Belgium 23-9-25 Squad Only Virtual english
Security teams are overwhelmed. Too many tools. Too many alerts. Too few people. And now, increasing pressure from the board to protect everything, everywhere, all the time. Expect honest reflection, shared strategies, and a conversation that cuts through compliance noise and focuses on what to do when your team is stretched and your risk is rising.
Read MoreBelgium 23-9-25 Invitation Only Physical english
In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, the financial services industry in Belgium faces a critical juncture regarding its cloud adoption strategy. While the allure of cloud computing – with its promise of scalability, agility, and innovation – is undeniable, the unique regulatory demands and paramount need for data sovereignty present significant challenges. This CIONET roundtable, aims to bring together Digital Leaders from the Belgian financial sector to discuss how to navigate these complexities. We will explore how financial institutions can leverage cloud technologies while ensuring complete control over their data, maintaining compliance with stringent European regulations like GDPR and DORA, and mitigating geopolitical risks.
Read MoreBelgium 24-9-25 Invitation Only Physical english
As smart devices proliferate across operational environments — from sensors on factory lines and GPS trackers in logistics fleets to wearables in healthcare and connected systems in smart cities — the integration of Managed IoT (MiOT) is accelerating. But with it comes a surge in cybersecurity risks. No longer isolated or air-gapped, OT systems are becoming fully networked, remotely accessible, and deeply entwined with IT. This creates a vulnerable, highly complex digital mesh, one where a single compromised device can trigger physical, financial, and reputational consequences.
Read MoreSeptember 23, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english
Security teams are overwhelmed. Too many tools. Too many alerts. Too few people. And now, increasing pressure from the board to protect everything, everywhere, all the time. Expect honest reflection, shared strategies, and a conversation that cuts through compliance noise and focuses on what to do when your team is stretched and your risk is rising.
Read MoreSeptember 30, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english
Everyone has technical debt. The question is what to do with it. Refactor now? Wait for the next feature? Build on it and hope it holds? If you’re tired of debating whether to clean up or move on, this session helps you frame the debt conversation in a way that supports both speed and stability.
Read MoreOctober 2, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english
Architecture doesn’t happen in diagrams. It happens in minds, seasoned, curious, sharp minds that understand how the pieces fit. But who’s shaping these minds? Who’s growing the next generation of digital architects? If you’re responsible for complex systems, and for the people designing them, this session is for you.
Read MoreToyota Motor Europe: Building a happier workplace by putting people first
The name Toyota has long been synonymous with innovation and excellence, known across the world for pushing boundaries and pioneering new ways of thinking. The hybrid workplace has become a reality and Toyota Motor Europe is using the Microsoft 365 suite of tools to usher in not only new ways of working, but a new way of thinking too.
Since it was established in 1937, Toyota has become a household name across the world and a byword for quality, efficiency and innovation in car manufacturing space. More recently, that space has expanded into mobility more broadly.
Its European arm, Toyota Motor Europe (TME) is headquartered in Belgium and operates in 29 European countries, employing some 25,000 people. “We have over 69 nationalities working in TME, so it’s a very international company,” says Slabbinck.
“Organizationally too, there are different cultures,” she adds. “You have the sales area where there is a specific culture, and then the manufacturing plants where there is a huge emphasis on efficiency. It's great to have these different mentalities, this diversity; gender-wise, nationality-wise, but also organizationally. That's what makes it really interesting to work here.”
Slabbinck’s Business Productivity team focuses on supporting employees across the TME network to embrace new ways of working, especially how they use digital tools. “Our team mission is to increase user adoption of the Microsoft 365 digital workplace,” she explains. That user adoption spans the whole suite of Microsoft 365 tools, including Teams, SharePoint and Outlook.
But the adoption approach isn’t just using tech for tech’s sake. “One of the key principles that drives our approach is including the user voice,” she says.
“We really try to get close to our users, and bridge the human gap,” she adds. “I’d say we’re pioneers in that.”
Using digital tools to enhance productivity and collaboration is not a new pursuit for Toyota. The company was an early adopter of cloud-based tools and was already planning to move to something akin to a hybrid workplace in 2019.
“The company had just announced we would be working remotely two days a week,” recalls Slabbinck. “So we were busy preparing for that, getting everything in place, when COVID-19 happened.”
