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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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Belgium May 13, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english

Women of CIONET - How Female CIOs Drive Inclusive Tech Teams

The role of the CIO is evolving faster than ever, requiring a blend of strategic vision, innovation, and adaptability. As CIOs lead digital transformation, the skills needed in their teams are changing, too. This conference highlights how female CIOs are navigating this shift—reshaping their teams, prioritizing diverse skill sets, and leveraging inclusion as a driver of success. Discover how building diverse, future-ready teams enables CIOs to meet the demands of an ever-changing IT and tech landscape.

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Belgium May 13, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english

Code Red for a proactive, predictive cyber defence ; How to Turn Threat Intelligence into Cyber Advantage

As a CIO and CISO, you are facing an unprecedented challenge: transitioning from reactive incident response to proactive, predictive defence. While Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) promises to anticipate attacks, integrating it effectively into security and war room operations presents significant hurdles.

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Poland May 13, 2025 Invitation Only Physical Polish

EXECUTIVE ROUNDTABLE: DIGITAL BLIND SPOTS: Czy wiesz, czego nie wiesz? Niewidoczne ryzyka, które zagrażają ciągłości biznesu.

Pierwsza awaria cię nie pogrąży, ale kolejna prawdopodobnie już tak - takie wnioski płyną z badania z udziałem CIO, które CIONET przeprowadził w Polsce w 2024 roku. Utrzymanie ciągłości biznesu pozostaje najważniejszym zadaniem liderów IT. Awarie platform technologicznych przekładają się na ogromne straty – od utraty przychodów i reputacji po kary nakładane przez organy kontrolne, w tym UODO, KNF czy UKE. Systemy analityczne i panele kontrolne zapewniają wgląd w wiele procesów, często pozostawiają jednak „martwe punkty” - obszary, w których kryją się niewidoczne problemy, nieefektywności lub ryzyka. Zapraszamy na ekskluzywne spotkanie Digital Blind Spots, organizowane z myślą o liderach technologii z różnych branż. Będziemy rozmawiać o doświadczeniach i wyzwaniach związanym z monitorowaniem, zabezpieczaniem i optymalizacją ekosystemów technologicznych.

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Netherlands May 13, 2025 Invitation Only Physical dutch

Cognizant CIO Vision Dinner: Gen AI & Smart Industry

Alleen op uitnodiging. In een besloten setting, onder leiding van gastheer Herman van Bolhuis (Founder CIONET & bestuurslid FME), verkennen we de strategische impact van Generative AI en de volgende fase van digitalisering.

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Brazil May 15, 2025 AB Members Physical portuguese

Tecnologia que Encanta: lições do varejo para líderes que transformam

Advisory Board Meeting São Paulo. Tecnologia que Encanta: lições do varejo para líderes que transformam.

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Germany May 19, 2025 Country Members Virtual german

Online: Holistik in der Integration

In der Tech-Industrie ist Wandel die einzige Konstante – Themen kommen und gehen im Zwei-Wochen-Takt. Auch Enterprises merken das: Die Innovationszyklen sind schneller, der Druck zur Umsetzung höher. Generative KI ist inzwischen überall angekommen – sei es in Produkten, Prozessen oder mindestens als smarter Bot im Kundenservice. Doch nach der anfänglichen Begeisterung beginnt nun die Phase der Realität: Intelligenz im Enterprise braucht mehr als gute Ideen – es braucht Governance, Datenqualität und Wartung.

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Recent Cases

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Etex modernizes its IT foundation for a new era of sustainable innovation

Cognizant and SAP partnered to migrate a business-critical SAP ECC environment to S/4HANA to ready Etex for future transformation and innovation.

The challenge

Etex is a pioneer in the manufacture of lightweight construction materials, enabling people worldwide to build safe, sustainable, smart and beautiful buildings. Founded in 1905, its innovations and acquisitions in fire protection, plaster technology, modular construction and engineering have revolutionized the construction industry, aligning it with Etex’s mission of inspiring ways of living.

Etex sees its products as part of the solution to combating climate change, as they are recyclable and up to 45% less emissions-intensive to produce over traditional construction methods. The company has signed the United Nations (UN) Global Compact and is fully committed to helping achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in areas where its products can have an impact.

 

 
Challenge
 
 
Migrating from a legacy SAP environment

Etex has strong ambitions to grow its business and develop the company’s sustainable product lines through internal innovation and further acquisitions. For this it needs a strong enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform with modern, business-enhancing functionality. Its legacy SAP ECC platform was facing end of support and Etex opted to take the opportunity to upgrade to SAP S/4HANA.

This was a major modernization project and Etex conducted a comprehensive multi-year assessment to determine the right approach. It opted for a brownfield migration, carrying some business-critical processes and functionality over to S/4HANA and leveraging new S/4HANA features where possible.

