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Welcome to CIONET Belgium

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Belgium 2-9-25 All TRIBERS Virtual english

What Does It Cost to Host an App? ; A practical guide to calculating hosting costs across infra, licenses, and operations

You’ve been asked a simple question: “What does it cost to host this application?” But the answer is anything but simple. The platform sits across multiple data centres. The app spans a few VMs, shares a backup system, uses licensed monitoring, and touches five different teams. Your CMDB should help, but it’s rigid, outdated, or incomplete. And yet, you still need to provide a number, clear, explainable, and grounded in reality.

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Belgium 9-9-25 Squad Only Physical english

Fixing the Data Foundations ; Making data trustworthy, consistent, and ready for action

As Belgium navigates the complexities of GDPR and various data sovereignty regulations, organizations across multiple industries face both challenges and opportunities in managing their data across borders. The quest for compliance often intersects with the need for business growth, raising questions about the balance between protection and progress. How can companies effectively own and safeguard their data while ensuring compliance without stifling innovation and expansion in a multi-industry landscape?

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Belgium 11-9-25 Squad Only Virtual english

Customer Experience at the Frontline ; Designing digital tools that actually work

You’ve built the portal. Added the chatbot. Rolled out self-service. But your support lines are still ringing. And your frontline teams are still improvising. If you want digital services to feel seamless, not just look polished, this session brings you back to where value is felt: at the frontline.

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Upcoming TRIBE Events

 
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September 2, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english

What Does It Cost to Host an App? ; A practical guide to calculating hosting costs across infra, licenses, and operations

The platform sits across multiple data centres. The app spans a few VMs, shares a backup system, uses licensed monitoring, and touches five different teams. Your CMDB should help, but it’s rigid, outdated, or incomplete. And yet, you still need to provide a number, clear, explainable, and grounded in reality.

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September 9, 2025 Squad Session Invitation Only Virtual polish

Talenty w akcji: sekrety pozyskiwania i rozwoju w CIRF

Utrzymanie talentów w organizacji IT ulokowanej na konkurencyjnym rynku pracy to nie lada zadanie. A jeśli do tego mówimy o organizacji z sektora publicznego? O swoich i swojej organizacji doświadczeniach, metodach i programach opowie Anna Wituła z CIRF. Będzie to jak zawsze okazja do dyskusji na temat różnych sposobów na utrzymanie talentów w firmie.

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September 9, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Physical english

Fixing the Data Foundations ; Making data trustworthy, consistent, and ready for action

As Belgium tackles GDPR and data sovereignty rules, organizations face challenges and opportunities in cross-border data management. Balancing compliance with growth raises key questions: How can companies protect and control their data while staying compliant—without blocking innovation and expansion across industries?

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CIONET Partner Updates

CIONET Partner Updates

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Speed ​​for modern signing.

The global sports brand icon PUMA accelerates the signing of contracts with the e-signature solution from Adobe.

Objectives

  • Accelerate signature processes within the global organization
  • Promote more sustainable and economical use of resources
  • Native and intuitive integration into the existing software processes

 

Results

  • Contract sending shortened from several days to an average of a few hours
  • Saving thousands of sheets of paper and CO2 emissions that result from posting contracts
  • Self-explanatory operation in the browser with templates that can be configured quickly

“Whenever we tell other teams at PUMA about Adobe Acrobat Sign, people go: ‘Cool, we want that, too.’” Stefanie Decker - Head of People & Organization Corporate, PUMA SE

Act quickly, shape the future

World affairs are changing at an unprecedented rate: Only companies that stay in motion can react quickly to today and shape tomorrow. As one of the world’s leading sports and lifestyle brands, PUMA has long known this to be true. True to their motto “Forever Faster”, continuous change and environmentally conscious action are firmly anchored strategic priorities. In addition to their growing proportion of sustainable products, this is also reflected in the use of ultra-modern IT and communication processes. With the change from paper and mail to digital signatures, the sports company wants to take on the next hurdle on the road to the future. The electronic signature by Adobe Acrobat Sign helps take them there.

Growing together digitally

The HR department at corporate headquarters recognized the potential of digital document processes even before COVID — and is currently all the more pleased about having a solution that makes work easier, even in these times. “Going paperless is an issue that has been on my mind for a long time," notes Stefanie Decker, Head of People & Organization Corporate at PUMA in Herzogenaurach. “It is neither efficient nor sustainable to keep printing, sending and scanning so many documents. This is currently more true than ever. Adobe Acrobat Sign was exactly the solution we were looking for to take signature processes into the future."

