Gunter Van Craen - CDIO at Bekaert - Embracing Digital Transformation

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Belgium 12-12-25 Squad Only Physical english
Everyone wants value for money. But in IT, that value is spread across infrastructure, software, services, and people. Your infra spend is creeping up. App maintenance is eating your budget. New development is exciting but comes with hidden overhead. And people costs, from operations to engineering, remain the largest, most overlooked slice. If you’re under pressure to optimise without compromise, this session brings the right questions, trade-offs, and shared lessons to the table.
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Poland 12-12-25 Invitation Only Virtual Polish
Skuteczne zarządzanie podatnościami w infrastrukturze krytycznej to coś więcej niż podstawowe zadanie każdej organizacji to odpowiedzialność za dostawy energii do milionów punktów poboru. Podatności są niczym mikropęknięcia w stalowych konstrukcjach mostów, często nie widoczne, wymagające wspólnej pracy wielu zespołów. To odpowiedzialne zadanie dotyczące utrzymania wysokiego poziomu cyberbezpieczeństwa. Podczas wystąpienia opowiemy, jak to robimy w tak dużej organizacji. Jak tworzymy i zarządzamy fundamentalnym procesem. W świecie, w którym atakujący nie śpią, przewaga należy do tych którzy potrafią patrzeć parę ruchów naprzód.
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Germany 15-12-25 Public Virtual german
Angesichts wachsender Cyberbedrohungen und der zunehmenden Automatisierung von Geschäftsprozessen blicken CIOs auf eine ereignisreiche Zeit zurück. Umso spannender ist die Frage, welche Herausforderungen und Chancen die IT-Welt künftig erwarten. ngesichts wachsender Cyberbedrohungen und der zunehmenden Automatisierung von Geschäftsprozessen blicken CIOs auf ein ereignisreiches Jahr 2024 zurück. Umso spannender ist die Frage, welche neuen Herausforderungen und Chancen die IT-Welt im Jahr 2025 erwarten.AA
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Poland 15-12-25 Invitation Only Virtual Polish
Choć sztuczna inteligencja opiera się na danych i algorytmach, to jej sukces zależy przede wszystkim od ludzi. Największe ryzyko w projektach AI nie kryje się w technologii, lecz w braku zrozumienia, zaufania i współpracy między zespołami. Porozmawiamy o tym, jak komunikacja może stać się katalizatorem transformacji — albo barierą, która zatrzyma rozwój.
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Belgium 16-12-25 Invitation Only Physical english
This CIONET Round Table will focus on how the IT department can be the enabler that unlocks organisational efficiencies and helps to improve the employee experience. We will explore how CIOs and Digital Leaders can fundamentally transform the internal service experience by breaking down organizational silos, orchestrating complex cross-functional workflows, and leveraging a unified platform to deliver a truly frictionless experience for every employee.
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Poland 16-12-25 Invitation Only Virtual Polish
Budowanie wartości z AI to dziś coś więcej niż zestaw projektów: to musi być program, który łączy architekturę danych, ludzi i procesy w spójną całość. Na przykładzie mBanku zobaczymy, jak podejście obejmujące całą organizację pozwala szybciej tworzyć reużywalne komponenty, zwiększać efektywność i realnie wspierać decyzje biznesowe. O tym, co działa, co zaskoczyło i czego nikt się nie spodziewał – porozmawiamy na spotkaniu.
