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Welcome to CIONET Belgium

Realise your ambition! Connect with your local community of digital leaders.

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Upcoming Events

 
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Belgium 23-9-25 Squad Only Virtual english

Cybersecurity Without the Burnout ; Refocusing effort when alerts, threats, and pressure won’t stop

Security teams are overwhelmed. Too many tools. Too many alerts. Too few people. And now, increasing pressure from the board to protect everything, everywhere, all the time. Expect honest reflection, shared strategies, and a conversation that cuts through compliance noise and focuses on what to do when your team is stretched and your risk is rising.

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Belgium 23-9-25 Invitation Only Physical english

Reclaim the cloud : Powering Belgian Finance with Sovereignty

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, the financial services industry in Belgium faces a critical juncture regarding its cloud adoption strategy. While the allure of cloud computing – with its promise of scalability, agility, and innovation – is undeniable, the unique regulatory demands and paramount need for data sovereignty present significant challenges. This CIONET roundtable, aims to bring together Digital Leaders from the Belgian financial sector to discuss how to navigate these complexities. We will explore how financial institutions can leverage cloud technologies while ensuring complete control over their data, maintaining compliance with stringent European regulations like GDPR and DORA, and mitigating geopolitical risks.

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Belgium 24-9-25 Invitation Only Physical english

Bridging the Unbridgeable: IT Meets M(i)OT ; Converged infrastructures demand converged security

As smart devices proliferate across operational environments — from sensors on factory lines and GPS trackers in logistics fleets to wearables in healthcare and connected systems in smart cities — the integration of Managed IoT (MiOT) is accelerating. But with it comes a surge in cybersecurity risks. No longer isolated or air-gapped, OT systems are becoming fully networked, remotely accessible, and deeply entwined with IT. This creates a vulnerable, highly complex digital mesh, one where a single compromised device can trigger physical, financial, and reputational consequences.

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Upcoming TRIBE Events

 
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September 23, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english

Cybersecurity Without the Burnout ; Refocusing effort when alerts, threats, and pressure won’t stop

Security teams are overwhelmed. Too many tools. Too many alerts. Too few people. And now, increasing pressure from the board to protect everything, everywhere, all the time. Expect honest reflection, shared strategies, and a conversation that cuts through compliance noise and focuses on what to do when your team is stretched and your risk is rising.

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September 30, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english

Technical Debt: When to Pay It and When to Walk Away ; Making smart trade-offs between progress, maintenance, and risk

Everyone has technical debt. The question is what to do with it. Refactor now? Wait for the next feature? Build on it and hope it holds? If you’re tired of debating whether to clean up or move on, this session helps you frame the debt conversation in a way that supports both speed and stability.

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October 2, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english

The Career Path of the Architect ;Great architecture begins with great architects

Architecture doesn’t happen in diagrams. It happens in minds, seasoned, curious, sharp minds that understand how the pieces fit. But who’s shaping these minds? Who’s growing the next generation of digital architects? If you’re responsible for complex systems, and for the people designing them, this session is for you.

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CIONET Partner Updates

CIONET Partner Updates

Recent Cases

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Mauritius Commercial Bank saves 2,000 IT team work days per year

To deliver new online banking features faster and expand to new markets, Mauritius Commercial Bank redesigned its IT infrastructure. By adopting Red Hat® OpenShift®, an enterprise open source container solution, supported by Red Hat Enterprise Linux®, MCB had established a responsive yet stable foundation for maintaining its Temenos Transact platform.

To deliver new online banking features faster and expand to new markets, Mauritius Commercial
Bank (MCB) decided to reimagine its IT infrastructure and embrace modern technology, such as
containers and automation. By adopting Red Hat OpenShift, an enterprise open source container
solution, supported by Red Hat Enterprise Linux, MCB had established a responsive yet stable
foundation for maintaining its Temenos Transact platform and scaling its mobile application to
500,000 users. Automating routine provisioning and operational processes with Red Hat Ansible
Automation Platform has also helped the bank save more than 2,000 work days per year, freeing
skilled employees to focus on building and delivering competitive new experiences to customers

 

Simplifying mobile banking platform to deliver new features faster
Founded in 1838, Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) is the country’s oldest and largest bank. Its 4
main subsidiaries operate in Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar, and Maldives, with additional market
presence in Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.
To remain relevant in a rapidly changing industry, MCB began a digital transformation project in
2018 with three main goals: changing how products and services are delivered to customers,
gaining new technology skills, and maintaining an agile technology stack. This project combines
its missions of customer service excellence, continuous process improvement, and development
of a knowledgeable, motivate workforce with the latest technology innovation.
As a first focus area for the project, MCB sought to improve deployment of its core banking platform,
Temenos Transact. Each of the bank’s 4 main subsidiaries operated its own customized, locally
hosted instance of Temenos. Delivering infrastructure and software upgrades to each instance was
time-consuming and led to significant service downtime and disruption. The effort required to
maintain these unique versions of Temenos, services, and integrations also affected new product
development and market launches.


