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Belgium 06-10-2026 All Members Physical english

The Token Trap: Reclaiming Control of Enterprise AI

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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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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

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