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Belgium 10-3-26 All Members Physical english

The Composable Enterprise: Engineered with AI

From modular business design to AI-driven pipelines, architectures, and operationsA composable enterprise is built on modular processes, API-driven ecosystems, low-code platforms, and cloud-native services. It promises speed and adaptability by allowing organisations to reconfigure their capabilities as conditions change. However, modular design alone does not guarantee resilience; the way these systems are engineered and operated is just as important.This is where AI is beginning to make a difference. Beyond generating snippets of code, AI is already influencing how entire systems are developed and run: accelerating CI/CD pipelines, improving test coverage, optimising Infrastructure-as-Code, sharpening observability, and even shaping architectural decisions. These changes directly affect how quickly new business components can be deployed, connected, and retired.In this session, we will examine how CIOs can bring these two movements together:Composable design is the framework for flexibility and modularity.AI-augmented engineering is the force that delivers the speed, quality, and intelligence needed to sustain it.The pitfalls of treating them in isolation: composability that collapses under slow engineering cycles, or AI that only adds complexity without a modular structure.The discussion goes beyond concepts to practical implications: how to architect organisations that can be recomposed at speed, without losing control or reliability. The outcome is an enterprise that is not only modular in design but also engineered to adapt continuously under real-world conditions.

Belgium 12-3-26 Physical english

The Third-Party Risk Reckoning: How far can you trust your vendors?

Tomato! Tomato! Tomato! Get your tomato now! Every vendor sells security. And every company depends on vendors, partners, and suppliers. The more digital the business becomes, the longer that list grows, and so does the attack surface. One weak link, and there is always one, or one missed update, and trust collapses faster than any firewall can react. What used to be a procurement checklist has become a full-time discipline. Questionnaires, audits, and endless documentation prove that everyone’s “compliant,” yet incidents keep happening. So it’s clear: the issue isn’t lack of policy, or maybe a bit, but mostly lack of visibility. Beyond a certain point, even the most secure organisation is only as safe as its least prepared partner (or an employee who hadn’t had their morning coffee). So how far can you trust your vendors? How do you check what you can’t control? And when does assurance become theatre instead of protection? Does it come at a different cost? Let’s exchange what works and what fails in third-party risk management: live monitoring, shared responsibility models, contractual levers, and the reality of building trust in a chain you don’t own. A closed conversation for those redefining what partnership means when risk is shared but accountability isn’t.

Belgium 19-3-26 Country Members Physical french

Vendor Detox: La consolidation vaut-elle le risque ?

Moins de Partenaires : La consolidation vaut-elle le risque ? Le problème est la prolifération des fournisseurs : trop d'outils causant de la complexité, une taxe d'intégration paralysante et de la redondance. La Taxe d'Intégration est le coût caché (en temps, en échecs et en ressources) d'essayer de faire fonctionner ensemble des systèmes disparates. Cet échange se concentre sur des stratégies éprouvées pour simplifier de manière agressive le parc technologique, consolider les fournisseurs et élever certains fournisseurs clés au rang de partenaires stratégiques.

March 12, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

The Third-Party Risk Reckoning: How far can you trust your vendors?

March 24, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

Killing Zombie Projects: Knowing when to stop, restart, or quietly let go

Every organisation has them, projects that keep running long after their purpose has faded. No one remembers who asked for them, but shutting them down feels riskier than keeping them alive. And eventually, people stay assigned, budgets stay allocated, and energy drains into work that no longer matters. Inertia at its finest.

March 26, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

Measuring Value in AI Initiatives: Defining ROI, accountability, and measurable outcomes in complex environments

AI projects continue to multiply, but proving their value remains difficult. Most organisations can track activity, not impact. Dashboards count pilots and models, yet few translate to measurable business outcomes. The result is familiar: success stories without clarity on what they actually delivered.

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Facilitating Better Business Decisions with Azure

Facq is a Belgian provider of sanitation, heating and renewable energy distribution services for the construction sector. The company wanted to make better decisions based on the right data. To do this, they partnered with element61 and built a business intelligence platform based on Microsoft Azure.

As the IT and Quality Director at Facq, Nicolas Van Caster faced an interesting challenge. He wanted to develop a business insights solution that empowered the company’s point-of-sale (POS) team leaders — without removing any of their accountability to make decisions. In short, he wanted to gather more targeted insights from the data available to these leaders and enable the data-driven mindset that Facq has championed throughout its 140-year history.

