Kalman Tiboldi - CTO & Founder at GemOne-TVH - Simplify or Die: Why Complexity Is the Real IT Challenge
Find out more:
Belgium 9-9-25 Squad Only Physical english
As Belgium navigates the complexities of GDPR and various data sovereignty regulations, organizations across multiple industries face both challenges and opportunities in managing their data across borders. The quest for compliance often intersects with the need for business growth, raising questions about the balance between protection and progress. How can companies effectively own and safeguard their data while ensuring compliance without stifling innovation and expansion in a multi-industry landscape?
Read MorePoland 9-9-25 Invitation Only Virtual Polish
Utrzymanie talentów w organizacji IT ulokowanej na konkurencyjnym rynku pracy to nie lada zadanie. A jeśli do tego mówimy o organizacji z sektora publicznego? O swoich i swojej organizacji doświadczeniach, metodach i programach opowie Anna Wituła z CIRF. Będzie to jak zawsze okazja do dyskusji na temat różnych sposobów na utrzymanie talentów w firmie.
Read MoreBelgium 11-9-25 Squad Only Virtual english
You’ve built the portal. Added the chatbot. Rolled out self-service. But your support lines are still ringing. And your frontline teams are still improvising. If you want digital services to feel seamless, not just look polished, this session brings you back to where value is felt: at the frontline.
Read MorePoland 11-9-25 Invitation Only Virtual Polish
W fabrykach cyberbezpieczeństwo często zależy od podwykonawców – integratorów, dostawców systemów automatyki i firm serwisowych, które mają zaskakująco szeroki dostęp do infrastruktury OT. W tej prezentacji Igor Zbyryt z BZK pokaże, jak z perspektywy końcowego użytkownika i integratora wygląda współpraca z tymi firmami oraz jakie realne ryzyka to niesie – również w kontekście NIS2. Zamiast wyliczać różnice między IT a OT, skupi się na wspólnym mianowniku i tym, co trzeba zmienić w podejściu organizacji, żeby cyber w produkcji zaczęło działać.
Read MoreBelgium 13-9-25 All Members Physical english
Join us for a scenic ride along the route of the Brabantse Pijl!This ride is suitable for all levels of cyclists and doesn’t require advanced technical skills. We’ll start at de Zoete Waters, where parking is available, and head into the charming Brabant region. Along the way, we’ll tackle some of the area’s iconic climbs — including the legendary Moskesstraat, known for its cobbled character and history in pro cycling. Expect a relaxed, friendly atmosphere and beautiful views throughout. Whether you're training, exploring, or just riding for fun, you’re more than welcome to join!
Read MoreBelgium 16-9-25 Squad Only Physical english
The system works. That’s the problem. It’s old, complex, deeply integrated, and still running your most critical operations. Everyone agrees change is needed. But no one wants to be the one who breaks it. The stakes are too high.
Read MoreGermany Sep 9, 2025 Country Members Physical german
Vom ersten Use Case zur strategischen Neuausrichtung CIONET lädt bereits zum vierten Mal zu einem exklusiven Roundtable für CIOs und Digitalverantwortliche aus Logistik und Handel ein. Im Mittelpunkt des Abends steht die Frage, wie Unternehmen ihre KI-Initiativen erfolgreich skalieren und aus ersten Use Cases echten strategischen Mehrwert schaffen. Microsoft 365 für Frontline Worker: Moderne Tools, die Mitarbeitende im Tagesgeschäft entlasten ServiceNow für Prozessintegration: Automatisierte End-to-End-Workflows – vom Schadensfall bis zur Retourenabwicklung KI-gestützte Disposition und Planung: Mit smarten Algorithmen zur optimierten Supply Chain Digitale Lieferketten und letzte Meile: Transparenz, Effizienz und Kundenzentrierung durchgängig gedacht
Read MoreBelgium Sep 13, 2025 All Members Physical english
Join us for a wonderful ride. The ride is accessible to all levels of riders and doesn't require extensive technical skills. More information will follow soon. Looking forward to ride together!
Read MoreGermany Sep 17, 2025 Country Members Physical german
Cybersecurity ist längst kein reines IT-Thema mehr – sie betrifft das gesamte Unternehmen. Doch während die Bedrohungslage zunimmt, geraten viele Security-Verantwortliche an ihre Belastungsgrenzen: zwischen 24/7-Verantwortung, wachsenden Anforderungen und dem ständigen Innovationsdruck.
Read MoreGermany Sep 17, 2025 Country Members Physical german
IT-Betrieb und Cybersicherheit stehen heute unter extremem Druck: steigende Komplexität, wachsende regulatorische Anforderungen (NIS2, DORA, KRITIS), chronische Ressourcenknappheit – und gleichzeitig eine Bedrohungslage, die keine Verzögerungen duldet. Trotzdem agieren viele IT- und Security-Teams noch immer in Silos. Die Folge: ineffiziente Abläufe, Tool-Wildwuchs, langsame Reaktion auf Vorfälle und unklare Verantwortlichkeiten.
