web Services, and provide a deep understanding of ZapThink's widely acclaimed "Path to Service-Oriented Architecture Implementation" Roadmap.
The morning of the full-day seminar focuses on understanding Web Services and the SOA big picture, while the afternoon dives into the brass tacks of implementing SOAs in financial services and insurance. Since this event is aimed at providing enterprise end-users and Web Services/SOA vendors a way to learn from each other's experiences, networking time is built into the schedule, affording opportunities for cross-pollination of ideas, knowledge, and experiences among financial services and insurance professionals and the companies that serve them.
ZapThinkTank 2003 has already attracted a number of registered attendees, speakers, and sponsors. Financial services and insurance firms including JP Morgan Chase, The Hartford, MetLife, Lehman Brothers, Reuters, and Mass Mutual will be attending the event sponsored by Actional, Ascential Software (NASDAQ: ASCL), Digital Evolution, Flamenco Networks, IBM (NYSE: IBM), IONA (NASDAQ: IONA), Infravio, Netegrity (NASDAQ: NETE), Reactivity, and Sonic Software (NASDAQ: PRGS). Individuals speaking on panels include Rick Heil of ACORD, James Phillips of Actional, Boris Geller of Raining Data, Marc Chanliau of Netegrity, John Lilly of Reactivity, Stephen Neal of Sonic Software, Jim Bole of Infravio, David Knight of Digital Evolution, and Dave Pawloski of Flamenco Networks.
Individuals or companies looking to attend or otherwise participate in the event can contact ZapThink at 781-207-0203 or register online at http://www.zapthink.com/zapthinktank.html. Seats are limited, and this event is expected to sell out.
About ZapThink, LLC
Founded in October 2000, ZapThink, LLC (http://www.zapthink.com) is an IT market intelligence firm that provides trusted advice and critical insight into XML, Web Services, and Service Orientation. ZapThink provides their target audience of IT vendors, service providers and end-users a clear roadmap for standards-based, loosely coupled distributed computing - a vision of IT meeting the needs of the agile business. ZapThink is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Its customers include Global 1000 firms and emerging businesses.