To meet this goal — and set his company up for future success — Nicolas partnered with element61, a data analytics provider and Microsoft Advanced Specialization Partner based in Belgium. Together, the companies have developed a business insights tool powered by Microsoft Azure.

We needed a solution that could help our point-of-sale leaders make the right decisions at the right time. Azure and PowerBI facilitates that by bringing the data to where it’s needed in real time.

Nicolas Van Caster: IT and Quality Director - Facq

The need for a practical solution

Facq is a Belgium-based provider of sanitary, heating, and renewable energies distribution for professionals in the construction sector. They operate a B2B model, serving installers and plumbers across the country through 46 points of sale, 16 showrooms, and three warehouses.

Across this significant sales network, one of the biggest challenges was managing stock and inventory at each point of sale.

Up until recently, the company’s POS team leaders would receive monthly reports from the head office with various data points around their inventory levels — and it was up to them to review these reports and make decisions from them. However, there were three primary challenges with this model:

There was too much data. POS team leaders would receive over 100 pages of data, and would have to sift through them all to get a clear picture of what was going on.
The data was (often) too late. As the reports came at the end of every month, there were times where POS team leaders would be told about low inventory levels when it was too late to mitigate the impact on consumers.
The data was not targeted enough. In the 100 pages of data, there was no clear indication as to which data point indicated a problem that needed addressing.

Instead of this fairly unstructured approach, Van Caster and his team realised that they needed a cloud-based solution that could help them deliver more actionable insights — and someone that could help them build it. That’s where element61 and Microsoft Azure came in.

Facilitating data-driven decision making

Together with the team at element61, Facq has developed a business insights platform that empowers their POS team leaders. They started by establishing performance and operational indicators, understanding that while the first helps identify problem areas, the second is key for identifying the potential solution to that problem.

They then built the platform using a modern data platform approach, powered by Azure. At the front-end, users engage with a Microsoft Power BI dashboard that’s easy to use and simple to understand. This was not a one-and-done process. For Van Caster and element61, iteration and collaboration with the end users was key. As such, the build process was made up of various two-week sprints, where they requested feedback and inputs from the POS team leaders and other key stakeholders. This level of collaboration gave these employees a sense of ownership of the product before it was even fully deployed.

Today, POS team leaders have access to a simplified dashboard that surfaces the right data at the right time, giving them the information they need to replenish stock in a proactive manner. Not only does it present problems that need addressing, it also automatically provides the suggested steps needed to remedy those problems. For these employees, the change has given them more ownership and accountability for making decisions that improve how the business operates.

In addition, the company is also seeing benefits at the business level. Now, when competitors don’t have enough inventory, installers and plumbers are turning to Facq, driving up sales and revenue as a result. Plus, each POS is able to be more agile in responding to seasonal fluctuations in demand, which are common in the construction sector. It’s a true testament of how connecting the dots between operational performance and business strategies can deliver true value.

Where Facq goes next

The business insights solution has become an important tool for Facq’s POS team leaders — but the team isn’t stopping there. According to Van Caster, Facq and element61 are currently working on expanding the cloud-based solution for their warehouse teams to show them real-time KPIs in a centralised dashboard. Even further ahead, the team plans to find ways to adopt automation and machine learning capabilities to optimise operations, while still empowering their employees with ownership and accountability.

From the very beginning, element61 showed initiative in wanting to know our business. When we discussed performance and operational indicators, they asked us to show them what that looked like in practice — and that’s the kind of partner we needed for this project. - Nicolas Van Caster: IT and Quality Director Facq

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Healthcare Circle

Digital Transformation is redefining the future of health care and health delivery. All stakeholders are convinced that these innovations will create value for patients, healthcare practitioners, hospitals, and governments along the patient pathway. The benefits are starting from prevention and awareness to diagnosis, treatment, short- and long-term follow-up, and ultimately survival. But how do you make sure that your working towards an architecturally sound, secure and interoperable health IT ecosystem for your hospital and avoid implementing a hodgepodge of spot solutions? How does your IT department work together with the other stakeholders, such as the doctors and other healthcare practitioners, Life Sciences companies, Tech companies, regulators and your internal governance and administrative bodies?

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.