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Belgium Dec 11, 2025 Country Members Physical english
Imagine being able to monitor, simulate, and optimise an entire city, factory, or supply chain in real time. Next-generation digital twins are making this vision a reality, transforming how we manage and understand complex systems. By creating dynamic virtual replicas of physical assets and processes, digital twins allow organisations to predict issues, optimize performance, and make data-driven decisions with unprecedented accuracy.This event will explore how digital twins are being used across industries to revolutionize the way we operate and maintain large-scale, intricate systems—whether it’s the infrastructure of a smart city, the efficiency of a factory floor, or the resilience of global supply chains.Examples of Digital Twins in Action:Smart Cities: Urban planners can use digital twins to simulate traffic flow, monitor energy usage, or predict the impact of weather events on infrastructure. This enables cities to optimize resources and improve the quality of life for their citizens.Factories of the Future: Manufacturing plants are leveraging digital twins to monitor equipment in real time, prevent downtime, and optimize production lines. With predictive analytics, factories can avoid costly breakdowns and improve overall efficiency.Supply Chain Management: Complex supply chains, spanning continents and industries, can be modeled as digital twins to track shipments, simulate disruptions, and optimize logistics. Businesses can reduce inefficiencies and respond faster to market demands.Key Themes:Real-Time Monitoring and Simulation: How digital twins provide real-time insights into complex systems, allowing for dynamic response and optimization.Predictive Power: Leveraging AI and data analytics, digital twins help organisations predict and mitigate issues before they happen, from equipment failures to supply chain bottlenecks.Scalability Across Ecosystems: Digital twins aren’t limited to individual assets—learn how they can be scaled across entire ecosystems like smart cities or global supply chains for maximum impact.Building Trust and Security: With digital twins handling critical infrastructure and sensitive data, what are the security and governance frameworks needed to ensure trust in these virtual systems?Why You Should Attend:Next-generation digital twins are no longer just a concept—they are revolutionizing industries by offering a new way to manage complexity. Whether you’re looking to optimize a city, factory, or supply chain, this event will provide practical insights into how digital twins can transform your organisation’s operations and drive future innovation.
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Germany Dec 15, 2025 Public Virtual german
Angesichts wachsender Cyberbedrohungen und der zunehmenden Automatisierung von Geschäftsprozessen blicken CIOs auf eine ereignisreiche Zeit zurück. Umso spannender ist die Frage, welche Herausforderungen und Chancen die IT-Welt künftig erwarten. ngesichts wachsender Cyberbedrohungen und der zunehmenden Automatisierung von Geschäftsprozessen blicken CIOs auf ein ereignisreiches Jahr 2024 zurück. Umso spannender ist die Frage, welche neuen Herausforderungen und Chancen die IT-Welt im Jahr 2025 erwarten.AA
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Belgium Dec 16, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english
This CIONET Round Table will focus on how the IT department can be the enabler that unlocks organisational efficiencies and helps to improve the employee experience. We will explore how CIOs and Digital Leaders can fundamentally transform the internal service experience by breaking down organizational silos, orchestrating complex cross-functional workflows, and leveraging a unified platform to deliver a truly frictionless experience for every employee.
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UK Dec 16, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english
At this CIONET executive roundtable – brought to you in association with UiPath – we’ll explore this question and more. Bringing together senior IT professionals from across multiple vertical markets, we will focus on the benefits of agentic AI as applied to end-to-end processes. And we’ll seek to understand how organisations might overcome automation barriers to drive greater value creation.
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Belgium Dec 18, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english
We look forward to brainstorming with you on how we can strengthen meaningful engagement among our participants, create valuable opportunities for visibility, foster peer-to-peer networking, and deliver impactful content. Your expertise and guidance will help shape our strategy for the coming year and ensure that we continue to provide the best possible value to our entire community. Together, we can build a stronger, more connected community that benefits us all.
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Germany Jan 19, 2026 Country Members Virtual german
Bei diesem „Spotlight“-Online-Event wird diskutiert, wie moderne Identity Security im Zeitalter autonomer KI-Agenten gestaltet werden kann. Teilnehmende erfahren, wie KI-Agenten als eigene Identitäten verwaltet werden, wie korrekte Zugriffsrechte für Mensch und Maschine sichergestellt werden und wie Zero-Standing-Risk-Ansätze vor modernen Bedrohungen schützen. Praxisnahe Einblicke unterstützen Unternehmen dabei, ihre Identity-Programme zukunftssicher auszurichten.
