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Belgium 01-10-2026 Squad Only Virtual english

Letting Teams Build Safely with Low-Code, No-Code, and AI Tools. ; How to enable business-led development while keeping security, architecture, and support under control.

Low-code, no-code, and AI tools are giving business teams more ability to build solutions themselves. The challenge is setting the right boundaries before fast local solutions become important operational assets. Three pressure points need attention. - Boundaries must be clear: teams need to know what they can build alone and what requires IT, security, or architecture review. - Supportability matters when a quick solution becomes business-critical. - Risk control remains necessary around data access, compliance, security, process dependency, and maintenance. The working question is simple: how do we enable business-led development while keeping security, ownership, and support under control? If you are trying to enable this safely, let’s compare approaches with others facing the same balance.

Belgium 06-10-2026 All Members Physical english

The Token Trap: Reclaiming Control of Enterprise AI

As enterprise AI transitions from experimental Proofs of Concept (POCs) into real implementations, digital leaders are encountering a shared challenge: consumption-based public cloud token billing models do not fit neatly into traditional IT budgeting. Daily token consumption can rise unexpectedly, pushing expenses through the roof while arbitrary caps quickly kill momentum for innovation. For many CIOs, this raises an open strategic question: How do we keep costs under control while further stimulating innovation? During this interactive CIONET roundtable, we will explore among peers how to navigate AI tokenomics. Rather than treating public cloud LLMs as the default path, we will investigate how different execution environments, ranging from hybrid cloud setups and targeted on-premise models to specialised edge hardware, can help balance cost with performance. This session is intentionally designed as an open peer-to-peer exchange; a space to compare notes, challenge current ways of working and architectural setups, and discuss practical approaches to building predictable, scalable AI models.

Belgium 08-10-2026 All Members Physical english

The Permanent (R)evolution

Every large organisation has been through a major transformation, and most through several. The word transformation is misleading because it suggests a beginning and an end. But organisations that do well are the ones that have given up on the idea of arriving and realise that constant change has become the new norm, and missing a single cycle leaves you permanently behind. This evening, two leaders will share how they think about this, coming from opposite directions. John Porter led Telenet through a sustained period of reinvention spanning the pandemic, a full reorganisation into tribes, M&A, and a shift to a performance driven culture. Along the way, the IT department was dissolved and technology was embedded inside autonomous tribes that run as small businesses. There is no CIO at Telenet. It is Telenet Group’s purpose to become a digital-first, customer-centric organisation. To deliver on this ambition, it has embarked on a transformation journey built on three pillars: (i) the implementation of a scaled-agile operating model (organisation), (ii) the acceleration of digitisation and automation underpinned by optimised IT systems, platforms, and strategic technology partnerships (digitisation), and (iii) a performance leadership culture focused on accountability, ownership, and a change mindset (culture). Kris Vervaet, on the other hand, has just become CIO at KBC, the bank whose mobile app has been ranked best in the world three times and whose AI assistant Kate now handles 70% of customer queries on its own. But Kris is no ordinary CIO: he ran DPG Media Belgium as CEO, and KBC went looking for someone who has led transformation rather than someone who manages technology. So while one organisation got rid of the CIO role, the other reinvented it, and both are thriving. The conversation will range across organisational and IT redesign, the rise of digital-first customer experience, the impact of AI on how every business is run, and the harder questions of culture, talent and leadership. The question for every leader in the room is what that tells you about your own role, your own operating model, and the pace at which you are prepared to keep evolving.

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Duvel Moortgat Delivers 7 Portals and 2 Mobile Apps 4x Faster

Belgian brewer Duvel Moortgat brews and distributes numerous beer brands globally from its 11 breweries. The company needs slick digital systems to support its distribution channels. Since 2018, the brewer has used OutSystems to lessen the load on its small IT department.

“OutSystems eliminates lots of development toil so developers can focus on delivering business value instead of repetitive coding. We now deliver enhancements in one to two weeks instead of one to two months. So, our business can respond much more dynamically to market requirements.” - Wesly Van CleempoelIT Manager, Duvel Moortgat

Challenge

How to Reduce the Maintenance Overhead for Web and Mobile Applications?

Family-controlled Belgian brewer Duvel Moortgat has produced its flagship beer, Duvel, since 1871 and now brews and distributes eleven beer brands globally. Although renowned for its traditional craftsmanship, sales and distribution increasingly depend on modern digital experiences.

The company’s back-office systems include Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Salesforce CRM. In 2017, the company developed a sales order portal to support distributors and customers. That experience led the company to look for a modern application development approach, as Wesly Van Cleempoel, IT Manager at Duvel Moortgat, explains.

“In the past, we used traditional development and front-end frameworks like Angular. Development was slow, too costly, and we had a huge maintenance overhead to keep these web apps updated and secure. We looked at low-code to lessen this burden.” -Wesly Van CleempoelIT Manager, Duvel Moortgat

At the same time, the company started its first mobile application development projects. “We encountered the same problem,” said Wesly. “It was a constantly moving target, with new devices, new operating system versions. We spent far too much of our development budget on maintenance and testing rather than enhancements.”

With more apps and portals in the backlog, Duvel Moortgat had to find a more efficient approach to custom application development. Wesly’s team investigated three low-code platforms. They quickly eliminated one as too lightweight. The brewer selected OutSystems as its favored low-code platform following a detailed evaluation.

“We felt OutSystems gave us the most flexibility and open standards,” says Wesly. “The alternative that we considered would have locked us into proprietary technology. Ultimately, we chose OutSystems not just based on our technical evaluation but the quality of its local delivery partner, Providit.”

Why Duvel Moortgat chose OutSystems:

Speed-up development and improve agility
Deliver customer-facing apps
No lock-in, open standards-based platform

Solution

Seven Portals and Two Mobile Apps Delivered

Working side-by-side with a single developer from Providit, Duvel Moortgat’s small development team quickly mastered rapid visual development with OutSystems.

“Our developers like OutSystems as it takes away a lot of the repetitive toil,” says Wesly. “Instead of needing to code yet another log-in screen or permissions framework, they can quickly drag and drop reusable components and modules. And the built-in DevOps capabilities mean you can publish in an instant to demonstrate and test much more easily.”

Although its first portal wasn’t much faster for Duvel Moortgat to develop, Wesly says, “We learned a huge amount in the process, so every subsequent development was faster. But the important thing is the time saved beyond go-live. Enhancements are much faster to deliver, testing is less onerous, and security patching is automatic with updates via the OutSystems Cloud.”

A central aspect of the portal is a customized content management system. This makes it quick and easy for Duvel Moortgat to add new product and branding collateral to the portal. Crucially, the content management features also localize what is shown to customers in different markets, such as different product and packaging labels and contact details.

Since 2019, the brewer has delivered five sales portals, a safety portal, and a complaints portal. The safety portal and one of its sales order portals have accompanying mobile apps. As its OutSystems application portfolio has grown, the cost-effectiveness and speed of delivery have continually risen.

“OutSystems has made app development much more sustainable. Without OutSystems, our small development team would have no time to deliver new features. We’d just be chasing our tail with maintenance chores and need a bigger team just to do that." Wesly Van CleempoelIT Manager, Duvel Moortgat

An example of the team’s improved responsiveness was the delivery of predictive order suggestions into its distributor’s portal. “We delivered this new capability in just a few days,” says Wesly. “This involved integrating CRM and ERP data to build a unique solution. The distributor’s portal now offers predictive order suggestions for thousands of bars across Belgium, improving customer experience and driving more sales for Duvel Moortgat.”

Technologies

Outsystems

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