Etex wanted a world-class combination of systems integrator and technology partner to handle the migration and conversion. It therefore engaged Cognizant and SAP to deliver the end-to-end project.

 

Our approach

A target of 12 months was set for the whole environment to go live on S/4HANA. Throughout, Cognizant, Etex and SAP worked in partnership to ensure a smooth and successful project delivery with all parties working together to anticipate, address and resolve any issues.

Delivering a successful modernization

The modernization involved first developing a thorough understanding of the SAP environment.  A full system readiness analysis was conducted to understand which aspects of the environment would need remediation prior to the move.  A conversion plan for the migration was then created, using best-practice processes and frameworks.

 

our approach
 

To de-risk the project, a six-cycle migration was planned. The cycles started with the sandbox environment, being the lowest-risk, and progressed through to the production environment. Each cycle involved Etex, Cognizant and SAP working together to convert to S/4HANA, implement mandatory simplification items, make custom code corrections and migrate the data. The learnings from each cycle were applied in subsequent cycles, in readiness for seamless cut-over and go live.

As part of our end-to-end approach, Cognizant also implemented a best-practice test management strategy that Etex can use for future business transformation projects. 

All six cycles were completed as planned, with Etex going live on S/4HANA in a single weekend at the end of the <12-month period.

 


"I am deeply impressed by the professionalism and collaborative spirit of the joint project team comprising Etex, SAP and Cognizant. Their unwavering commitment and seamless coordination allowed us to successfully deliver this critical project on time, without any disruption to our business operations."

Dirk Altgassen, Chief Data and Information Officer (CDIO), Etex

 

Business outcomes

The smooth, on-time migration to S/4HANA allowed Etex to start benefiting from SAP S/4HANA features in a little over a year—a rapid timeframe for a full modernization of a complex legacy SAP ECC environment. Specific outcomes achieved to date include:

  • Next-generation platform to enable business growth: Etex now benefits from a modern ERP backbone that will support the company in areas like finance, warehouse management, transportation and HR. It now has a foundation to deploy embedded AI use cases to drive further business value.
  • A new ERP backbone for 100+ plants in 40+ countries: Etex operations around the world benefit from a new digital core that sets the foundation for an enhanced user experience in S/4HANA.
 

Throughout, the collaborative effort between Etex, SAP, and Cognizant facilitated coordination and ongoing external benchmarking. This has been fundamental for the successful execution and establishment of the groundwork for the digital transformation journey.

 

Business outcome
 
Ready for a new era of sustainable construction

Etex was already an industry leader and pace-setter, with its lightweight, low-carbon materials enabling the transition to sustainable construction worldwide. Now, with new products and acquisitions on the horizon, Etex is preparing for a new era of sustainable innovation. The new modernization and migration project has ensured that its business-critical SAP core is ready for that shift, delivering a powerful new technology backbone that enables Etex to benefit from new S/4HANA features as they roll out.

 

 

 Etex modernizes its IT foundation to drive sustainable innovation
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About Etex

Etex is an innovative and sustainable building materials company and a pioneer in lightweight construction. It employs 13,500 teammates globally, operating on more than 160 sites and  seven Innovation Technology Centers (ITC) in 45 countries worldwide. For more information, visit www.etexgroup.com.

 

Technologies

SAP S/4HANA Cloud

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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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

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José Antonio López, Group CIO at TOUS - Jewels, Data & AI: Inside the Digital Transformation of TOUS

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Tom Tanghe - General Manager ITC EMEA at Daikin Europe - Reinventing the CIO Role

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CIOFEST 2025 - From Order Taker to Proactive Disruptor

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CIOFEST 2025 - Introduction to the International Panel

CIONET Reports

 
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The impact of AI on ICT

The evolution of AI is comparable to that of IT, but it’s happening much faster. As with IT in its early days, AI is becoming deeply embedded in almost every business function. Amara’s Law also applies here: we tend to overestimate AI’s short-term effects and underestimate its long-term impact. This makes it essential to embed AI across your company in a structured way.

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CIOFEST UK: Charting Your CIO Career

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the event's insights and reflections from industry leaders, along with actionable takeaways for IT professionals aspiring to reach leadership positions.

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Investment Report 2025- Risk-on, Risk-off

In this report, Roger Camrass reviews the financial events of 2024 and presents his opinion on investment prospects for 2025 Roger has followed global finance markets closely for over 40 years and summarises trends in investment reports annually1 As former Research Director at CIONET, Europe’s largest community of digital leaders2, Roger has first-hand knowledge of digital trends

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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:-) ”
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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.”
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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.

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

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stories, experiences, and ideas around our shared mission.

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from our exclusive events, publications and research.

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

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

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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!