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Belgium Dec 11, 2025 Country Members Physical english
Imagine being able to monitor, simulate, and optimise an entire city, factory, or supply chain in real time. Next-generation digital twins are making this vision a reality, transforming how we manage and understand complex systems. By creating dynamic virtual replicas of physical assets and processes, digital twins allow organisations to predict issues, optimize performance, and make data-driven decisions with unprecedented accuracy.This event will explore how digital twins are being used across industries to revolutionize the way we operate and maintain large-scale, intricate systems—whether it’s the infrastructure of a smart city, the efficiency of a factory floor, or the resilience of global supply chains.Examples of Digital Twins in Action:Smart Cities: Urban planners can use digital twins to simulate traffic flow, monitor energy usage, or predict the impact of weather events on infrastructure. This enables cities to optimize resources and improve the quality of life for their citizens.Factories of the Future: Manufacturing plants are leveraging digital twins to monitor equipment in real time, prevent downtime, and optimize production lines. With predictive analytics, factories can avoid costly breakdowns and improve overall efficiency.Supply Chain Management: Complex supply chains, spanning continents and industries, can be modeled as digital twins to track shipments, simulate disruptions, and optimize logistics. Businesses can reduce inefficiencies and respond faster to market demands.Key Themes:Real-Time Monitoring and Simulation: How digital twins provide real-time insights into complex systems, allowing for dynamic response and optimization.Predictive Power: Leveraging AI and data analytics, digital twins help organisations predict and mitigate issues before they happen, from equipment failures to supply chain bottlenecks.Scalability Across Ecosystems: Digital twins aren’t limited to individual assets—learn how they can be scaled across entire ecosystems like smart cities or global supply chains for maximum impact.Building Trust and Security: With digital twins handling critical infrastructure and sensitive data, what are the security and governance frameworks needed to ensure trust in these virtual systems?Why You Should Attend:Next-generation digital twins are no longer just a concept—they are revolutionizing industries by offering a new way to manage complexity. Whether you’re looking to optimize a city, factory, or supply chain, this event will provide practical insights into how digital twins can transform your organisation’s operations and drive future innovation.
Read More
Germany Dec 15, 2025 Public Virtual german
Angesichts wachsender Cyberbedrohungen und der zunehmenden Automatisierung von Geschäftsprozessen blicken CIOs auf eine ereignisreiche Zeit zurück. Umso spannender ist die Frage, welche Herausforderungen und Chancen die IT-Welt künftig erwarten. ngesichts wachsender Cyberbedrohungen und der zunehmenden Automatisierung von Geschäftsprozessen blicken CIOs auf ein ereignisreiches Jahr 2024 zurück. Umso spannender ist die Frage, welche neuen Herausforderungen und Chancen die IT-Welt im Jahr 2025 erwarten.AA
Read More
Belgium Dec 16, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english
This CIONET Round Table will focus on how the IT department can be the enabler that unlocks organisational efficiencies and helps to improve the employee experience. We will explore how CIOs and Digital Leaders can fundamentally transform the internal service experience by breaking down organizational silos, orchestrating complex cross-functional workflows, and leveraging a unified platform to deliver a truly frictionless experience for every employee.
Read More
UK Dec 16, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english
At this CIONET executive roundtable – brought to you in association with UiPath – we’ll explore this question and more. Bringing together senior IT professionals from across multiple vertical markets, we will focus on the benefits of agentic AI as applied to end-to-end processes. And we’ll seek to understand how organisations might overcome automation barriers to drive greater value creation.
Read More
Belgium Dec 18, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english
We look forward to brainstorming with you on how we can strengthen meaningful engagement among our participants, create valuable opportunities for visibility, foster peer-to-peer networking, and deliver impactful content. Your expertise and guidance will help shape our strategy for the coming year and ensure that we continue to provide the best possible value to our entire community. Together, we can build a stronger, more connected community that benefits us all.
Read More
Germany Jan 19, 2026 Country Members Virtual german
Bei diesem „Spotlight“-Online-Event wird diskutiert, wie moderne Identity Security im Zeitalter autonomer KI-Agenten gestaltet werden kann. Teilnehmende erfahren, wie KI-Agenten als eigene Identitäten verwaltet werden, wie korrekte Zugriffsrechte für Mensch und Maschine sichergestellt werden und wie Zero-Standing-Risk-Ansätze vor modernen Bedrohungen schützen. Praxisnahe Einblicke unterstützen Unternehmen dabei, ihre Identity-Programme zukunftssicher auszurichten.
Read MorePolicybazaar enhances visibility and strengthens its security posture
Enhances visibility and strengthens its security posture
OVERVIEW
Policybazaar is India’s largest and leading insurance aggregator website, specializing in providing comparative analysis of various insurance products based on price, quality, and key benefits. The comparative system empowers customers by providing accurate information on insurance products and solution-driven customer service. Policybazaar’s deep industry knowledge, service-offering expertise, and technical capabilities, provide consumers with the best solutions for financial security and competitive returns.
Policybazaar has been the recipient of many awards for its innovative business model, marketing efforts, and customer centricity. The company won the 2015 CMO Asia Awards for Best Ecommerce Website of the Year and Best Mobile App, the DMAi Asia Echo Awards 2015 for Effectiveness in Advertising (Insurance), and the Frost & Sullivan Consumer Value Leadership Award 2015, among many others.
