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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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Decathlon expands global digital leadership and presence with a trusted partner

Decathlon, a leading sporting goods retailer with a vast global presence, has joined forces with Trend Micro to fortify its digital operations. As the company expands its online presence and embraces cutting-edge technologies, Trend Micro's comprehensive cybersecurity solutions are playing a vital role in protecting Decathlon's customers and data.

OVERVIEW

With more than 1,700 stores in 70 countries, global sporting goods retailer Decathlon aims to bring the power of sport to the world by designing the best products at the best prices, always innovating for quality, sustainability, and performance. Decathlon’s shift toward digital operations—including creating a top online platform for customers and embracing innovations—introduced multiple security challenges. The company partnered with Trend to ensure a streamlined security approach through Decathlon’s digital expansion.

Trend Micro offers us important security coverage, with solutions for the cloud, the internet of things (IoT), and so on. There are not a lot of companies that can help us across all of those parameters.

Matthieu Vanoost - Security Manager, Decathlon

CHALLENGES

Centralization and automation are at the heart of Decathlon’s cybersecurity strategy. The company needed its infrastructure to integrate and share data security internally. It also needed to create global security standards and implement them quickly in an fastpaced business environment. “Decathlon is focused on innovation. We want to become the top sporting goods platform, so the digital side of the company has to be innovative and keep pace with technology changes,” says Matthieu Vanoost, security manager at Decathlon.

In its digital expansion, Decathlon wanted to ensure that the company’s retail units used the same cybersecurity protocols as the rest of the company. It also needed to establish good governance to secure all applications and other assets, while ensuring compliance with domestic and international cybersecurity regulations.

WHY TREND

The Decathlon team was impressed with Trend’s versatile technology. And as the first vendor on the market offering extended detection and response (XDR) across email, network, server, and cloud workloads, Trend proved itself to be a multi-faceted partner that could meet Decathlon’s needs. “Trend offers us full security coverage from the cloud to endpoint devices and email. There are not a lot of companies that can help us across all of those parameters,” says Matthieu.

Matthieu and his team also found Trend to be a responsive partner, collaborating to solve problems and develop solutions in tandem. Trend readily accepted feedback and incorporated it into product updates, launches, and rollouts. “For me, the differentiator is the human touch, which is very important if you want to create a partnership. The human value is more important than the business,” says Matthieu.

For me the differentiator is the human touch, which is very important if you want to create a partnership. The human value is more important than the business.

Matthieu Vanoost Security Manager, Decathlon

SOLUTION

Trend’s solutions have allowed Decathlon to aggressively pursue its digital vision with confidence. Decathlon deployed Trend Vision One™, Trend Micro Apex One™ as a Service, Trend Micro™ Cloud App Security, Trend Cloud One™—Workload Security, and Trend Micro™ XDR.

In addition to offering Decathlon a cohesive view of risk across the organization and allowing the company to become better prepared to manage potential vulnerabilities, Trend’s solutions provide flexibility when it comes to cost. “Trend’s pricing method is great because there is no risk. If our cloud adoption increases, we pay more as you go. If adoption decreases, we pay less. This flexibility allows us to increase and contract when needed, giving us significant cost savings compared to older pricing models,” says Matthieu.

RESULTS

“We found Trend Vision One and Cloud App Security to secure our 100,000 Google users, easy to set up and deploy—which has been a major advantage,” says Matthieu. The company also benefited from Trend Vision One’s automatic collection of security incident data and how it collects information in one platform, reducing alert fatigue, saving time, and reducing costs. “The executive dashboards and risk insights help our security team present information to leadership and other stakeholders, as well as track progress made toward key performance indicators (KPIs),” says Matthieu.

Lastly, expanding to cover a new parameter can now be accomplished with ease—there is little to no manual management of technical set up required. “If you’re efficient—if you don’t need to get information from different platforms, you can activate a new perimeter with a click, and the data is sent directly through the platform—this is a big benefit,” Matthieu explains.

WHAT'S NEXT

Establishing Decathlon as a digital leader in the sporting goods market in Europe and around the world is the priority for the company in the next few years. This requires maintaining and improving security as parameters shift and threats continue to escalate online. It also means working with industry-leading partners like Trend to ensure that state-of-the-art solutions are continuously driving business growth and innovation.

Technologies

Apex One™ Cloud One – Workload Security Vision One™ with Managed XDR

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.

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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.