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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 Nov 11, 2025 Country Members Physical english

München: The Agentic Advantage

On the eve of the ServiceNow World Forum, CIONET invites you to an exclusive dinner in the fabulous Restaurant Little London in the heart of Munich City. Join leading CIOs, CDOs, and ServiceNow product owners for a candid exchange on how to get the most from your ServiceNow investment.

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Switzerland Nov 12, 2025 Country Members Physical english

Zurich: Mastering Digital Sovereignty

CIONET invites you to a private dinner with a select group of enterprise CIOs and senior infrastructure leaders in Zurich – part of a multi-country dialogue series with IT executives across Europe. This strategic dialogue is designed for digital leaders to share insights on one of the most pressing challenges facing today's leaders: How can organisations build true digital sovereignty in the face of geopolitical uncertainty, regulatory pressure, and growing technological dependencies?

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Germany Nov 13, 2025 Country Members Physical german

Frankfurt: CIDO Women - Female Leadership Circle

Bauen Sie mit uns ein starkes Netzwerk führender WOMEN CIDOs aus der IT- und Technologiebranche auf! Unser zweites Treffen findet im PwC Experience Center in Frankfurt statt.

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Belgium Nov 13, 2025 Country Members Physical english

The New CISO - CIONET Belgium: Community Event

The Role of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) The role of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is no longer confined to securing the network perimeter. As organisations become more digitally connected and data-driven, the CISO’s responsibilities have expanded far beyond traditional security measures. Today’s CISO must not only defend against cyber threats but also enable the business to innovate securely, manage complex regulatory environments, and instill a culture of trust across the organisation. This event will explore the evolving role of the CISO as a strategic leader who balances security with business enablement. As digital transformation accelerates, how can CISOs align their security strategies with organisational goals, ensure compliance, and lead their teams in the fight against increasingly sophisticated threats? Key Discussion Points: From Gatekeeper to Strategic Partner: How CISOs can shift from being seen as barriers to innovation to becoming key enablers of business agility and transformation through security. Balancing Risk and Innovation: Learn how top CISOs navigate the delicate balance between mitigating risk and supporting the organisation’s need to innovate and scale in a secure environment. Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC): Explore how CISOs are managing an increasingly complex regulatory landscape, ensuring compliance while still driving business objectives forward. Building a Security-First Culture: Practical strategies for CISOs to foster a culture where security is embedded into every part of the business, from boardroom discussions to frontline operations. CISO as Crisis Manager: How to prepare for and lead your organisation through major cybersecurity incidents. From ransomware attacks to data breaches, we’ll discuss how today’s CISO is as much a crisis manager as they are a strategist. Why You Should Attend: As a CISO, your role is evolving faster than ever before. This event is designed to provide you with actionable insights into how to embrace your expanded responsibilities while keeping your organisation safe and secure. Whether you’re focused on aligning security with business goals, navigating regulatory challenges, or leading in times of crisis, this event will equip you with the strategies to lead the next era of cybersecurity.

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UK Nov 13, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english

Engineering the AI-Native enterprise: From legacy burden to innovation engine

Join us on November 13th for the exclusive roundtable powered by Cognizant.

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Italy Nov 13, 2025 Invitation Only Physical italian

Operational Resilience

Questa roundtable sarà l’occasione per un dialogo diretto e peer-to-peer tra CIO, CISO ed executive della community CIONET.

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Recent Cases

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National Express drives into the future with webMethods.io Integration in the cloud

National Express UK is a leading British public transport operator with bus and coach services. It is part of Mobico Group, which operates in 12 countries and its 51,000 employees help millions of people get to work, to their loved ones, and beyond—safely, and on time—365 days a year.

New Challenges
  • Need for an omnichannel approach
  • Dynamic pricing and consistent travel options
  • Third-party, integrated journeys and sales
  • Creating a unified Mobility-as-a-Service with API

Key Benefits
  • Integrated all systems for a single source of truth
  • Built reusable microservices and rich APIs
  • Scaled new cloud-powered revenue by 1600% in one year
  • Increased website revenue from 60% to 80%
  • Prepared for Mobility-as-a-Service

 
 
 “Mobility-as-a-Service is the future, and we intend to be in the driver’s seat. We value the genuine partnership with Software AG that is helping make our journey possible.”
- Alan Brooks | CTO | Mobico Group 

 

"One platform" for every journey

Since its founding in 1972, National Express UK has embraced technological innovation both online and off. As a result, the company’s website was already driving 60% of group revenue by 2013. However, being in the fast lane online while also having legacy kiosks, on-transport operator sales and call centers, led to disparate systems, siloed data, and vendor solutions that required a workaround approach to communicate.

