null

Belgium 13-11-2026 Squad Only Physical English

Building the Business Case for New IT Capabilities; How to justify investment when value is strategic, shared, or only visible over time.

Many IT capabilities are essential and difficult to fund through a simple project ROI. The challenge is showing why architecture, governance, resilience, cybersecurity maturity, data foundations, and AI readiness deserve investment before the gap becomes expensive. Three pressure points make the case harder. - Shared value means the benefit often sits across several teams, while the budget sits in one place. - Timing creates friction because the cost is immediate while the value appears over time. - Risk translation is needed so business and finance leaders understand the consequence of delaying the investment. The working question is simple: how do we turn foundational IT capabilities into credible investment cases that link cost, risk, business value, and future flexibility? If you are building these cases internally, let’s compare how others are positioning value, risk, and timing.

Belgium 19-11-2026 All Members Physical English

Europe’s Digital Foundations

Public organisations are re-evaluating the digital foundations on which critical services depend. Cloud strategy is increasingly shaped by questions of operational control, legal exposure, supplier dependency, interoperability and long-term resilience. For public-sector leaders, the issue is not only where workloads are hosted, but how much strategic control remains over the technologies that support essential public services. This is where European cloud initiatives, sovereign infrastructure and open-source technologies become strategically important. Together, they can increase transparency, preserve portability and reduce dependency on individual providers. But they also raise practical questions around maturity, procurement, integration, support models and long-term sustainability. Open source brings a specific dimension to this discussion. It claims to better support transparency, interoperability and strategic autonomy, but it is also requiring clear governance, security controls and operational support. The opportunity is to understand where open technologies can strengthen the public-sector technology stack, where commercial platforms remain essential and how both can coexist within a coherent European digital strategy. Three questions shape the discussion: Which parts of the public-sector technology stack require stronger European control? What role should open-source technologies play in reducing dependency and strengthening transparency? Which governance and procurement decisions will determine whether a sovereign cloud strategy succeeds? Bringing these perspectives together can define where sovereign cloud and open technologies create strategic value, identify the decisions that deserve executive attention, and establish practical principles for strengthening Europe’s digital foundations while preserving flexibility and innovation. See you at the table?

Belgium 24-11-2026 Country Members Physical French

Les Rencontres: Innovation de l'Ombre

Créativité vs. Chaos : Quelle est la gouvernance minimale ? Le défi principal est d'équilibrer le risque et le rythme du changement. Les équipes métier adoptent de nouveaux outils d'IA et low-code de leur propre chef, créant une véritable créativité mais aussi un risque massif et non géré. Cette discussion se concentre sur l'établissement de voies simples et sûres pour l'innovation, en débattant de la gouvernance minimale qui protège la réputation de l'entreprise tout en évitant l'erreur d'écraser les initiatives utiles dans l'ombre. Questions clés d'Échange entre pairs : Où l'innovation de l'ombre aide-t-elle plutôt que de nuire, et comment éviter de l'écraser ? Quelle est la gouvernance minimale qui protège la réputation tout en maintenant la vitesse, et à qui appartient-elle réellement ? Comment les pairs ont-ils réussi à transformer les efforts initiaux de l'ombre en services officiels soutenus sans perdre la confiance de l'entreprise ? Comment pouvons-nous rendre plus facile d'innover de manière responsable que de simplement agir en franc-tireur ?

Please Log In with your CIONET account first

Siemens connects frontline workers and engineers for real-time problem-solving using Azure AI

Siemens Digital Industries Software saw the need to enable better communication and collaboration for the industrial companies that use its software. The company envisioned an AI-powered collaborative app to help people solve challenges together, and feel more connected and included as part of the larger organization. Siemens DI decided to work with Microsoft, and to use Microsoft Azure AI.

Accelerating groundbreaking transformation for industrial and manufacturing customers is the driving force behind Siemens Digital Industries Software.

A division of Siemens AG, a German multinational technology conglomerate, Siemens Digital Industries Software provides a comprehensive portfolio of cutting-edge software, hardware, and services for design, manufacturing and product lifecycle management across industries such as automotive, aerospace, machinery, battery, medical, consumer products, marine, energy, and semiconductor.

With products becoming increasingly smart and connected, Siemens Digital Industries Software saw the need to help its customers improve cross-functional communication. The company envisioned an AI-powered collaborative app to help people working across product lifecycles close feedback loops faster, solve challenges together, and feel more connected to the larger organization.