CHALLENGES
Policybazaar required a high-level security solution for the applications they migrated to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud. Security in a cloud environment is a shared responsibility between the public cloud services provider and the customer, so Policybazaar required a robust cloud security solution that offered protection from data breaches and business disruptions. Policybazaar also wanted better visibility across the organization’s threat landscape, including the ability to identify and stop malicious activity at the endpoints. This led the company to seek a solution that would provide network-wide visibility, insight, and control against targeted attacks.
Implementation of Trend Micro’s solutions resulted in Policybazaar gaining a complete and proactive security solution. Deep Security improved protection and enhanced visibility on the hybrid cloud, strengthening our security posture.
Bibhu Krishna
VP IT Infrastructure and Security, Policybazaar
WHY TREND
Policybazaar compared many security providers but decided on Trend Micro for its extensive experience with financial customers and the performance of its solutions. Then it was time to choose the right Trend Micro products, and after a proof of concept, Policybazaar chose Trend Micro™ Deep Security™ and Trend Micro™ Deep Discovery™ Inspector. Trend Micro’s ability to identify vulnerabilities and evasive threats, as well as provide virtual patching against exploits in real-time met Policybazaar’s requirements. The Deep Discovery solution provided in-depth analysis to remediate and defend against targeted attacks.
Other factors included the stress-free integration with a hybrid cloud environment, and the ability to meet compliance requirements. Trend Micro’s position as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms since 2002, along with Deep Discovery’s rank as the “most effective recommended breach detection system” for two years running by NSS Labs, further encouraged Policybazaar’s decision to choose Trend Micro.
Deep Discovery provided network-wide visibility, as well as rapid containment and response of malware. The easy integration of the solutions and quick implementation time was an additional benefit.
Bibhu Krishna
VP IT Infrastructure and Security, Policybazaar
SOLUTION
Deep Security and Deep Discovery Inspector were implemented in under 15 days. Deep Security, with anti-malware, web reputation, firewall, and intrusion prevention modules, is purpose-built to protect cloud workloads from data breaches and business disruptions. The solution enables the management of multiple security controls from a single dashboard, simplifying and centralizing security operations.
Deep Discovery Inspector enables companies to detect, analyze, adapt to, and respond to targeted attacks with network-wide visibility, insight, and control. As well, Deep Discovery Inspector detects and protects against zero-day malware, document exploits, attacker network activity, web threats, email threats such as phishing and spear phishing, and more.
“Deep Discovery provided network-wide visibility, and rapid containment and response of malware. The easy integration of the solutions and quick implementation time was an additional benefit,” said Bibhu Krishna, VP IT Infrastructure and Security, Policybazaar
RESULTS
With Trend Micro solutions protecting its IT environment, Policybazaar gained protective security for AWS instances, network-wide visibility of its security posture, and real-time protection against global threats. The company’s application and data security needs were met through automated instance security provisioning and workload-aware security policy. Security operations were simplified with a single management dashboard for all security capabilities, and multiple modules-including anti-malware, web reputation, intrusion prevention, integrity monitoring, and firewall protection-offering effective and efficient security against threats.
Policybazaar also benefits from vulnerability protection, through virtual patching that shields the environment from vulnerabilities before they can be exploited and enables protection for endpoints and servers against zero-day malware and network-based attacks. With an enhanced defense against targeted attacks such as specialized inspection engines and custom sandbox simulation, Policybazaar can identify and protect against zero-day malware, malicious communications, and attacker activities.
“With the implementation of Trend Micro, Policybazaar gained a complete and proactive security solution. Deep Security improved protection and enhanced visibility for applications in AWS, strengthening our security posture,” says Bibhu Krishna, VP IT Infrastructure and Security, Policybazaar
WHAT'S NEXT
With its AWS environment protected by Trend Micro solutions, Policybazaar now has a solid security foundation. With this foundation in place, Policybazaar plans to gain a deeper understanding of new attack vectors and continue to take steps to defend against the next generation of cyberthreats.
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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.
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.
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.
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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Head of IT Germany and Regional Office Lead Munich, Microsoft
IT Director, IT Thinker
Vice president IT & Compliance, VisionaryRCM (A Carlyle Grp Company)
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