Read MoreGermany Sep 18, 2025 Country Members Virtual german
Nachhaltigkeit ist für CIOs nicht nur ein „Nice-to-have“, sondern eine strategische Priorität – sie beeinflusst direkt die finanzielle Performance, die operative Effizienz und die langfristige Wettbewerbsfähigkeit.
Read MoreBelgium Sep 18, 2025 Country Members Physical french
La dette technique est comparable à la négligence des réparations d'une maison. Ignorer un toit qui fuit peut faire gagner du temps aujourd'hui, mais cela pourrait conduire à l'effondrement du plafond plus tard. Pour remédier à la dette technique, il faut trouver et réparer ces fuites dès maintenant et mettre en place un plan d'entretien de la maison afin qu'elle soit prête pour les extensions futures. Pour résoudre ces problèmes, il faut définir des priorités stratégiques, communiquer clairement avec les parties prenantes et établir une feuille de route à long terme pour la modernisation. Cet événement se déroulera entièrement en français.
Read MoreGermany Sep 9, 2025 Country Members Physical german
Vom ersten Use Case zur strategischen Neuausrichtung CIONET lädt bereits zum vierten Mal zu einem exklusiven Roundtable für CIOs und Digitalverantwortliche aus Logistik und Handel ein. Im Mittelpunkt des Abends steht die Frage, wie Unternehmen ihre KI-Initiativen erfolgreich skalieren und aus ersten Use Cases echten strategischen Mehrwert schaffen. Microsoft 365 für Frontline Worker: Moderne Tools, die Mitarbeitende im Tagesgeschäft entlasten ServiceNow für Prozessintegration: Automatisierte End-to-End-Workflows – vom Schadensfall bis zur Retourenabwicklung KI-gestützte Disposition und Planung: Mit smarten Algorithmen zur optimierten Supply Chain Digitale Lieferketten und letzte Meile: Transparenz, Effizienz und Kundenzentrierung durchgängig gedacht
Read MoreBelgium Sep 13, 2025 All Members Physical english
Join us for a wonderful ride. The ride is accessible to all levels of riders and doesn't require extensive technical skills. More information will follow soon. Looking forward to ride together!
Read MoreGermany Sep 17, 2025 Country Members Physical german
Cybersecurity ist längst kein reines IT-Thema mehr – sie betrifft das gesamte Unternehmen. Doch während die Bedrohungslage zunimmt, geraten viele Security-Verantwortliche an ihre Belastungsgrenzen: zwischen 24/7-Verantwortung, wachsenden Anforderungen und dem ständigen Innovationsdruck.
Read MoreGermany Sep 17, 2025 Country Members Physical german
IT-Betrieb und Cybersicherheit stehen heute unter extremem Druck: steigende Komplexität, wachsende regulatorische Anforderungen (NIS2, DORA, KRITIS), chronische Ressourcenknappheit – und gleichzeitig eine Bedrohungslage, die keine Verzögerungen duldet. Trotzdem agieren viele IT- und Security-Teams noch immer in Silos. Die Folge: ineffiziente Abläufe, Tool-Wildwuchs, langsame Reaktion auf Vorfälle und unklare Verantwortlichkeiten.
Read MoreGermany Sep 18, 2025 Country Members Virtual german
Nachhaltigkeit ist für CIOs nicht nur ein „Nice-to-have“, sondern eine strategische Priorität – sie beeinflusst direkt die finanzielle Performance, die operative Effizienz und die langfristige Wettbewerbsfähigkeit.
Read MoreBelgium Sep 18, 2025 Country Members Physical french
La dette technique est comparable à la négligence des réparations d'une maison. Ignorer un toit qui fuit peut faire gagner du temps aujourd'hui, mais cela pourrait conduire à l'effondrement du plafond plus tard. Pour remédier à la dette technique, il faut trouver et réparer ces fuites dès maintenant et mettre en place un plan d'entretien de la maison afin qu'elle soit prête pour les extensions futures. Pour résoudre ces problèmes, il faut définir des priorités stratégiques, communiquer clairement avec les parties prenantes et établir une feuille de route à long terme pour la modernisation. Cet événement se déroulera entièrement en français.
Read MoreDC Water hunts lost water with analytics
Predictive analytics and AI are helping the District of Columbia’s water authority discover water main and sewer pipe breaks proactively.
The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) delivers about 900 million gallons of drinking water a day via 1,300 miles of pipes, and operates the worlds largest advanced wastewater treatment plant, processing an average of about 300 million gallons a day. Thomas Kuczynski’s mission is to deliver analytics throughout the organization, or, as he puts it, to get out of the report business.
“I want to be in the data business,” Kuczynski says. “I want to be here exposing a reliable, auditable source of information to the people that need to make the decisions.”
Kuczynski is CIO and vice president of IT at DC Water and president of DC Water’s wholly owned nonprofit affiliate, Blue Drop, which is responsible for generating non-ratepayer revenue to help minimize the impact of rate increases on DC Water customers.
“We’ve made a significant investment in certain areas, largely focused on what we refer to as ‘non-revenue water,’” Kuczynski says. “We’re spending a lot of time on the operations side building predictive analytics tools for predicting water main breaks so we can be more proactive in eliminating them rather than responding to them. We’re doing some work now in what is typically referred to in the electric industry as ‘outage management.’”
