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CIONET - What's next

Connecting ambitious digital leaders and businesses around the globe.

Catch up on the upcoming CIONET Events

             
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Germany Oct 20, 2025 Country Members Virtual german

Online: AI & DATA Knowledge Transfer - Briefing 20

Die Realisierung des Potenzials von KI und datengesteuerten Strategien stellt nicht länger nur einen Wettbewerbsvorteil dar, sondern ist Heute auch entscheidend für den langfristigen Erfolg eines jeden Unternehmens. Unsere Wissensaustausch-Briefings "AI & Data Knowledge Transfer" zielen darauf ab, CIDOs und Senior Digital Leaders praktische Anwendungen aufzuzeigen und umsetzbaren Erkenntnissen von Fachexperten zu vermitteln, die den Weg für die transformative digitale Reise ebnen und beschleunigen.

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Belgium Oct 21, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english

CIONET Round Table - From Disconnected Data to Unified Insight ; Building a 360° customer view to unlock commercial growth

In today's competitive landscape, customer expectations have never been higher. They demand a personalised, seamless experience at every touchpoint, from initial marketing contact to post-sale service. Unified data is at the heart of creating engaging customer experiences and is meant to fuel the 360 profile.  However, for many organizations, a complete picture of the customer is fragmented, with critical data scattered in disconnected systems and departments.  This exclusive roundtable will bring together Digital Leaders active in multiple industries to discuss a critical challenge: breaking down data silos to build a true 360° view of the customer. We will explore how to solve the complex integration challenges that prevent a unified view, and how to transform disparate data into a single source of truth. Join us to: Discover how to overcome the technical hurdles of integrating critical business systems, such as ERP and CRM platforms, to unify customer data. Explore real-world case studies on how organisations have successfully created unified customer insights to enhance personalisation and boost commercial and operational efficiency. Discuss best practices for turning fragmented data into actionable insights that can anticipate customer needs, drive revenue growth, and foster long-term loyalty. This is a unique opportunity for Digital Leaders who are ready to transform their customer engagement strategy and unlock the full potential of their data.

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Spain Oct 22, 2025 Country Members Physical spanish

Barcelona TECH Quest 2025

Descubre cómo las organizaciones están utilizando la tecnología para impactar en el negocio  a través de casos reales de uso y aprendizajes clave en áreas como ciberseguridad, automatización o data, contados por los protagonistas. Un espacio diseñado para inspirarte, conectar con expertos y potenciar la innovación en tu organización.

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Belgium Oct 22, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english

The End of the Firewall

Enterprises are questioning whether private networks and stacked firewalls are still worthwhile investments. A newer approach operates on the open internet with Zero Trust, eliminates perimeter complexity, and reframes cybersecurity as a business performance metric for boards and audit committees. This is a closed-door, peer discussion, not a lecture. We’ll examine the promise and its pitfalls: Are the promised savings significant, or are they too good to be true? What risks do you introduce? How does this collide with your installed base, legacy OT, entrenched processes and team competencies, and how do you overcome that without breaking operations or credibility with the board? Two senior leaders from global companies will spark the dialogue with lived experience: Kurt De Ruwe, CIO AkzoNobel Frank Bolata, CIO Syensqo    

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Poland Oct 23, 2025 Invitation Only Physical Polish

