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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 ?

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Thanks to scalable IT, Elindus can continuously respond to changes in the energy market

EFFIX deals with everything ICT related, including the infrastructure, security and networking. Having migrated to the public cloud in Microsoft Azure, Elindus can now continuously respond to growth and developments in the energy market. Energy prices are calculated accurately to the hour to reflect changes in the energy market.

Introduction

Elindus is a 100% Belgian energy supplier to professional businesses. As an energy supplier, Elindus assists entrepreneurs with purchasing, using and managing their energy needs. With Elindus, entrepreneurs know exactly where they stand. Contracts are not tacitly renewed, invoices are set out clearly and the prices are reasonable. Elindus monitors the market closely so that it customers do not miss out on opportunities to improve their energy policies. In just 10 years, Elindus has developed into an energy supplier that makes a real difference in the Belgian energy landscape.

We seek to build a long-term relationship with our customers by addressing their concerns, advising them and keeping a close eye on their energy file to ensure that we are a reliable energy partner for true entrepreneurs! Elindus is a proactive energy supplier to the B2B segment: Be reliable - To be transparent - Be committed. - Lode Hullebusch: CCO - Elindus

The challenge

Elindus has been working with EFFIX as their ICT partner for more than six years now. The cooperation started shortly before Elindus went through its explosive growth. EFFIX began by resolving a number of operational challenges, including problems with email traffic. At the end of 2020, Elindus moved to a new location in the Elindus Arena (Waregem’s football stadium). Given the crucial importance of high reliability, speed, scalability and redundancy within the energy sector, the company also looked into the possibility of updating its ICT system at the time of the move. To meet these criteria, Elindus decided to migrate its entire ICT environment to Microsoft Azure.

The solution

Initially, a hybrid solution was chosen for the migration and upgrade, to optimize the return on the investments made by Elindus in hardware in the past. As a result, a part of the infrastructure was originally kept on the premises. The next step was a move to EFFIX’s private cloud. Elindus’ core applications have since been migrated to the public cloud in Microsoft Azure and all its employees work with Microsoft 365. In addition to scalability, the business continuity process was also taken into account in order to minimize potential downtime. For example, redundant solutions were developed for both the private and public cloud applications. Disaster recovery was also taken into consideration, including by setting up a flexible back-up procedure. to ensure that core applications are backed up efficiently several times a day.

Lastly, security is of paramount importance to Elindus. After evaluating all its business processes, a comprehensive security plan was drawn up to encompass as many potential threats as possible. This includes scanning all data before it is communicated to users to protect them against possible attacks.

In other words, EFFIX deals with everything ICT related, including the Microsoft Azure infrastructure, security and networking.

The Microsoft Partner

EFFIX is a reliable partner providing stable and high quality ICT solutions. Partnership is one of EFFIX' key words. EFFIX works with and grows alongside its customers; it does not impose default remedies but offers solutions that tie into its customer’s identity. While the process may take a little more time as a result, the commitment is considerable and ultimately delivers more. EFFIX has a dedicated service desk available 24/7 to support its customers. All its employees have extensive knowledge of ICT and that knowledge is constantly keep up to date.

Customers come to EFFIX for first-line advice with many questions. If their questions do not relate directly to their core business, the advisers will nevertheless be able to steer customers in the right direction.

The result

Elindus now has more ICT options available to it thanks to the unique opportunities offered by Microsoft Azure. With Microsoft Azure, scaling up or down is possible to meet peaks and troughs in ICT usage. This is crucial to be able to continuously respond to growth and developments in the energy market. Energy prices need to be calculated accurately to the hour to reflect changes in the energy market. This is also crucial to Elindus’s success.

EFFIX has grown alongside Elindus. It has evolved from a small ICT provider into a medium-sized business with a broad portfolio. EFFIX has contributed to Elindus’s growth and success. And in turn, Elindus has contributed to EFFIX’s own growth and success. This has created a strong mutual bond. - Christof Anckaert: CIO - Elindus

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