Roberta Bigliani is a Group Vice President at IDC, and Global Lead for Energy Insights, Retail Insights, and the IDC Industry Hub.

She leads IDC’s global research, data, and custom delivery agendas for energy, utilities, and retail, and oversees the Industry Hub, which drives cross-industry initiatives and collaboration.

A recognized expert in industry and business transformation, with longstanding experience in energy and utilities, Roberta’s work centers on how AI and digital technologies are reshaping the industry – enabling new business and operating models, enhancing operations and customer experiences, and effectively integrating IT and operational technology.

Her work combines deep sector expertise with a cross-industry lens, helping organizations understand how disruption and innovation propagate across sectors and markets.

Roberta regularly advises senior managers and executives at both technology suppliers and end-user organizations, speaks at international conferences, and moderates executive-level discussions.

She is based in Milan, Italy.

Massimiliano (Max) Claps is the research director for the Worldwide National Government Platforms and Technologies research in IDC’s Government Insights practice. In this role, Max provides research and advisory services to technology suppliers and national civilian government senior leaders in the US and globally. Specific areas of research include improving government digital experiences, data and data sharing, AI and automation, cloud-enabled system modernization, the future of government work, and data protection and digital sovereignty to drive social, economic, and environmental outcomes for agencies and the public.

BACKGROUND

Max Claps has over 20 years of public sector experience. After starting his career as a management consultant, he joined IDC in 2002 as the lead analyst for the government, healthcare, and education industries in Europe. He has since held various analyst and management roles at IDC working as an advisor to technology suppliers, public sector senior leaders and policymakers throughout North America, Europe, the Gulf Region, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.  He focused on helping public sector organizations realize the benefits of artificial intelligence, edge computing, cloud computing, shared services, digital services, smart cities, and sustainable mobility and transportation. Max also worked at Gartner, where he was research director and agenda manager for the global government research analyst team. IMax spent two years at SAP, where he was the global solution lead for the SAP Future Cities, Citizen Experience and Postal Services programs.

EDUCATION/INDUSTRY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Claps holds a degree in international business from Bocconi University in Italy.
Throughout his career at IDC, Max Claps has been a co-author of several studies published on behalf of the European Commission on topics like eGovernment, location data and intelligence, cloud computing, and data spaces.
Max Claps has actively contributed to ITU working groups, such as the United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) global UN initiative coordinated by ITU, UNECE and UN-Habitat, and the ITU focus group on Metaverse.

Martina Longo is a research manager in the IDC EMEA Digital Business and AI Transformation Strategy Research Group. In her role she advises ICT players on how organizations create business value using digital technologies. She also leads the IDC EMEA Digital Native Business research, focused on a mix of start-ups, scaleups, and more mature digital natives. She also collaborates with the EMEA C-Suite Tech Agenda research, analyzing technology investments and buyer preferences across C-suites in the EMEA region. She also examines how C-suite leaders are evolving as a result of key market trends and technology innovations (e.g., AI).

Andrea Siviero leads IDC’s European Digital Business and Future of Work Research group. The group provides market research insights to foster a purposeful and fair adoption of technologies supporting digital societies, businesses and workforce and empower tech providers in strategic decision making, planning and go-to-market activities. Siviero also co-leads the IDC Worldwide MacroTech Research program, focused on the intertwined connection between the Economical and Digital worlds – analyzing the impact key MacroEconomic factors have on the digital landscape and viceversa, how technologies are impacting economies around the world.

Siviero advises IT players on building a forward-looking digital business and workforce strategy, while providing an in-depth view on future of work technology adoption, key digital use cases, macroeconomic digital impact, and digital regulations and emerging technology, via qualitative subscriptions and custom consulting projects. He has extensive experience with large strategy and go-to-market projects with IT providers. He is a member of IDC’s global Tech Storytellers taskforce and he is passionate about public speaking and customer engagement opportunities.

He joined IDC’s European team in 2014 and has become a recognized independent analyst across Europe and beyond in the vertical markets and digital business space. He is based in Italy and he holds a joint PhD in mathematics between the Université Bordeaux I (France) and the Universiteit Leiden (the Netherlands). During his PhD, he covered scientific research, academic teaching, and vocational training. He is a native Italian speaker and he is fluent in English and French.

As research director for IDC’s European Security practice, Joel Stradling leads the content and analyst team for tracking the European security segment. His main focus area is the integration of network plus security and evolution of network architectures towards software-defined secure access.

Stradling has 20 years of experience as an analyst of international managed enterprise network and IT services. He is a regular speaker at major industry conferences talking about emerging technologies in B2B enterprise network and IT and wholesale carrier-to-carrier services. Joel is a well-known and highly regarded expert in the industry, offering insight and advice to C-level executives on technology competitive landscapes and emerging technologies, such as SD-WAN, 5G, SDN/NFV, and cyber-security.