Making problem reporting easy

Siemens Digital Industries Software has long collaborated to support customers using Siemens software together with Microsoft solutions including Microsoft Teams. At many companies, shop floor workers do their best to type and report issues as they could. “But imagine you’re on a fast-paced factory line and you see a problem. Maybe you have gloves on, maybe you’re not speaking a language that is the same language as the software that has been implemented to track that line,” says Joe Bohman, Executive Vice President of PLM Products at Siemens Digital Industries Software “The reality is problems won’t be reported if it’s too hard.”

With a long-standing relationship between Siemens and Microsoft—over 35 years of joint innovation—it was a natural choice for Siemens Digital Industries Software to work with Microsoft and use Microsoft Azure AI to produce an innovative solution for their customers. Together, the companies created a Microsoft Teams app for their Teamcenter software, Siemens’ industry-leading product lifecycle management (PLM) solution. Designed specifically to improve communications across the product lifecycle, the solution builds upon the collaborative platform of Teams, with the language model capabilities in Azure OpenAI Service and cutting-edge capabilities in Azure AI Studio, including prompt flow.

Siemens Digital Industries Software customers had been relying on the user-friendly features of Teams like push notifications to simplify workflow approvals, reduce the time it takes to request design changes, and speed up innovation cycles. But issues that could turn into larger problems were getting missed because reporting often happened later in the product development process or not at all. Siemens developers combined Teams capabilities with Azure AI and its comprehensive suite of tools, including prompt flow in Azure Machine Learning, to streamline workflows that included prototyping, deployment, and service production.

Empowering workers to shape design and process

Now Siemens Digital Industries Software customers will be able to use the app’s “Tell Me” feature on their mobile device to document issues and report concerns using natural speech in real time. With Azure AI, the app can parse informal speech data no matter the language, automatically creating a summarized report and routing it within Teamcenter to the appropriate design, engineering, or manufacturing experts—in the specific language they require.

The solution is currently in pilot form with a few Siemens Digital Industries Software customers. Solution’s official release set for December 2023.

“We feel Azure AI and Azure AI Studio are powerful and inclusive tools that align with our values of innovation and transformation that empowers people,” says Joe Bohman, Executive Vice President of PLM Products at Siemens Digital Industries Software “We’ve had a long history working with Microsoft, and we’re happy to move into the next era of ongoing AI innovation together.”

Technologies

Azure AI services Azure AI Studio

Partners

CIONET Business Circles

Cyber Circle

CIONET’s Cyber Circle: a new three-event programme exclusively focusing on the most urgent, complex, and high-impact challenges in cybersecurity today. Launched in 2026, this initiative brings together CISOs, CIOs, and senior IT executives with a strong interest in cybersecurity for three curated gatherings each year. As part of CIONET’s trusted executive community, the Cyber Circle provides a confidential, peer-driven environment to exchange insights, share real-world experiences, and address evolving cyber threats. Each session is designed to foster strategic dialogue, strengthen resilience, and elevate cybersecurity as a core driver of business value.

Telenet Business Leadership Circle

The Telenet Business Leadership Circle powered by CIONET, offers a platform where IT executives and thought leaders can meet to inspire each other and share best practices. We want to be a facilitator who helps you optimise the performance of your IT function and your business by embracing the endless opportunities that digital change brings.

Les Rencontres

Découvrez la dynamique du leadership numérique aux Rencontres de CIONET, le programme francophone exclusif de CIONET pour les leaders numériques en Belgique, rendu possible grâce au soutien et à l'engagement de nos partenaires de programme : Deloitte, Denodo et Red Hat. Rejoignez trois événements inspirants par an à Liège, Namur et en Brabant Wallon, où des CIOs et des experts numériques francophones de premier plan partagent leurs perspectives et expériences sur des thèmes d'affaires et de IT actuels. Laissez-vous inspirer et apprenez des meilleurs du secteur lors de sessions captivantes conçues spécialement pour soutenir et enrichir votre rôle en tant que CIO pair. Ne manquez pas cette opportunité de faire partie d'un réseau exceptionnel d'innovateurs numériques !

Female Leadership Circle

CIONET is committed to highlighting and celebrating female role models in IT, Tech & Digital, creating a leadership programme that empowers and elevates women within the tech industry. This initiative is dedicated to showcasing the achievements and successes of leading women, fostering an environment where female role models are recognised, and their contributions can ignite progress and inspire the next generation of women in IT. Our mission is to shine the spotlight a little brighter on female role models in IT, Tech & Digital, and to empower each other through this inner network community.