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Belgium 27-8-26 AB Members Physical english

Summer Festival: Advisory Board

CIO agendas are crowded: cost pressure, cyber, regulation, talent, data, AI, vendor dependency, business expectations. Most organisations are trying to do too much at once, and the “must-do” work often blocks the strategic work. CIONET only creates value if its agenda matches what CIOs truly need, in the right format, at the right time. The challenge Pick the few priorities that matter most for 2027, then translate them into a clear CIONET agenda. Outcome we leave with A ranked CIO agenda for 2027, and a directly aligned CIONET programme outline (themes, formats, cadence), with a shortlist of speaker and case targets.

Belgium 27-8-26 Country Members Physical english

Summerfest: From Story to Habit

How to align people, shift routines, and prove value Technology transformations often fail not because the tools don’t work, but because people don’t change their work habits. Boards want proof of value, executives want business outcomes, IT wants clarity, and employees want ease. Between these expectations, the CIO’s role is no longer just to deliver platforms; it is to tell the story that motivates people and turn that story into daily habits. This session will explore: The narrative: how to craft a simple, repeatable story that explains the “why” behind change for every stakeholder. From story to routine: practical ways to embed new behaviours through manager rituals, team incentives, and visible leadership. Reskilling and new expectations: preparing teams for evolving roles, from cross-department collaboration to AI-enhanced workflows. Measuring what matters: showing progress in speed, quality, and resilience — not just in licences bought or trainings completed. The aim is to equip CIOs with a leadership toolkit: a story that unites, habits that endure, and proof that convinces even the toughest boardroom.

Belgium 8-9-26 Invitation Only Virtual english

What an AI Architect Actually Does in Practice; Skills, responsibilities, interfaces, and career moves behind one of the most misunderstood emerging roles.

The AI architect role is becoming more visible, and the scope varies across organisations. The challenge is defining what the role owns, where it sits, and how it works with existing architecture, data, security, risk, and business teams. Three pressure points need clarity. - Role definition matters because the position can span solution architecture, data architecture, governance, integration, security, vendor selection, and business process design. - Interfaces matter because the role must connect teams while respecting existing responsibilities. - Skills matter because technical depth needs to be combined with judgement around controls, delivery choices, and operational boundaries. The working question is simple: how do we define the AI architect role so it becomes useful, credible, and connected to delivery? If this role is emerging in your organisation, let’s compare how others are defining it and where they are placing it.

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Digitally transforming Coventry Building Society’s customer and employee experiences

Better service and improved experiences for employees and customers. Achieved with a new contact centre and integrated telephony solution.

Overview
A smooth move to cloud to enhance experiences
Customer experience is a make-or-break issue for today’s consumers – 80% of consumers say they buy more from organisations that offer excellent customer service. As a business that prioritises delivering an outstanding experience and maintaining trust with its 2m members, Coventry Building Society knew its planned contact centre and telephony transformation needed to be seamless and effective. The only outward sign of change would be an even better experience for customers and employees. With our Genesys Cloud Contact Centre solution as well as integration of cloud-based enterprise voice into Microsoft Teams, together with our ongoing service wrap, we were able to support the building society’s ambitious goals for service and customer experience.

The challenge
Moving to a future-ready infrastructure
Following a strategic review, The Society decided to move away from their existing on-premises contact centre solution in an effort to reduce their data centre footprint. Their intent was to move beyond traditional fixed infrastructure and create a more flexible set-up that was fit for future growth.

They wanted to enhance how they delivered their services to provide more personalised experiences, with easy routing or escalation between channels, and greater employee collaboration. They realised this would require unprecedented integration and visibility between their corporate telephony and contact centre platforms.

With significant in-house expertise and clear objectives, The Society’s leadership team weren’t looking to simply buy in services and outsource all management control. Instead, they were seeking a partner who’d work collaboratively with The Society and market-leading vendors, bringing innovative solutions to the table that would give the business a competitive edge.

The migration required careful management due to its scale: approximately 1600 users across eight different business areas had to be migrated onto one single platform. Deadlines were tight, so the pressure was on to deliver a rapid migration that was smooth, painless, and efficient – all without disrupting any core operations or services. As well as keeping all their existing contact centre capabilities, The Society particularly wanted to improve their Interactive Voice Response (IVR), introducing facilities such as better, authenticated escalations to live agents. The Society wanted a platform and partner that could support future transformations involving artificial intelligence, improved resource management and enhanced reporting and analytics.

After evaluating The Society’s business needs and requirements, we recommended our Genesys Cloud Contact Centre solution, widely known for its market-leading reliability and scalability. Alongside this migration, The Society wanted to move their 3,000 strong workforce onto a telephony platform that incorporated voice into Microsoft Teams, giving them a single workforce management platform. The business was new to using Microsoft Teams, so the migration would involve introducing the collaboration tool from scratch. The priorities throughout were protecting the employee experience and enabling better service to the building society’s customers.

The solution
A seamless migration to a next-generation model
Our starting point was to draw on our long-standing partnerships with Genesys and Microsoft to create a tailored and detailed transformation roadmap that met every one of Coventry Building Society’s goals and had them fully migrated in less than five months. By bringing the Genesys Cloud Contact Centre and Teams migration plans together into one change programme, we’re able to provide native integration between the platforms while maximising the benefits of one supplier and a single service wrap. Plus, every aspect of the programme complies with financial services and The Society’s own cloud governance processes.

There was also a focus on making sure The Society could deliver a seamless experience for their customers. Genesys Cloud Contact Centre takes a digital-first approach, and it’s provided The Society with the access to capabilities such as authenticated webchat and the option to escalate interactions from chat to voice. The platform also allows for predictive engagement and proactive two-way messaging – so once The Society deploy these features, they’ll be able to share relevant information with customers at the right time, keeping them well informed and reducing the strain on agents.

Genesys Cloud Contact Centre provides rich features within a truly omnichannel environment. Its wide range of APIs and standard connectors will help The Society easily link its contact centre into other systems, including Microsoft Teams. These solutions support the latest developments in natural language technology, predictive engagement capabilities, biometrics, security, PCI compliance and analytics. This is ideal for customers who want to be ready to meet future market demands and consumer expectations.

Introducing enterprise-grade voice from our global network through Microsoft Teams combines the intuitive collaboration features of Microsoft Teams with crystal clear call quality. The Society will also benefit from end-to-end service management, which will continuously monitor and optimise experience, from the beginning of a voice call right the way through to their Teams tenant environment.

With BT, we migrated our contact centre and telephony systems to the cloud, creating a more flexible infrastructure that’s future-ready.

Dominic Woodall

Head of Portfolio, Coventry Building Society

The result
All together, better for the future
Today, The Society’s new, evergreen contact centre environment delivers easy customer interactions. With newly automated IVR routing and cross-channel integration, customers are always securely escalated appropriately, and agents are free to focus on the most complex, sensitive enquiries. Through this transformation, the building society have boosted customer satisfaction, reduced call times and increased operational efficiencies.

Across The Society’s entire workforce, the new workforce management platform is improving cross-department collaboration, so employees can work together, better. The strong integration between the Genesys Cloud Contact Centre and Microsoft Teams makes internal collaboration easy, while shared contacts and directories lead to smooth workflows. Plus, our tailor-made service wrap manages all servicing requirements, proactively monitors and maintains the solutions and our reporting tools support smart decision-making.

Technologies

Genesys Cloud Contact Centre Microsoft Teams

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.