CLOUD UP'25

Cloud UP! ’25 to miejsce spotkań managerów, którzy chcą świadomie i skutecznie rozwijać swoje organizacje, wykorzystując najnowsze technologie. Nieformalnym hasłem tegorocznej edycji jest “Chmura gotowa na AI” - będziemy rozmawiać o tym, co sztuczna inteligencja naprawdę potrafi oraz pokazywać, jak wdrażać ją w praktyce. Wspólnie z ekspertami przeanalizujemy, jakie warunki muszą zostać spełnione, aby wdrożenia AI były zarówno skuteczne, jak i bezpieczne. Zerkniemy za kulisy najnowszych rodzimych produktów AI-owych, by zobaczyć ich możliwości, a także poznamy najciekawsze wdrożenia z wykorzystaniem Agentspace.  Po raz kolejny spotkamy się w formule Share.Explore.Execute. Stawiamy na wymianę wiedzy i doświadczeń zdobytych podczas realizacji projektów. To one stanowią punkt wyjścia do odkrywania, testowania i skutecznej implementacji najlepszych rozwiązań w organizacjach. Cloud UP! ’25 to cztery ścieżki tematyczne, na które złożą się prezentacje, rozmowy, sesje live-demo oraz pogłębione dyskusje w formule roundtables: AI: Beyond the Hype Data Mastery Resilience & Regulatory Advanced Practitioners Dołącz do liderów chmurowych innowacji w Polsce i spotkaj się z nami już 23 października w Event Hall w Fabryce Norblina. 

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Belgium Oct 23, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english

AI: The Great Illusionist

How to lead responsibly when technology can deceive better than a human?  AI’s ability to shape our perceptions and create new realities is becoming increasingly sophisticated. While it opens significant opportunities, it also carries risks. What happens when AI goes beyond data and algorithms to influence - or even deceive - our senses? How does this change not only our understanding of reality but also the foundations of trust, creativity, and truth in business? AI isn’t just transforming business, it is altering how we experience and interpret everything around us. From AI-generated deepfakes to personalised experiences designed to influence behaviour, the line between truth and illusion is increasingly blurred. This event combines a roundtable discussion among peers with a hands-on sensory workshop, where you will experience illusions through sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch. Through these experiments, we will confront the ethical dilemmas that arise when AI has the power to fabricate realities and influence decisions.

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Recent Cases

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E.ON democratizes data analytics for 12,000 employees, generates key reports in minutes instead of days

E.ON provides networks and energy infrastructure to 48 million customers across Europe. This is a big responsibility, and the company needs up-to-date data to make strategic decisions. Since the second half of 2023, E.ON employees have been using Power BI for this purpose.

Power BI had a clear advantage over other tools in terms of interoperability with the Microsoft 365 platform. We face no obstacles in getting data to the right place. - Lars Hesse: Data Analyst, E.ON Energie Deutschland GmbH

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Saving time and adapting to business needs

When he began his current role, Jan Finke, IT Service Owner, Business Intelligence and Visualization Technologies at E.ON Digital Technology GmbH, was tasked with advancing and scaling E.ON’s existing internal Power BI platform service. According to Finke, Power BI stood out as a great fit for a large, multifaceted company like E.ON and has since become the most in-demand data visualization product compared to the company’s alternative solutions. “Power BI is a particularly good match for us because we’re distributed across Europe but all share the same goal of developing our business,” explains Finke. “To do that, we need to make data-driven decisions.” Adds Lars Hesse, Data Analyst at E.ON Energie Deutschland GmbH, “Before, we had to present data either by showing it in Excel or creating a PowerPoint slide. And despite all our efforts gathering and compiling data, the reports didn’t always reflect the most up-to-date information.”

Hesse and his team also use the insights from Power BI to work more productively. “In the case of Power BI, the productivity comes with the automation,” he says. For example, to create monthly recurring reports, Hesse and his colleagues use a Power BI template that already includes E.ON branding and helps boost efficiency with automated updates to standard datasets. “This is a big change compared to how we did these reports in the past,” says Hesse. “It’s much more efficient to use Power BI to automatically update recurring reports with the latest data rather than manually creating those reports like we did in the past.” 

Working with Power BI to report content from within PowerPoint has proved to be another popular efficiency gain. “After we adopted Power BI, we discovered things we never dreamed of, such as the interoperability of the tool with PowerPoint,” recalls Hesse. “We now create PowerPoint presentations that incorporate live data. This was a major step toward becoming a leading-edge company that moves at the speed of business with the latest data always available.”

The centralized, flexible nature of Power BI suits E.ON well, especially considering that more than 65,000 employees use Teams as their go-to productivity platform. “Power BI had a clear advantage over other tools in terms of interoperability with the Microsoft 365 platform,” says Hesse. “We face no obstacles in getting data to the right place.”

