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Belgium 6-11-25 Invitation Only Physical english

CIONET Round Table: Securing Your Digital Crown Jewels

The modern cyber threat landscape has evolved from simple data breaches to sophisticated, systemic attacks designed to cripple an entire organisation. Ransomware, in particular, has made traditional backup and recovery strategies insufficient, as attackers often compromise backups before launching their main assault. In this new reality, the question is no longer "if" an attack will happen, but "when” and how quickly you can recover. Furthermore, regulations like DORA and NIS2 are making robust recovery a legal imperative, compelling businesses to adopt solutions that can guarantee data integrity and business continuity even after a catastrophic cyber event, making a Cybervault a critical component of regulatory compliance.

Belgium 13-11-25 Country Members Physical english

The New CISO - CIONET Belgium: Community Event

The Role of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) The role of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is no longer confined to securing the network perimeter. As organisations become more digitally connected and data-driven, the CISO’s responsibilities have expanded far beyond traditional security measures. Today’s CISO must not only defend against cyber threats but also enable the business to innovate securely, manage complex regulatory environments, and instill a culture of trust across the organisation. This event will explore the evolving role of the CISO as a strategic leader who balances security with business enablement. As digital transformation accelerates, how can CISOs align their security strategies with organisational goals, ensure compliance, and lead their teams in the fight against increasingly sophisticated threats? Key Discussion Points: From Gatekeeper to Strategic Partner: How CISOs can shift from being seen as barriers to innovation to becoming key enablers of business agility and transformation through security. Balancing Risk and Innovation: Learn how top CISOs navigate the delicate balance between mitigating risk and supporting the organisation’s need to innovate and scale in a secure environment. Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC): Explore how CISOs are managing an increasingly complex regulatory landscape, ensuring compliance while still driving business objectives forward. Building a Security-First Culture: Practical strategies for CISOs to foster a culture where security is embedded into every part of the business, from boardroom discussions to frontline operations. CISO as Crisis Manager: How to prepare for and lead your organisation through major cybersecurity incidents. From ransomware attacks to data breaches, we’ll discuss how today’s CISO is as much a crisis manager as they are a strategist. Why You Should Attend: As a CISO, your role is evolving faster than ever before. This event is designed to provide you with actionable insights into how to embrace your expanded responsibilities while keeping your organisation safe and secure. Whether you’re focused on aligning security with business goals, navigating regulatory challenges, or leading in times of crisis, this event will equip you with the strategies to lead the next era of cybersecurity.

Belgium 18-11-25 Squad Only Physical english

Business Process Driven Architecture ; Designing systems that follow how your organisation actually works

Too often, architecture is drawn top-down, neat boxes, elegant flows, and little connection to the way teams really work. But what if we flipped it? What if our systems evolved from the actual processes, pains, and needs that drive the business? If you’re tired of systems that look good on slides but frustrate in practice, this session will ground the conversation where value is created, at the process level.

November 4, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english

From Backlog to Value ; Prioritising what matters when everything feels urgent

You’ve got a roadmap, a backlog, and a lot of pressure. Every team wants their feature. Every stakeholder claims urgency. And your developers? They just want to deliver something meaningful. But how do you prioritise in a way that serves the business, and keeps the team sane? If your backlog keeps growing and your outcomes stay flat, this session helps you turn intent into value, without losing control.

November 18, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Physical english

Business Process Driven Architecture ; Designing systems that follow how your organisation actually works

November 20, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english

Data Spaces and Digital Trust ; What it takes to collaborate safely across ecosystems

You can’t build a smart service without smart data. And you can’t access smart data without trust. Across Europe, industries are trying to make this work, through data spaces, standardisation, and new governance frameworks. But progress is slow. If you’re part of a sector with potential for shared intelligence, but stuck in silos, this session will challenge assumptions and explore practical pathways.

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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

Technologies

Microsoft Power BI

Partners

CIONET Business Circles

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.