What had previously been a strategic decision to embrace remote working, suddenly became a necessity. “We had daily crisis meetings because we weren't too sure what was going to happen,” she recalls. “We'd never had that many people working from home before.”
And while the early days were focused on ensuring firewalls could support the new setup and the basics were covered, the team quickly turned their attention to the wellbeing of TME employees. “We did regular surveys together with HR on how people were feeling using Microsoft Forms,” Slabbinck says. “And the surveys were about more than just IT. We used smiley faces for people to tell us how they were feeling, how happy they were. It was very important for us to understand that in the beginning.
The team also realized that there was much more openness to some of the tools. “There had been some resistance pre-pandemic to SharePoint and even Teams. But suddenly, people changed their mindset and realized how useful they are. It gave us a lot of momentum to drive user adoption.
“That was when we started to do some really interesting things with our partner Rapid Circle,” she adds. “In our plants, for example, it was crucial during the pandemic to keep the presence on the shopfloor. Through Teams video meetings on a mobile phone with a stabilizer, the meeting attendees felt like they were on the shopfloor, even if they weren’t.
“And we found that the live Teams meetings with video enabled faster sharing of best practices to a larger audience, so it was even an improvement from before.”
The team at TME had already established a strategy to encourage user adoption of Microsoft 365 tools before the pandemic happened.
“The strategy had a few important pillars,” explains Slabbinck. “One of those was ‘digital influencers’. The influencers existed before COVID, but they weren’t particularly active,” says Michiel Dröge, Business Consultant at Microsoft partner Rapid Circle. “So that was one of the areas we wanted to improve.”
To do this, they used Microsoft SharePoint to establish a broader community. “We established the Know It community, a portal on Teams and SharePoint where people can find key information about the Microsoft 365 tools with FAQ's and videos,” says Slabbinck. “It’s a space for employees to ask questions and for our digital influencers to contribute and guide people.”
“We used Microsoft reporting tools to look at data from users and the influencers, to think of ways to enhance engagement,” says Dröge. “That’s how we came up with the webinar program, and got the insights to improve some of the sites where we publish information.”
“One webinar series was focused on My Analytics, which we launched during the pandemic,” says Katarzyna Slomka, Business Productivity Specialist at TME, who led the webinar series. “There was that need to support people to focus their time, to understanding their own working style.
“We made everything clearer for people, more streamlined,” adds Dröge. “And that is helping people to start to use new tools. Many employees have started using Teams together with Planner, for example. And they’re finding that Planner really helps them to visualize their tasks and work in a new, more agile way.”
An important aspect of the way that Toyota Motor Europe is using technology, is seeing it not in isolation, but as part of a wider organizational transformation. “There are a lot of initiatives that Toyota has been doing that are connected to IT support,” says Dröge. “But we want to relate them to broader HR themes around change management, to focus on really making people happier and secure with their workplace and supporting them to collaborate in better ways.”
“We are transforming from a car company to a Digital Mobility provider,” says Kylie Jimenez, Senior Vice President of People, Technology and Corporate Affairs at Toyota Motor Europe.
“This transformation is about creating products, systems and services to produce mass happiness for all. Not just for Toyota customers, but for the good of society. While some of this is hardwired into Toyota DNA, there is an aspect of cultural transformation that is still required.
“This has brought our IT&D, HR and Administrative functions closer to focus on collaboration, open sharing and innovation. Together we aim to inspire and enable the change for the organization by painting a picture of what is possible and then enabling it with the right digital workplace tools and resources.”
And as the company pivots to a new era, it is keen to invite its employees to redefine how the changing working environment can improve and facilitate the way the company collaborates. Ideas are being called for on how meeting rooms are refurbished and a series of workshops has been organized to ‘hack the future of collaboration at TME.’ The best ideas gathered from the workshops will be pitched to senior staff at TME and funded, as the company transitions to a new way of working that straddles physical and virtual spaces.
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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?
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreDécouvrez 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 !
Read MoreCIONET 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.
Read MoreWould you like to know more about CIONET Belgium, membership or partnership opportunities? Do you have feedback or any other question? Send us a message!
You can either send us a registered handwritten letter explaining why you'd like to become a member or you can simply talk to us right here!