“Aside from increasing costs and complexity from running half a dozen walled-off systems,” says Alan Brooks, CTO, Mobico Group, “the most troubling part was that a customer not only saw drastically different, non-targeted prices across channels, but he or she actually encountered different routes and journeys depending on the channel. That was a major problem.”

The solution? Build fully integrated, omni-channel capabilities. The way to do it? With webMethods.io Integration — on-premises and in the cloud.

By creating what Brooks and his team nicknamed ”one platform” internally, National Express unified its data and integrated it across all channels to deliver targeted, dynamic pricing and consistent, seamless journey options that not only made customers smile—but boosted third-party integrated revenue by as much as 16x in just one year.

The secret ingredient

“Software AG and webMethods.io Integration are absolutely the glue that brings it all together for us,” says Brooks.

For instance, in the coach business at National Express in the UK, logic for rules governing customer journeys, price ladders, price points and more is embedded in microservices, with webMethods supporting rich APIs so that everything is built on a fully-integrated, unified foundation. These microservices are highly reusable across all channels and capacities. So once a payments microservice was developed for the web—it could also be used in kiosks, call centers and everywhere else that National Express accepts customer payments.

But reusability doesn’t end there. Beyond its coach business, National Express is responsible for the overwhelming majority of urban bus trips in the UK’s West Midlands, buses and coaches for Premier League matches and special accessibility transportation, so everybody has access to mobility no matter their physical situation.

Cloud super-scaling

“Our industry advantage as one of the first users of webMethods in the cloud was huge,” says Brooks. “Easy, flexible, fast cloud-based scalability opened a major new channel for us to offer exclusive coach journeys directly via the largest online retailer of train tickets in the UK, seamlessly with their own journeys. Since we didn’t know what kind of volume we’d encounter, the cloud was the way to go.”

Best of all, webMethods.io Integration in the cloud has made it possible for National Express to keep adding new vendors and expanding across borders. Our integration to transport aggregation platforms has enabled travelers from Europe to purchase our services easily before they even leave the house, all thanks to webMethods and its cloud-based, super-scaling ability.

Mobility-as-a-Service

A single smart-card, ticket or app powering any form of local transportation in a seamless experience is the future of urban and regional transportation. And instead of waiting for a Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform to come to National Express, letting someone else shape how it looks—the company is harnessing webMethods to build its own MaaS platform, providing APIs other transportation companies can integrate.

Not only does this ensure that National Express doesn’t have to rely on someone else’s timelines, but it gives the company powerful access to data that can drive critical decisions in the future.

“Mobility-as-a-Service is the future, and we intend to be in the driver’s seat,” says Brooks, “but the truth is that such an agile, flexible, forward-looking approach is only possible when you’re working with a real partner, not just another vendor. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to look at alternatives, but what keeps me coming back to Software AG is our partnership. It’s something you cannot buy.”

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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Giuseppe Ficara - The Untold Story of Amplifon's Data & AI Transformation

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Jesús Oliva, Head of Data & AI at Moeve - From Data Challenges to AI Leadership

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Radosław Maćkiewicz - CEO at COI - Empowering Citizens Through Digital Innovation

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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

CIONET Reports

 
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Get your copy

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 (1)

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:-) ”
Mauricio Amaro

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.”
Vijay Anand

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.

Connect

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

Share

stories, experiences, and ideas around our shared mission.

Learn

from our exclusive events, publications and research.

Find

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

Grow

and make better, more well-informed decisions on how to lead your digital business.

Maximise

your potential. Realise your ambitions.

About CIONET

Join CIONET

We'd love to welcome you as the newest member of our CIONET community where Digital Leaders unite. 

You can either send us a registered handwritten letter explaining why you'd like to become a member or you can simply talk to us right here!

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