<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=2528533714139722&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
New call-to-action
https://4295993.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/4295993/INT_CIONET-International/VIDEO/CIONET_HM.mp4
CIONET - What's next

Connecting ambitious digital leaders and businesses around the globe.

Catch up on the upcoming CIONET Events

             
Banner

Netherlands Nov 10, 2025 Public Physical english

Reis mee: CIO Innovation trip Web Summit 11 nov 2025 Lissabon

CIONET Nederland vertrekt met een groep Nederlandse CIO's en digital leaders 10 t/m 12 november 2025 voor de geheel verzorgde CIO Innovation Trip naar de Web Summit in Lissabon, Portugal. Reis jij mee of neem je collega(s) mee!

Read More
Banner

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.

Read More
Banner

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?

Read More
Banner

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.

Read More
Banner

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.

Read More
Banner

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.

Read More

Recent Cases

Please Log In with your CIONET account first

An energy giant takes the leap into AI automation

ENN taps into hyperautomation to boost productivity

ENN Group Co., Ltd. is deeply committed to solving the energy challenges of tomorrow with the technology of today. The green energy giant—which serves customers in more that 80 cities in China and beyond—has long been at the forefront of technological innovation in the industry. Its ultimate goal: to drive clean energy options that improve the quality of peoples’ lives.

In early 2020, the onset of COVID-19 required thousands of the company’s office-based employees to shift to working from their homes almost overnight. Demand for IT services related to remote working—such as requests for VPN permissions and password downloads and resets—instantly skyrocketed. IT help desk personnel were overwhelmed.

Fortunately, ENN was on the cusp of rolling out a new virtual assistant that combined AI from IBM® watsonx Assistant and IBM Watson® Discovery technologies, as well as automation capabilities of the IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with Automation Anywhere solution, to interpret and respond to IT employee service desk requests. Within a half a day, the virtual assistant helped enable thousands of employees with the technology they needed to work remotely. Previously, that effort would have taken days—perhaps even weeks.

The company’s digital automation journey had started well before COVID-19 began making headlines. A year earlier, it introduced a virtual employee—“Little ENN Assistant”—into its Financial Sharing Center.

 

 

Reduced response

Time to respond to thousands of employee help desk requests 0.5 days

 

 

Faster set up

Time to get new virtual assistants up and running 2 days, versus multiple weeks

 
 
Our AI automation platform provides employees with personalized AI skills, helps employees perform daily tasks, frees them from repetitive daily tasks and unleashes their creativity and imagination. 
Li QiangIT Platforms ExecutiveENN Group Co. Ltd.
 
 

Based on IBM RPA technology, the automated financial assistant performed basic back-office tasks, such as pulling reports or handling monthly ledger booking. It was a resounding success, completing 2,000–3,000 tasks per day, implementing over 70 business scenarios resulting in millions of dollars of value and reducing processing time by 60%.

And that was just the beginning. As a complex, multifaceted company, ENN faced climbing operating costs, growing customer expectations for top-notch products and services, constantly changing business requirements and an ongoing need to keep employees satisfied. The company was ready for the next step in its automation journey: hyperautomation. Named by Gartner Research as the top strategic technology trend for 2020, hyperautomation combines automation with AI to drive actions based on intelligent decision-making.

 
 
Two hands + one brain

To that end, ENN chose to build upon its existing IBM RPA foundation, incorporating the AI capabilities of the IBM Cloud Pak® for Business Automation offering combined with IBM watsonx Assistant and IBM Watson Discovery solutions, both of which run on the IBM Cloud Pak for Data platform. This single platform provides ENN with a foundation for future solutions, as well as the ability to consolidate, operationalize and govern data from across its operations, reducing costs while eliminating data silos.

The choice was well-founded: IBM watsonx Assistant software was named as a leader in conversational computing by analyst firm Forrester in 2018, and the IBM Watson Discovery solution garnered “Best Innovation in Natural Language Processing (NLP)” in the Alconics enterprise AI awards in 2019. On top of that, IBM Cloud Pak for Automation offers the convenience of pre-integrated automation technologies and low-code tools, so clients can design, build and run automated applications and services quickly and at scale.

With IBM Watson technology providing the “brain” of AI, ENN’s updated virtual AI assistants are able to query users on intent, then pass that information over to IBM RPA’s “two hands” of automation to perform appropriate actions.

The use of these intelligent virtual assistants now spans employee and customer self-service functions. The IT desktop services AI assistant launched at the beginning of the pandemic continues to apply the IBM watsonx Assistant and IBM RPA solutions to query and assist employees with their IT requests.

For finance-related issues, an AI assistant, also built on IBM watsonx Assistant technology, supports complex multicycle conversations and interactions between diverse internal business and finance teams and the Financial Sharing Center, shortening communication cycles and granting access to financial data based on authorization and business need.

Customer-focused AI assistants provide business and IT services to customers. Customers can get their questions answered—such as the status of a bill payment—quickly and easily, improving the customer experience while reducing operating costs.

An employee AI assistant provides ENN’s 50,000 employees access to information housed in hundreds of business systems. Employees can get status updates on internal processes, such as expense reports, without logging into individual internal systems or performing manual queries. Using the IBM Watson Discovery solution, the virtual assistant can intelligently search enterprise and knowledge databases to help customer service personnel answer complex customer questions.

And an “expert” assistant, also powered by IBM Watson Discovery technology, parses through large volumes of unstructured and structured data—such as that found in manufacturing manuals, development files and internal user guides—to provide employees easy access to information previously unavailable or only accessible through time-intensive training or searches.

 
 
About ENN Group Co., Ltd.

ENN (link resides outside of ibm.com) is a multinational, vertically integrated supplier of energy. Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Langfang, China, it has more than 100 subsidiaries and focuses on energy distribution, solar energy, energy chemicals and the development of energy technologies. ENN provides gas storage and distribution services to more than 80 cities across China, employs more than 50,000 people and reports total assets of more than CNY 40 billion. In 2019, the company listed annual revenues at CYN 164.5 billion.

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

 
Banner

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

Banner

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

Banner

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

Banner

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

Banner

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

Banner

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

CIONET Reports

 
Banner
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.

Banner
Get your copy

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.

Banner
Get your copy

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.

Join over 10.000 digital leaders worldwide

in our exclusive CIO community

Latest CIONET News

Join your local CIONET community

Discover the CIONET app

Staying ahead of trends and connecting with other CIOs was never easier.

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

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!

Contact us

Would you like to know more about CIONET, membership or partnership opportunities? Do you have feedback or any other question? Send us a message!