Microsoft Teams appealed to E.ON decision-makers because they can adapt it to meet a variety of needs. “We have several hundred subsidiaries,” says Finke. “Depending on the business unit, technology requirements are quite different. We have very small units with just a few dozen employees who focus on innovation, and we have units with thousands of employees who operate on a totally different scale.”

E.ON uses Teams to balance standardization—an efficiency booster for any organization—with the level of customization that helps individual business units achieve their specific goals. Iury Fillies Santos, IT Service Owner, Collaboration Services at E.ON Digital Technology GmbH, says, “When it comes to making certain functionality available in Teams, like the ability to record a meeting, we can be precisely scoped and deliver services or features for just one segment of users. This helps us deliver the business value for local units while maintaining a centralized approach and overarching outlook as a service owner.” 

Sharing the benefits of data analytics with thousands of employees

Adopting Power BI inspired Hesse and his colleagues to launch a new data democratization effort at E.ON. “A big focus for my team is preparing datasets for internal audiences and training colleagues how to use Power BI to dive deeper into relevant data,” says Hesse. Today, the E.ON group has more than 1,400 active Power BI Premium workspaces, and enthusiasm for the solution is gaining momentum. Hesse continues, “It’s quite easy for employees of all experience levels to create a report in Power BI once they know a few basics.” He and his team also use the personalize visuals feature to create user-friendly reports that allow for a manageable level of customization. “We use the personalize visuals feature in Power BI to help focus on certain areas of interest and work more efficiently with a curated view of the data,” he says.

Most of the employees’ Power BI training takes place within the Teams platform. “For the E.ON Energie Deutschland GmbH segment of the business, we set up a team called ‘Self BI Hub’ where anyone with knowledge of or interest in Power BI can gather to learn more,” says Hesse. “We now see more and more people joining this journey and using Teams to share their success stories. It’s no longer just individuals looking for solutions to their use cases, it’s a community learning from each other.”

It’s quite easy for employees of all experience levels to create a report in Power BI once they know a few basics. - Lars Hesse: Data Analyst, E.ON Energie Deutschland GmbH

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Combining Microsoft 365 tools for a highly interoperable, efficient experience

By combining Teams and Power BI, E.ON has created a richly interoperable, efficient experience for colleagues collaborating around data insights. “Using Power BI and Teams together brings even more value,” says Finke. “Teams helps connect the right people in our business while Power BI is the tool they use to support the right decisions.” E.ON employees save time by working on data visualization from within the Teams platform. They no longer need to switch between applications. “We find it’s easiest to use the Power BI app in Teams and begin collaborating with colleagues right within that window,” says Hesse.

Working together in the Teams platform also makes it easy to maintain a high standard of security. “We use Microsoft Entra ID groups to manage who has access to certain teams in the platform, and by default, we use that same method to control who has access to Power BI reports within Teams. It’s much easier than maintaining permissions some other way,” notes Hesse.

Using Power BI and Teams together brings even more value. Teams helps connect the right people in our business while Power BI is the tool they use to support the right decisions. - Jan Finke: IT Service Owner, Business Intelligence and Visualization Technologies, E.ON Digital Technology GmbH

Powering a more sustainable business with timely data

E.ON’s sustainability goals are directly tied to the company’s ambition to become more data driven. Finke explains, “The energy business is changing. We have a much more decentralized energy production that requires the energy network to adapt and learn how to use our grids effectively.” It comes down to making choices grounded in reliable insights and using data to conserve resources. “Making decisions based on timely data is a powerful way to reduce waste,” Finke continues. “We use Power BI to focus our resources in the right direction and deliver a positive business impact.”

After employees’ initial success with Power BI and Teams, E.ON is incorporating even more apps into the Teams platform and continuing to promote a culture of data-driven decision-making. “We see usage of the Power BI app in Teams increasing every day,” says Fillies Santos. “We also have a huge app catalog, and employees spreading the word about the benefits of adding applications to the Teams environment.” Whether it’s using data to allocate resources more thoughtfully, empowering employees with insights into their unique business areas, or collaborating more efficiently, E.ON has embraced a new way of working that matches the future-focused nature of the business. “We now see Power BI and Teams ase essential to how we work today,” says Finke. 

