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 MoreMercedes-Benz Financial Services Portugal Digitally Transforms Complaints Management
Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Portugal, working with OutSystems partner ForTrevo, the company expanded its OutSystems-based customer portal with an integrated complaints management system, delivered within four weeks.
“Delivering a new complaints management system on OutSystems was a no-brainer given our situation. Delivery was much faster, especially as we could reuse the integration middleware from our OutSystems-powered customer portal.” - Renato SilvaCIO, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Portugal
The operations department is the “engine room” of Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Portugal, as it’s the primary touchpoint throughout the customer lifecycle. Whether that’s onboarding customers, handling finance or insurance options, or resolving incidents or complaints, the 20 colleagues in operations are custodians of the customer experience.
In 2011, when Renato Silva joined Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Portugal as IT manager, he inherited a monolithic customer and contract management system (“CMS”), which was hard to change. Waterfall implementation methods added risk and delay to improvements.
To improve the customer experience, the company needed a customer self-service portal to unify communications and provide a 360-degree view of customer interactions. Based on his previous experience before joining Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, Renato knew that OutSystems would perfectly suit this portal project.
“I was confident that OutSystems would improve our agility by making development faster and easier. Moreover, there are ample OutSystems partners and consultants we can call on.” - Renato SilvaCIO, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Portugal
Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Portugal became an OutSystems customer in 2012 and delivered the first version of its customer portal in three months.
“We were ahead of our time,” says Renato. “The capabilities we provided were superior to any other car manufacturer’s financial services operation, and thanks to regular enhancements, the portal is still going strong ten years later.”
However, with a limited budget to extend the portal, the related area of complaints management remained out of scope for several years. Teresa Santos, operations director, takes up the story.
“As a financial services and insurance provider, certain complaints can quickly escalate if not responded to within strict deadlines. If the Bank of Portugal or the Portuguese insurance regulator becomes involved, the administrative effort and cost to resolve complaints climb steeply. So our old process, which relied on manual emails, a shared inbox, and a fragile spreadsheet, was a significant risk." - Teresa SantosOperations Director, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Portugal
The pandemic crisis added considerable workload to the operations team, with economic strain fueling more complaints and increasing the risk of process and compliance failure.
The complexity of Mercedes-Benz’s complaints handling process placed a considerable training burden on the operations team. That and slow processing meant three operations team members worked full-time just managing complaints.
In late 2020, the operations team decided to overhaul the complaints management process with a digital solution integrated into its customer portal.
Over the previous three years, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Portugal had used OutSystems Delivery Partner ForTrevo to enhance and extend the customer portal. “ForTrevo understands our business and is much easier to work with than other IT suppliers we’ve used before,” says Teresa. “Nowadays, they know us so well that they often anticipate things we need before we’ve thought of them.”
With such a successful working relationship, ForTrevo was the natural partner to deliver the complaints management solution.
“Building the complaints management solution on OutSystems was the obvious way forward. We needed to integrate customer and contract data into the new application. And as we’d used OutSystems to build the middleware that connected the portal with our CMS, we could reuse all that development when building the complaints management system." - Renato SilvaCIO, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Portugal
Once the operations team and a solution architect from the IT team had scoped-out requirements, ForTrevo assigned one junior developer to build out the solution. A tech lead also assisted in the final stages of the project.
The complaints management solution was delivered in six weeks, including development, UAT, and deployment. “This was a big-bang deployment,” explains Joana Mourão, Tech Lead at ForTrevo. “The whole solution was released in the first deployment, with only minor enhancements needed since.”
ForTrevo's team designs and develops innovative web, reactive & mobile applications, using OutSystems platform. Our team of Certified OutSystems Developers is strongly skilled and committed to...
Learn more about ForTrevoThe complaints management solution went live in April 2021, with immediate benefits for customers, operations staff, and management.
Complaints are now fully managed in a built-for-purpose case management portal, which has replaced the shared inbox, tracker spreadsheet, and incident management system.
Now, the portal tracks all communication, and manually composed emails are a thing of the past. Case stages make the end-to-end process entirely measurable, with enforceable SLAs and alerts which cater for different complaint categories. This has eliminated the risk of regulatory concerns arising from human errors, missed emails, or spreadsheet glitches.
Managers benefit from detailed performance metrics presented in the portal’s dashboard. These include complaint cases at each process stage, SLA monitoring, average resolution time, and much more.
“Our new complaints portal drives like an AMG supercar. It’s fast and provides a brilliant user experience. It makes my job much easier, which leads to a better experience for our customers." - Susana SantosContract Management Specialist, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Portugal
The improved ease of use has positively impacted operations, as Teresa explains. “Now everything is in one place, and the UI is consistent with the customer portal, it’s much easier to train staff to manage complaints. So staff rostering is much more flexible.”
Integration with the CMS and customer portal deliver numerous other benefits:
Measurable performance improvements include:
Moreover, the complaints management system supports Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Portugal’s continuous improvement program. Now that the operations team has complete visibility of each complaint’s lifecycle, they can see where delays have occurred and raise process improvement proposals whenever needed.
The complaints process closes with a customer survey, so customer feedback enriches Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Portugal’s continuous improvement program.
Describing the difference that OutSystems makes to his team, Renato says, “OutSystems helps us work in a more agile way. For example, the built-in feedback facility used in our development and UAT environments shortens the feedback loop, so we can quickly make last-minute adjustments.”
Teresa agrees, “UAT is much easier and faster on OutSystems. I used the feedback feature a great deal when refining the dashboard UI, and ForTrevo’s developers implemented changes on the fly.”
139 Views 0 Likes Read More
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!