The first Systems Integration conference took place in 1993 as an initiative of the Department of Information Technology at Prague University of Economics. The following year saw the founding of the Czech Society for Systems Integration (CSSI) during the second conference in June 1993 and the publication of the first issue of the Systems Integration magazine in September 1993. Since then the conference has taken place every June. Several years later the conference moved from the Krystal hotel in Vokovice to the Zofin palace and the number of participants more than doubled. Since 1995 the CSSI has been the main organiser. Other organisations have gradually got involved in the organisation of the conference, particularly CACIO, ISACA, the Chamber of Commerce of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Society for Systems Integration.

The primary aim of the conference has been to create a platform for a discussion between the theoreticians (mainly academics) and the practitioners (mainly from the commercial sphere). During the 11 years of evolution the conference has been moving towards the practitioners and it has become apparent that practice has an important role even in research. This has therefore in no way diminished the standard of the conference content and the number of papers submitted has grown every year. The mission of the conference is to find rapid and effective ways for introducing the latest information and communication technology for improving the productivity and accomplishments of Czech enterprises.

The need for a practical orientation of the conference has lead to collaboration with the leading IT companies. These companies have become the partners of the conference and contribute to both the conference programme and financially. The sponsorship of these companies and the presentations by their representatives and specialists have raised the prestige of the conference.

The conference is for:

• owners and managers of enterprises seeking a more effective support for their organisations and entrepreneurial activities using an information system,
• managers of ICT who want to improve the management of the IS/ICT development and operation in their organisation,
• suppliers of ICT looking for the best ways of anticipating the requirements of the market in information services and products,
• university lecturers who want to respond to ICT trends and the changes in the labour market.