We use Power BI to focus our resources in the right direction and deliver a positive business impact. - Jan Finke: IT Service Owner, Business Intelligence and Visualization Technologie, E.ON Digital Technology GmbH

 

Checkout our CIONET COOKBOOK

cookbook

Embark on a culinary journey through the ever-evolving world of digital leadership with our third edition of the CIONET Cookbook: Recipes for Digital Success. Unveiling the intricate trilemma faced by today’s Master Chefs, our trailblazing European CIOs address a challenge at the nexus of customer interests, digital transformation strategies, and IT modernisation. Their secret? Synchronising the gearing between customer, business, and technology to create a frictionless movement through the digital landscape.

The CIONET Cookbook uses the analogy of a five-star restaurant to explain the importance of optimally integrated technology, with the CIO as Master Chef. In order to provide the best service to its customers, a top restaurant must have the right atmosphere, an inviting menu, a well-equipped kitchen, talented and committed front-of-house and kitchen staff and smooth-running processes that ensure an enjoyable experience for diners.

CIONET TV

 
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Kalman Tiboldi - CTO & Founder at GemOne-TVH - Simplify or Die: Why Complexity Is the Real IT Challenge

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Isabelle Droll - CIO for Airline, Corporate, Hotels & Resorts and Sustainability at TUI - Data, Diversity, and Destinations

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Sharon Prior - CIO in transition - How Great Tech Leadership Begins with Business Thinking

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José Antonio López, Group CIO at TOUS - Jewels, Data & AI: Inside the Digital Transformation of TOUS

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Tom Tanghe - General Manager ITC EMEA at Daikin Europe - Reinventing the CIO Role

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CIOFEST 2025 - From Order Taker to Proactive Disruptor

CIONET Reports

 
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How CIOs drive game changing results at scale?

The role of the CIO has evolved from managing systems to shaping outcomes: growth, resilience, and competitive edge are now won or lost in the technology arena. Today ’ s CIOs must balance stability with innovation, control costs while attracting scarce talent, and modernise legacy infrastructure while adopting emerging technologies.

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A research proposal_AI and the Human Experience

As AI transitions from a specialised tool to an all-pervasive force, understanding its profound implications for our human lives is no longer merely academic but an urgent imperative for social well-being and strategic preparedness.

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Cybersecurity in critical infrastructure

Geopolitical tensions have dominated the headlines for over two years now. In this context, the cyber threat landscape is also evolving rapidly. The protection and security of critical infrastructure – both physical and digital – is becoming increasingly important.

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Anna Kopp

Head of IT Germany and Regional Office Lead Munich, Microsoft

“The CIONET App allows us to learn from eachother and and find the courage to be authentic by hearing stories from others! Thanks to Tobias and the whole team for bringing us together:-) ”
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Mauricio Amaro

IT Director, IT Thinker

“The main things that I would like to get from our community of Digital Leaders are: networking, share experiences, share best practices and successful cases, and comments and recommendations about providers.”
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Vijay Anand

Vice president IT & Compliance, VisionaryRCM (A Carlyle Grp Company)

“The CIONET app provides a really cool platform to network and share insights.”

About CIONET

CIONET’s mission is to help IT executives become more at ease and above all more successful in their jobs. So they can do more than just keep up with change but ultimately define it. CIONET opens up a whole new universe of opportunities in IT management.

With the largest membership of corporate digital leaders across Europe, Latin America, US and Australia, CIONET has the expertise and pioneering vision to solve or address any IT management challenge.

Why join CIONET?

From our local and global events, from our publications and research to our executive education programmes, everything we do is aimed at making sure digital leaders maximise their potential.

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with digital leaders who share your interests, who face the same challenges, who care about the same topics.

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stories, experiences, and ideas around our shared mission.

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inspiration, thought-provoking conversations, expert perspectives and exclusive first-hand content each and every day

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