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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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HDI Accelerates Development and Delivers Mobility With OutSystems

HDI is one of the premier providers of life insurance and non-life policies in Italy. Looking for new ways to accelerate development, HDI assessed OutSystems, and within just 4 weeks after adopting the platform, the team was able to launch a brand new web app with rapid updates and streamlined interfaces.

"We needed a system that could help our agents process and sell policies more easily—even when they’re out in the field. With OutSystems, we were able to enhance and simplify the UX of our core systems to deliver this."Stefano Fini, CIO, HDI

The Need for Development Speed

Challenge - Like many organizations, HDI had used a set development process for some time. Working in a waterfall structure, the insurance provider built its systems in a combination of .NET and Java.

While this was useful for developing its core systems, HDI’s IT department found that traditional development methods were putting the brakes on development and iteration. More importantly, these tried and tested methods were making it almost impossible to deliver the truly mobile applications that frontline agents and customers were demanding.

To deliver mobile applications—and a more engaging, smoother user experience—to its customers, HDI needed a new approach to software development.

Faster Development in Low-Code

Solution - To find the best solution, the HDI IT team spoke with the insurer’s infrastructure partner Almaviva. Almaviva’s experts suggested that HDI try OutSystems, a low-code platform they had previous experience with.

The HDI development team began testing the OutSystems platform. They quickly became confident that it could help accelerate development times and make it easier to deliver mobile-enabled applications.

Another key benefit was that the OutSystems platform offered a lower barrier to entry than conventional coding languages. With this, the team at HDI was confident that it would be easier to engage and onboard younger programmers as the business grows.

At the same time, the HDI team decided to augment its low-code platform with a new approach to software altogether. By shifting from its existing waterfall workflows to an Agile development methodology, the team looked to respond to user feedback faster than ever before.

"We feel low-code provides a faster development time (and of course faster delivery). It also gives us the opportunity to engage younger programmers. It’s easier to onboard new people without needing to train them in specific skills like Java, .Net, and other high-level languages."Stefano Fini, CIO, HDI

Initially, three developers were allocated to work with OutSystems. They were joined by technical leads from Almaviva, as well as some of the OutSystems team from Portugal. This cross-organizational team began working on a new application to help agencies sell policies on mobile devices.

Called the EasyMob app, the OutSystems-developed application represents the first time HDI has delivered a web-based solution that can be easily accessed on a mobile device. The project broke new ground and empowered agents, and helped train HDI developers in how to get the most out of the OutSystems platform.

An Intuitive Sales App in Just 4 Weeks

Results - While initially hesitant about changing their workflows, the HDI development team quickly became excited about the possibilities enabled by OutSystems. In particular, they appreciated the ability to take control of their own code, from initial development right through to deployment.

Within 4 weeks, the development team had completed the first module of HDI’s new EasyMob app—and delivered a truly mobile-friendly, intuitive web-based platform to agents. With enthusiastic support from within HDI, Stefano Fini, CIO at HDI, is planning to grow the OutSystems development team.

Because OutSystems supports extensive integration through APIs, the HDI development team was able to focus entirely on refining the frontend user experience for EasyMob. The team then left the API to handle integration with HDI’s insurance premium calculation systems.

The launch was a success, with agents enjoying an easy-to-use tool for premium calculations and policy sales. And thanks to HDI’s new agile development approach, the team has been able to rapidly update the EasyMob app since then to incorporate user feedback—and continuously optimize the user experience. Using OutSystems has been a win-win for HDI. Users appreciate rapid updates and more streamlined interfaces. And HDI’s developers enjoy being able to work and deploy faster than ever before thanks to the automation built into the OutSystems platform.

"Our end users have been pleasantly surprised by how quickly we’re able to make improvements to EasyMob. What might have taken a few days in traditional platforms takes half the time for us to do in OutSystems."Stefano Fini, CIO, HDI

In the future, Stefano intends to train more programmers to use the OutSystems platform. This is something he anticipates will be much easier than having to train new coders in traditional development platforms.

And of course, the HDI team intends to continue updating the EasyMob application to better support its users over time.

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