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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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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!

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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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Recent Cases

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How ticket automation helped Lush reach a 60% first contact resolution rate

Global handmade cosmetics brand Lush was hesitant about automating their support — but needed to clear their inbox of FAQs and give agents more time to connect with customers. Here’s how they went from support automation skeptics to AI enthusiasts.

 

Lush at a glance

TheCustomer-Lush

The customer

Lush is a global cosmetics brand offering fresh, handmade beauty products.

TheMarket-Lush

The market

HQ’ed in the UK, they have branches in 21 countries — and stores operate in additional regions under franchise.

TheSupportTeam-Lush

The support team

170 agents provide support in 15 languages to Lush customers around the world.

TheChannels-Lush

The channels

Customer care is available 7 days a week via phone, SMS, and email.

TheSituation-Lush

The situation

Lush needed to scale their support to meet growing demand — without growing their customer service team.

TheSolution-Lush

The solution

Ultimate’s ticket automation solution and a seamless integration with their existing CRM: Zendesk.

 

Getting started with Ultimate

Customer-centricity is at the heart of how Lush operates. That’s why they started out as support automation skeptics. “We’ve always resisted too much automation because we never wanted to replace personal interactions,” says Naomi. But once they saw the substantial effort ticket automation would save them — giving agents more time to engage in meaningful conversations with customers — the support team soon became AI enthusiasts.

It took just 16 days for Lush to go live with ticket automation, and on his first day Marvin (as the team named their bot) answered 37% of tickets. But Lush’s support department doesn’t measure success by traditional efficiency measures. Instead, they focus on what customers are saying. In the week after launching, despite higher numbers of complaints over Black Friday and delivery disruption due to UK Royal Mail strikes, CSAT was at 93%.

 
 
 
“With the pandemic and now a global recession, we’re not in a position to make our Customer Care team bigger and bigger. So we needed to make agents’ jobs easier by taking away the repetitive questions.”

Naomi Rankin
Global Customer Care Manager, Lush

 

First contact resolution rate: 60%
Minutes saved per ticket: 5
CSAT score: 93%
 
 
Lush_CaseStudy_ContentBlock_1_2x_3

 

AI use case spotlight: freeing their inbox of FAQs

  • The support team in UK and Ireland was already using Zendesk macros (prepared responses) to answer FAQs, but agents were still swimming in repeat requests.

  • Lush went live with 4 intents to cover their most repetitive queries: sales and discounts, donations, order dissatisfaction, and discontinued products.

  • With Marvin taking care of common customer questions, the team reached a 60% first contact resolution (FCR) rate — giving agents more time to work on complex cases that require their skills.
Lush_CaseStudy_ContentBlock_2_2x

AI use case spotlight: scaling support without scaling the team

  • Lush’s support department was struggling to keep pace with rising volumes as the company continued to expand, but hiring additional agents wasn’t an option.

  • As well as deflecting FAQs, Marvin can request customer information upfront and add tags and labels to incoming tickets, giving agents the context they need to solve issues faster.

  • These efficiency gains save Lush roughly 5 minutes per ticket and 360 agent hours each month — savings that free up their support team to dedicate more energy to meaningful customer interactions.

 

 

The success story

Seamless-Lush

Seamless Zendesk integration

Our ticket solution fits right inside Lush’s existing tech stack, so personalization isn’t lost with automation and there’s no risk of data silos.

Multilingual-Lush

Multilingual

For a global business like Lush, multilingual support is a must — luckily, our industry-leading conversational AI can speak 109 languages.

Intelligent-Lush

Intelligent triage

Automatic ticket tagging and pre-filling makes agents’ jobs easier and removes the possibility of human error: meaning accurate data and reporting.

TrainMaintain-Lush

Easy to train and maintain

It took just 16 days for Lush to go live with ticket automation and the team can continually iterate to improve the bot’s performance.

 

Next on their automation journey

Building on the success of their English-language bot, the team is aiming to launch ticket automation in German next. After that, Lush plans to localize their automated ticket support in other English-speaking regions such as Australia. Eventually, Naomi wants to have bot managers taking care of ticket automation in every region Lush operates in.

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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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.

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