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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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National Express drives into the future with webMethods.io Integration in the cloud

National Express UK is a leading British public transport operator with bus and coach services. It is part of Mobico Group, which operates in 12 countries and its 51,000 employees help millions of people get to work, to their loved ones, and beyond—safely, and on time—365 days a year.

New Challenges

Need for an omnichannel approach
Dynamic pricing and consistent travel options
Third-party, integrated journeys and sales
Creating a unified Mobility-as-a-Service with API

Key Benefits

Integrated all systems for a single source of truth
Built reusable microservices and rich APIs
Scaled new cloud-powered revenue by 1600% in one year
Increased website revenue from 60% to 80%
Prepared for Mobility-as-a-Service

Software AG Solutions

webMethods.io Integration and API Management

“Mobility-as-a-Service is the future, and we intend to be in the driver’s seat. We value the genuine partnership with Software AG that is helping make our journey possible.”

- Alan Brooks | CTO | Mobico Group

"One platform" for every journey

Since its founding in 1972, National Express UK has embraced technological innovation both online and off. As a result, the company’s website was already driving 60% of group revenue by 2013. However, being in the fast lane online while also having legacy kiosks, on-transport operator sales and call centers, led to disparate systems, siloed data, and vendor solutions that required a workaround approach to communicate.

“Aside from increasing costs and complexity from running half a dozen walled-off systems,” says Alan Brooks, CTO, Mobico Group, “the most troubling part was that a customer not only saw drastically different, non-targeted prices across channels, but he or she actually encountered different routes and journeys depending on the channel. That was a major problem.”

The solution? Build fully integrated, omni-channel capabilities. The way to do it? With webMethods.io Integration — on-premises and in the cloud.

By creating what Brooks and his team nicknamed ”one platform” internally, National Express unified its data and integrated it across all channels to deliver targeted, dynamic pricing and consistent, seamless journey options that not only made customers smile—but boosted third-party integrated revenue by as much as 16x in just one year.

The secret ingredient

“Software AG and webMethods.io Integration are absolutely the glue that brings it all together for us,” says Brooks.

For instance, in the coach business at National Express in the UK, logic for rules governing customer journeys, price ladders, price points and more is embedded in microservices, with webMethods supporting rich APIs so that everything is built on a fully-integrated, unified foundation. These microservices are highly reusable across all channels and capacities. So once a payments microservice was developed for the web—it could also be used in kiosks, call centers and everywhere else that National Express accepts customer payments.

But reusability doesn’t end there. Beyond its coach business, National Express is responsible for the overwhelming majority of urban bus trips in the UK’s West Midlands, buses and coaches for Premier League matches and special accessibility transportation, so everybody has access to mobility no matter their physical situation.

Cloud super-scaling

“Our industry advantage as one of the first users of webMethods in the cloud was huge,” says Brooks. “Easy, flexible, fast cloud-based scalability opened a major new channel for us to offer exclusive coach journeys directly via the largest online retailer of train tickets in the UK, seamlessly with their own journeys. Since we didn’t know what kind of volume we’d encounter, the cloud was the way to go.”

Best of all, webMethods.io Integration in the cloud has made it possible for National Express to keep adding new vendors and expanding across borders. Our integration to transport aggregation platforms has enabled travelers from Europe to purchase our services easily before they even leave the house, all thanks to webMethods and its cloud-based, super-scaling ability.

Mobility-as-a-Service

A single smart-card, ticket or app powering any form of local transportation in a seamless experience is the future of urban and regional transportation. And instead of waiting for a Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform to come to National Express, letting someone else shape how it looks—the company is harnessing webMethods to build its own MaaS platform, providing APIs other transportation companies can integrate.

Not only does this ensure that National Express doesn’t have to rely on someone else’s timelines, but it gives the company powerful access to data that can drive critical decisions in the future.

“Mobility-as-a-Service is the future, and we intend to be in the driver’s seat,” says Brooks, “but the truth is that such an agile, flexible, forward-looking approach is only possible when you’re working with a real partner, not just another vendor. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to look at alternatives, but what keeps me coming back to Software AG is our partnership. It’s something you cannot buy.”

Technologies

Software AG API management - WEBMETHODS.IO Software AG Application Integration - WEBMETHODS.IO

Partners

CIONET Business Circles

Cyber Circle

CIONET’s Cyber Circle: a new three-event programme exclusively focusing on the most urgent, complex, and high-impact challenges in cybersecurity today. Launched in 2026, this initiative brings together CISOs, CIOs, and senior IT executives with a strong interest in cybersecurity for three curated gatherings each year. As part of CIONET’s trusted executive community, the Cyber Circle provides a confidential, peer-driven environment to exchange insights, share real-world experiences, and address evolving cyber threats. Each session is designed to foster strategic dialogue, strengthen resilience, and elevate cybersecurity as a core driver of business value.

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.

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 !

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.