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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.

Belgium 24-3-26 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. Ending a project is rarely a technical decision. It’s emotional, political, and often tied to past promises or personal reputation. The longer something runs, the harder it becomes to admit it’s time to stop. Yet clearing that backlog of half-dead initiatives is often the only way to make room for new ones. So how do you decide when to pull the plug? What signals show that value is gone, and who gets to say so? How can governance encourage honest calls without punishing those who make them? Let’s discuss how to end gracefully, refocus teams, and turn closure into confidence rather than blame. Bullet in the head? Is that how you kill a zombie, or was it a silver bullet in the heart? A closed conversation on how to make progress by learning to stop.

Belgium 26-3-26 Invitation Only Virtual 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. The real issue is measurement. Traditional ROI metrics fail when AI changes decisions more than results. Financial indicators miss the operational gains, while qualitative benefits often sound too vague to defend. Without clear evidence, budgets come under scrutiny and confidence erodes. This session focuses on how to connect AI work with business outcomes through structured metrics, governance, and accountability. We’ll explore how value tracking evolves from experimentation to scale, which indicators earn trust at board level, and where measurement stops being meaningful. A closed exchange for comparing methods, tools, and lessons learned in defining, proving, and sustaining AI impact.

March 24, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

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

March 26, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

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

March 31, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

Composability in Practice: Building modular systems that stay coherent as they grow

Composability sounds elegant in theory: small, independent parts that come together to form something greater, but in practice, it’s messy. What happens when modules overlap, APIs evolve differently across domains, and governance struggles to keep pace? What was meant to simplify architecture sometimes ends up multiplying it.

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Thiele Kaolin increases endpoint protection, reduces costs 60% by switching to Trend Micro

Increases endpoint protection, reduces costs 60% by switching to Trend Micro

OVERVIEW

As a leading manufacturer of kaolin clay, a mineral chiefly used in papermaking, Thiele Kaolin Company stays competitive by acquiring companies and expanding into new markets. The strategy has driven growth and success, but it has also added complexity to their security infrastructure. With Trend Micro as its security partner, Thiele Kaolin has evolved their security posture along with the growing needs of the organization.

We were reluctant to leave our current security provider, but after doing the deep dive, it became clear that moving to Trend Micro was in our best long-term interest.

Mark Bailey

Manager of Information Services
Thiele Kaolin Company

CHALLENGES

With the coated paper industry in decline, Thiele Kaolin started to move into new markets, the company needed to improve their security posture while tightly controlling costs. Mark Bailey, Manager of Information Services, was charged with securing a newly diverse and dispersed network of assets with his small security team without increasing costs.

To add to the challenge, the contract for Thiele Kaolin’s incumbent security provider was up for renewal. “Our incumbent provider was changing the way their relationships with mid-size companies were managed and that was going to increase costs for us. Their customer support was slow, which made us uneasy. New threats emerge constantly, so you can’t be complacent. We felt the incumbent was focused more on revenue than on security,” says Bailey.

Our relationship with Trend Micro helps us control the cost of endpoint protection, reducing it by approximately 60%.

Mark Bailey

Manager of Information Services
Thiele Kaolin Company

WHY TREND

Bailey’s team decided to conduct a deep-dive investigation of three security companies who appeared in the leadership position of the Gartner® Magic Quadrant, which included Trend Micro. “Trend Micro’s reputation put them at the top of our short list,” says Bailey.

After a thorough examination of all three solutions, Thiele Kaolin selected Trend Micro. “We were reluctant to leave our current security provider, but after doing the deep dive, it became clear that moving to Trend Micro was in our best long- term interest,” says Bailey.

In addition to Trend Micro’s complete data and endpoint protection, their responsiveness and dedication was a differentiator. “The passion Trend Micro personnel had for innovating and providing a great solution was clear. Trend Micro had an openness and willingness to talk with us about our needs,” says Bailey. “It was our best long-term solution.”

SOLUTION

Thiele Kaolin launched a proof of concept of Trend Micro Apex One for their endpoints, which offers advanced automated threat detection and response against a wide variety of threats. “Trend Micro Apex One’s automation is important to my team, as is the customizable dashboard that makes it easy to monitor threats and anomalies. The incumbent provider’s endpoint protection did not include any investigative tools other than notification that specific activity occurred on an endpoint,” says Ed Harper, Senior Security Systems Administrator at Thiele Kaolin.

Trend Micro Apex Central, the solution’s central management control makes it quick and easy to create and modify policies. “The simplified administration is very important because we have the same threats to manage as larger companies. Being able to drill down and see the details with Trend Micro Apex One is huge for us,” says Bailey. The addition of endpoint detection and response (EDR) also extended greater visibility for the IT Team.

Bailey’s team also appreciated the easy way the Trend Micro team uninstalled Thiele Kaolin’s previous solution. “Trend Micro has a tool that looks for competitive agents to reduce resource contention and that made it easier. They helped us ensure all the old software was gone, to prevent any conflict with the new software,” says Bailey.

RESULTS

Since implementing Trend Micro Apex One, Bailey’s team has seen the number of detected threats drop substantially. “We have not had any malicious activity on our endpoints since installing Trend Micro,” says Harper. Using Trend Micro Apex One is also helping the company reduce expenses as its customer base and the industry evolves. “Our relationship with Trend Micro helps us control the cost of endpoint protection, reducing it by approximately 60%,” says Bailey.

Finally, automated updates ensure that Thiele Kaolin clients always have up-to-date security protection. “We updated the server recently and all the clients started updating automatically. Keeping the software up to date is essential and seeing this work effectively was important to us,” says Bailey.

WHAT'S NEXT

Thiele Kaolin’s manufacturing division is currently exploring TXOne, Trend Micro’s industrial intrusion prevention system, through another proof of concept. “COVID-19 reinforced the need to look at solutions that give manufacturing employees more flexibility. We are excited about TXOne because it will enable better security and remote management so we’ll be better prepared for any future disruptive events,” says Bailey.

Beyond that, Thiele Kaolin leaders are looking for opportunities to grow and diversify the business. “We acquired two companies in the past few years and we anticipate more in the future. Trend Micro makes us more flexible. As we acquire new businesses and our networking becomes more complex, Trend Micro will help us ensure a smooth and

Technologies

Apex Central Apex One™ Trend Vision One™ - Endpoint Security

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