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Belgium 10-3-26 All Members Physical english

The Composable Enterprise: Engineered with AI

From modular business design to AI-driven pipelines, architectures, and operationsA composable enterprise is built on modular processes, API-driven ecosystems, low-code platforms, and cloud-native services. It promises speed and adaptability by allowing organisations to reconfigure their capabilities as conditions change. However, modular design alone does not guarantee resilience; the way these systems are engineered and operated is just as important.This is where AI is beginning to make a difference. Beyond generating snippets of code, AI is already influencing how entire systems are developed and run: accelerating CI/CD pipelines, improving test coverage, optimising Infrastructure-as-Code, sharpening observability, and even shaping architectural decisions. These changes directly affect how quickly new business components can be deployed, connected, and retired.In this session, we will examine how CIOs can bring these two movements together:Composable design is the framework for flexibility and modularity.AI-augmented engineering is the force that delivers the speed, quality, and intelligence needed to sustain it.The pitfalls of treating them in isolation: composability that collapses under slow engineering cycles, or AI that only adds complexity without a modular structure.The discussion goes beyond concepts to practical implications: how to architect organisations that can be recomposed at speed, without losing control or reliability. The outcome is an enterprise that is not only modular in design but also engineered to adapt continuously under real-world conditions.

Belgium 12-3-26 Physical english

The Third-Party Risk Reckoning: How far can you trust your vendors?

Tomato! Tomato! Tomato! Get your tomato now! Every vendor sells security. And every company depends on vendors, partners, and suppliers. The more digital the business becomes, the longer that list grows, and so does the attack surface. One weak link, and there is always one, or one missed update, and trust collapses faster than any firewall can react. What used to be a procurement checklist has become a full-time discipline. Questionnaires, audits, and endless documentation prove that everyone’s “compliant,” yet incidents keep happening. So it’s clear: the issue isn’t lack of policy, or maybe a bit, but mostly lack of visibility. Beyond a certain point, even the most secure organisation is only as safe as its least prepared partner (or an employee who hadn’t had their morning coffee). So how far can you trust your vendors? How do you check what you can’t control? And when does assurance become theatre instead of protection? Does it come at a different cost? Let’s exchange what works and what fails in third-party risk management: live monitoring, shared responsibility models, contractual levers, and the reality of building trust in a chain you don’t own. A closed conversation for those redefining what partnership means when risk is shared but accountability isn’t.

Belgium 19-3-26 Country Members Physical french

Vendor Detox: La consolidation vaut-elle le risque ?

Moins de Partenaires : La consolidation vaut-elle le risque ? Le problème est la prolifération des fournisseurs : trop d'outils causant de la complexité, une taxe d'intégration paralysante et de la redondance. La Taxe d'Intégration est le coût caché (en temps, en échecs et en ressources) d'essayer de faire fonctionner ensemble des systèmes disparates. Cet échange se concentre sur des stratégies éprouvées pour simplifier de manière agressive le parc technologique, consolider les fournisseurs et élever certains fournisseurs clés au rang de partenaires stratégiques.

March 12, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

The Third-Party Risk Reckoning: How far can you trust your vendors?

March 24, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

Killing Zombie Projects: Knowing when to stop, restart, or quietly let go

Every organisation has them, projects that keep running long after their purpose has faded. No one remembers who asked for them, but shutting them down feels riskier than keeping them alive. And eventually, people stay assigned, budgets stay allocated, and energy drains into work that no longer matters. Inertia at its finest.

March 26, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

Measuring Value in AI Initiatives: Defining ROI, accountability, and measurable outcomes in complex environments

AI projects continue to multiply, but proving their value remains difficult. Most organisations can track activity, not impact. Dashboards count pilots and models, yet few translate to measurable business outcomes. The result is familiar: success stories without clarity on what they actually delivered.

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Transforming a global business to work with the agility of a startup

How a global SD-WAN rollout is boosting network visibility and control.

Overview
How can a big business move with the agility of a small one?
This was the conundrum we helped one of our largest customers solve. While every startup dreams of growth, expansion comes at a price. Big firms have more people to organise and more to lose by taking risks, so it takes them longer to adapt to change. That’s exactly what our multinational customer wanted to avoid. The team needed a better way to manage the network from a central, cloud-based system, without losing speed. All while reducing the cost of WAN. The change would give the team better network visibility, so they could make smarter business decisions and react faster to their customers’ needs. We helped them roll-out this next-generation network worldwide, so they could behave like a startup at scale.

The challenge
We helped the customer test and vet the latest SD-WAN technology in an on-site lab. Working closely with the team gave us an important insight into the network’s complexities. And it meant our team was perfectly positioned to help with the rollout – while limiting the overall risk to the business. But it was still a mammoth challenge. The customer wanted to upgrade 85 sites around the globe. These ranged from factories with complex IT and OT environments to 24/7 offices for thousands of people that couldn’t afford any downtime. And because we had to work with different local vendors every time, no two installs were the same. Over the course of the project, we’ve streamlined the way we work. The boost in efficiency encouraged the customer to let us take on more responsibilities – now, we’re also handling the design and delivery of infrastructure for each site. As well as procuring and commissioning hardware, this means configuring vEdge routers to work with existing systems. Then we oversee the handover to the customer’s operations team and decommission old hardware when they need it. To start with, the customer’s local engineering teams helped us create templates in Cisco Viptela vManage and push out the configurations. But after the first few implementations, the customer trusted us to carry out the process from end to end without any oversight.

The solution
Working together on a global rollout
First, we had to make sure each unique site was set up correctly. We put together a team of nine project managers and 13 technical designers to handle the challenge. Our experience working with large global enterprises meant we already understood their internal systems and processes, so we could quickly roll out the new system. And meet their internal procurement, audit, operations and security expectations – without shaking things up for people on the ground. Plus, because we simplified the infrastructure, once the SD-WAN was up and running, the customer’s network operations centre could easily manage it all from one place. We’ve perfected the art of custom installations to each site. It now only takes a week for our team to create a design, with the customer’s sites experiencing zero downtime during the delivery.

The result
Building better connections
Phase one of the rollout has been a real success. We delivered a total of 65 sites in just over a year, with 50 of them in less than nine months. They can now resolve problems faster, give their users better network security and work more efficiently using cloud applications. It’s already saved the company $15m in operating costs. And helped them advance their cloud-ready strategy. Phase two is already underway – over the next six months we’ll roll out to 50 more sites. And the best news is that our customer is completely satisfied with the results so far. With more network visibility and control, SD-WAN has given them all the tools they need to succeed. Their business applications, data, devices and people are better connected than they’ve ever been before. And they can embrace new technologies on-the-fly, including mobile connectivity. The new system has made it easier for the whole organisation to collaborate and innovate. So they can accelerate their growth like a startup.

Technologies

Connect Meraki SD-WAN

Partners

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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?

Telenet Business Leadership Circle

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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 !

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.