Much of the focus of DC Water’s efforts is on eliminating “unaccounted for water,” which is the difference between the water pumped into the system, and the water consumed, measured by an advanced meter reading (AMR) system. Some of that unaccounted for water is the result of legitimate uses, such as the city’s fire suppression efforts via DC Water’s more than 9,000 fire hydrants.
“As you eliminate all those, there’s a remainder of water that’s being consumed by the system somehow, but it’s not being billed,” Kuczynski says. “It could be because of inaccurate metering — oversized meters that run slow because there’s not enough volume, meters that are degrading and have to be recalibrated.”
So Kuczynski and his team are putting a variety of data sources to work in building a set of dashboards and routines to isolate where the majority of that loss is occurring and “home in on specific areas where the overall loss is significantly higher than in other portions of the system, and then apply other types of analytics to try to determine why,” he says.
Analytics in action
Kuczynski’s team is building digital platforms and linking them to DC Water’s SCADA and process control system (PCS). SCADA manages and controls DC Water’s distribution and collection system, while PCS operates the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant. By integrating those systems with its customer systems and GIS platform, DC Water is able to perform spatial analysis as events are occurring.
“When heavy rain falls, we’re able to monitor the performance of the collection systems and also potential customer complaints about flooding to be more proactive about responding to those on the water delivery side,” Kuczynski says.
The analytics also enables DC Water to compare the consumption of similar users (such as hotels or laundromats) to look for outliers. Doing so helps the organization identify potential leaks or bad meters. It’s even helped the organization discover broken pipes in abandoned properties.
The most sophisticated analytical tool DC Water has is Pipe Sleuth, a sewer assessment solution developed at Blue Drop that uses AI to review CCTV footage to assess sewer pipe status in real time.
“It uses an advanced, deep learning neural network model to do image analysis of small diameter sewer pipes, classify them, and then create a condition assessment report,” Kuczynski says.
Prior to Pipe Sleuth, operators had to review each frame of footage manually and tag any defects they saw. A certified engineer would then look at the tagged footage and classify the defects.
Kuczynski, who has been DC Water’s CIO since 2013, says the organization started implementing analytics in a comprehensive and focused way about two years ago.
“Some of that ramp up was educating people around digital analytics and data science, creating and exposing the digital assets that we had available to us,” he says. “Largely it was focused on individual systems first, like understanding how well individual groups of workers were performing particular types of jobs relative to the population as a whole.”
Those efforts were fairly straightforward but helped the team gain experience. About a year ago, they started aggregating different sources of information, such as bringing together billing data and meter data from the AMR system and blending it.
“We’re getting more and more sophisticated,” Kuczynski says.
A matter of trust
The initial education component at DC Water consisted of centralizing data sources, providing access to them, and helping individuals understand how those resources could aid decision-making processes.
“Part of it is really educating people about the power of some of these tools and their ability to be more precise in their predictions, and getting people comfortable, especially when the answer comes out and you don’t necessarily always see the process through which that happens,” Kuczynski says.
Helping others gain trust in predictive analytics tools is essential, and it may mean working through the answer a model provided to either confirm it or cancel it out. Kuczynski points to the tool for predicting water main breaks. It’s accepted wisdom in a lot of circles that water main breaks occur due to cold weather, and they are more frequent in colder parts of the year. That said, the tool also has to predict water main breaks during warm parts of the year.
“If your goal is to solve the main break problem, then you have to solve it in its entirety, not just for that one part of the year,” he says. “It’s actually more about rapid fluctuations in temperature that cause the ground to surge and cause dislocations in a pipe.”
Ultimately, the goal of all these efforts is to drive down water loss between 2% and 5%, roughly 1.8 million to 4.5 million gallons per day. Every 1% of “found water” that was previously unmetered is worth about $4 million to the organization.
“You want to look at those problems that are persistent challenges for your organization and ideally have a revenue component or efficiency component associated with them,” Kuczynski says. “It’s always easier to sell something that saves you something, whether that’s real dollars or something that improves a process significantly.”
311 Views 0 Likes Read More
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.
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.
In our new app, our members connect with other digital leaders from around the world to find better solutions to their challenges.
Connect with digital leaders like you
Share ideas, best practices, and new resources
Experience inspiring and thought-provoking content and conversations you can’t find anywhere else
Make better, more well-informed decisions about the topics that are most important to you
Head of IT Germany and Regional Office Lead Munich, Microsoft
IT Director, IT Thinker
Vice president IT & Compliance, VisionaryRCM (A Carlyle Grp Company)
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.
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.
with digital leaders who share your interests, who face the same challenges, who care about the same topics.
stories, experiences, and ideas around our shared mission.
from our exclusive events, publications and research.
inspiration, thought-provoking conversations, expert perspectives and exclusive first-hand content each and every day
and make better, more well-informed decisions on how to lead your digital business.
your potential. Realise your ambitions.
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!
Would you like to know more about CIONET, membership or partnership opportunities? Do you have feedback or any other question? Send us a message!