Stefanie Decker’s team is responsible for 1,200 employees across Germany. It handles around 500 contract processes per year. A lot of paper was used for this in the past, some of which had literally traveled around half the globe. A hiring contract for new employees from Chile, for instance, traveled for at least five working days, in a time when an email brings the global organization — represented in 120 countries — together within seconds.

“We chose Adobe Acrobat Sign not only because it turned out to be the most practical and user-friendly solution, but also because Adobe offers the best customer experience.” Stefanie Decker - Head of People & Organization Corporate, PUMA SE

Couldn’t digital communication allow PUMA to grow together just as quickly with legally binding signatures? Stefanie Decker’s team and the global legal department, which is also based in Herzogenaurach, asked themselves this question in autumn 2019 when they discussed proposed solutions with the IT team. They were looking for a tool that could be integrated efficiently and pragmatically into the existing systems, that could be operated intuitively, and that could be followed up by means of a status overview. Equally important: Despite the quickly configurable standard templates, a sense of personal touch shouldn’t be lost either. Personnel expert Decker also attaches great importance to a friendly welcome message for employment contracts that are sent digitally.

“We chose Adobe Acrobat Sign not only because it turned out to be the most practical and user-friendly solution, but also because Adobe offers the best customer experience," explains Stefanie Decker. As a company with a pronounced customer focus, PUMA considers Adobe’s courteous response to questions and needs to be just as important as the function itself.

The pleasant feeling of arriving

Following a three-month pilot phase, Adobe Acrobat Sign has been in regular use in Herzogenaurach since June 2020. Practically every day, 15 authorized signatories send contract documents to applicants, employees and interns, all ready to be signed using the digital signature solution.

After the COVID pandemic began, its use was immediately extended to other necessary signature processes. In the home office, the digital tool creates additional added value. “Although we cannot always be on site like before, in-house double signing hasn’t become more complex thanks to Adobe Acrobat Sign. Especially for candidates from abroad, the swift closing of a deal is an advantage when it comes to giving them the reassuring feeling of having arrived," explains Stefanie Decker.

Wow experience for employees and the environment

After more than a year with Adobe Acrobat Sign, the advantages of the electronic signature solution have become indispensable. Previously, the signature process could take up to six weeks if something went wrong with international mail. Today, such a process is often completed in less than half a working day. “If candidates tell us they accept, we will usually send them the signed contract with Adobe Acrobat Sign within a few hours. Many people say: ‘Wow, I’ve never experienced getting this so fast’," says Stefanie Decker. “We’re just as excited about this as they are. It corresponds perfectly to our understanding of ‘Forever Faster’.”

“If candidates tell us they accept, we will usually send them the signed contract with Adobe Acrobat Sign within a few hours. Many people say: ‘Wow, I’ve never experienced getting this so fast.'” Stefanie Decker - Head of People & Organization Corporate, PUMA SE

The motto of the sports group doesn’t just represent going faster; it also describes saving on resources for later. The environment clearly benefits when the HR department in Herzogenaurach saves thousands of sheets of paper and a significant amount of traffic emission every year with Adobe Acrobat Sign, because it is no longer printing out contracts and attachments that are often more than 25 pages long and sending them by post. In the spirit of “best practice sharing” within the group, word quickly got round about this simple way of increasing speed and sustainability. “Whenever we tell other PUMA teams about Adobe Acrobat Sign, people go: ‘Cool, we want that, too.’”

Reaching a goal, then setting a new one

In addition to the HR and legal departments in Herzogenaurach, PUMA subsidiaries now also use the Adobe signature solution. In total, more than 40 teams at twelve Group locations benefit from the added value of paperless signature processes with Adobe Acrobat Sign. Many more are in the starting blocks. Stefanie Decker also sees even more potential for the digital tool in her own department. She is currently evaluating the use of qualified electronic signature for contract categories that require an even higher level of security. This would enable the digitization of a further 250 signature processes per year — all in order to drive change at PUMA a bit more quickly, and to shape the future in a sustainable way.

Technologies

Adobe Acrobat Sign

Partners

CIONET Circles

CIONET Business Circles

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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?

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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.

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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 !

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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.

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