As the economy
finally appears to be on a rebound, structural changes in the
software industry have fundamentally changed the landscape.
Rampant consolidation in the software industry is making it
increasingly harder for small firms to break in to the lucrative
corporate market. With the emergence of comprehensive "enterprise"
application suites, independent "solutions" are a
harder sell - despite clearly superior features. Yet the right
product at the right time still has a chance!
Please join
us on September 21, 2004, when the Software Council of Southern
California explores the Challenges, Outlook and Opportunities
in the Software Industry in an interactive CEO Roundtable. In
addition to answering your questions and concerns, our software
CEOs will discuss:
Don’t
miss this opportunity to find out how other software companies
survived the down economy, what they predict for 2005, and how
they are growing their companies.
About
the Panel
Charles
Ames, Founder & CEO, Oak Grove Systems - has made a career
of combining team building with innovation expertise. Reactor,
Oak Grove's flagship product began as a development project led
by Ames at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena,
California. Ames was tasked with finding ways to use technology
to improve productivity at JPL as well as NASA's manned space
program.
He led his
team of engineers to build one of the world's first Internet-based
workflow systems still in use by the Space Shuttle and International
Space Station programs. In 1998, Ames founded Oak Grove Systems
to bring this powerful business process management (BPM) technology
to the commercial market.
Ames has a
M.S. in Systems Analysis, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio and a
B.S. in Applied Science from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
Michael
Mann, Founder & CEO, Encompass - is
the founder and C.E.O. of EnCompass Knowledge Systems, Inc., a
provider of internet-enabled enterprise systems for corporate
governance. He has worked with major multi-national companies
and government agencies around the globe on issues of performance
improvement, corporate development, technology management, acquisition
integration, strategic alignment, the management of change, and
Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
Dr. Mann has been the CEO of a diversified high technology company
with industrial, commercial, service, and aerospace business units;
has been a founder of several successful entrepreneurial engineering,
manufacturing, and service firms; and has been a senior line,
program, and research and development manager with leading aerospace
corporations. He has served as a director of both public and closely-held
high technology and health services companies and on advisory
boards for emerging companies. He has served as a member of the
Board of Examiners of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
and as a member of the Army Science Board.
He has authored
more than one hundred articles and educational videos and has
lectured extensively in both technical and management disciplines,
as well as on the topics of technology management and policy.
He is an Adjunct Professor in the Industrial and Systems Engineering
Department of the University of Southern California. Dr. Mann
is listed in Marquis Who's Who in Science and Engineering, in
Finance and Industry, in America, and in the World, as is the
recipient of the Patriotic Civilian Service Commendation from
the Secretary of the Army.
He received
the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the California
Institute of Technology, a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from
the University of Southern California, and an Executive M.B.A.
from the University of California, Los Angeles.
