Katherine Gehl, special assistant on technology for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, will discuss the structure and focus of the Mayors Council of Technology Advisors during a luncheon address at DePaul University’s IT Outsourcing Conference Feb. 23. Gehl’s address will begin at 1 p.m. in the CNA Building North, second floor, 55 E. Jackson Blvd.

The conference will bring together area technology leaders and international IT outsourcing experts for a discussion of trends and practical issues involving businesses that contract out their IT functions. It is sponsored by DePaul’s School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information (CTI) Systems, which enrolls the largest graduate computer science program in the nation and produces 42 percent of Illinois’ post-baccalaureate IT workforce.

Wendell Jones, chief executive officer of GrayHare Partners and an internationally renowned expert in the field, will deliver the conference keynote address at 8 a.m. Jones, the former vice president of eBusiness Management Services for Compaq and co-author of the book “Outsourcing Technology, Systems and Services,” will discuss why business organizations outsource their IT and the benefits of, and management style required, for successful IT outsourcing.

Panel discussions on business process outsourcing, electronic business-to-business outsourcing, offshore outsourcing and structuring the outsource relationship will follow. Among the panelists will be: Peter Bendor-Samuel, chief executive officer of Outsourcing Center and one of the world’s leading IT consultants; David Weinstein, former Chicago tech czar and interim CEO of BlueMeteor; Mark Dieterle, vice president of the technology management group at CSC; and Michael Fisher, vice president for strategic business development at EDS.

The conference comes at a time when IT outsourcing has become a trend, said CTI Assistant Professor Olayele Adelakun, an expert in IT outsourcing, who is organizing the event. “It used to be that only small companies outsourced their IT function. It’s no longer only small companies but also large corporations now,” he said.

“People in corporations are realizing that they cannot win the battle on every front—marketing, product design, production, price and quality—so they concentrate on their strengths. If they don’t use outsourcing, then they lose their focus on what they are supposed to do,” he said. Adelakun attributes this shift to two factors: the increase in skills required to maintain ever more complex technology and the need to change outdated systems of the 1980s. Some corporations are choosing to outsource IT centers instead of overhauling their old systems, he said.

“Due to the rapid evolution in the IT industry, organizations cannot keep up with the speed of change and still have enough time to spend on their core competence.” Adelakun also cited the expense involved in continually training IT staff as one driver behind the outsourcing trend.

Outsourcing of government IT is another area of growth. Federal government IT outsourcing alone is expected to increase from $1.7 billion in 1999 to almost $3.3 billion by 2004, according to analysts for International Data Corp. of Framingham, Mass.

For more information on the event, visit the conference Website or call 312/362-8231.