Adopting adaptable IT infrastructure with enterprise platforms from Red Hat
To maintain its reputation as a responsive, modern financial services provider, MCB sought to adopt
an agile, container-based IT architecture, ready for deployment into both its current infrastructure
environment and future private cloud environment.
“We realized that building a resilient operational backbone would be key, but we needed guidance
for how to meet strict security and compliance requirements. Ideally, we also wanted something
open source,” said Patrice Herve, Head of Technology, Mauritius Commercial Bank. “Red Hat offered
not only the advanced container and Linux technology we were looking for, but also the expert
consulting services to help us succeed in the face of technology issues or skills shortages.”
Working with Red Hat Consulting to determine challenge areas, business needs, and potential
solutions, MCB decided to deploy Red Hat OpenShift as the enterprise container foundation for
Temenos Transact. Running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, this platform provides consistent
development, deployment, and management capabilities across hybrid environments—including
automated version and security management. To expand the built-in automation capabilities
provided by Red Hat OpenShift, MCB also adopted Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. This
playbook-based, scalable platform integrates with the bank’s other Red Hat software for easier,
faster application of new process automations.
With step-by-step implementation guidance and training on the new technologies from Red Hat
consultants, MCB has now migrated workloads for almost all of its customer-facing operations—
including consumer, mobile, and internet banking—as well as all back-end middleware services
to Red Hat OpenShift.
“We started with smaller applications, such as our credit application platform, before moving on to our
business and flagship retail mobile banking applications,” said Herve. “Our plan to learn alongside
Red Hat experts with a clear set of goals over a set timeframe paved a path to successfully migrate
these critical services with minimal disruption.”

 

Expanding banking features to new customers—with less time and effort


Increased mobile application feature delivery from yearly to monthly
By replacing the 4 customized instances of Temenos Transact with a single, central solution running
in a modular Red Hat OpenShift container environment, MCB can now make faster, more frequent
upgrades to the platform’s capabilities and integration services.
“On our legacy infrastructure, we released new mobile features maybe once or twice a year. We had
to go through very painstaking testing processes to ensure consistent quality and performance
across each version of our technology stack,” said Herve. “Now, with Red Hat OpenShift providing
a consistent, central management point, we save time and effort that can be redirected to building
new features. We’re now delivering smaller, more iterative new releases monthly, or even more
frequently, with minimal disruption to existing services.”
For example, the bank recently deployed a new online account creation feature, as well as a
user-to-user mobile payment service. Delivering continual innovation to customers will help MCB
continue to compete in a challenging market against new startups and other entrants.


Saved more than 2,000 work days per year with automation
MCB strives to keep as many IT resources in-house as possible. While doing so means ongoing
access to a skilled, trained talent base, the bank also needs to balance maintaining low headcount
costs with continuing to deliver projects on time as business needs evolve. By introducing
human-readable, reusable scripts through Ansible Automation Platform, MCB’s IT department
has automated routine manual work for a variety of processes—freeing staff to focus on more
valuable work.
“We now have more than 1,000 Ansible Playbooks that save us over 2,000 work days per year,” said
Ronny Pazot, IT Specialist, Mauritius Commercial Bank. “Automation helps us do more productive
work with the same size team by removing repetitive tasks that do not add value.”
The bank has now reduced provisioning times for new development environments from 5 days to just
1 day, with 50% less execution time and 70% less hardware required. MCB anticipates similar results
when it expands automation to software engineering and related activities.
“Automation is an ongoing process,” said Herve. “We’re embracing the possibilities provided by
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to continually analyze which processes take the most time to
complete, and where those manual processes could potentially be partially or fully automated.”


Simplified business expansion to new customers and markets
In the past, expanding to new markets, products, and services was a complex process that required
MCB to develop an end-to-end customized solution. Standardizing on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and
Red Hat OpenShift provides a common foundation for delivering services to new business locations
and users. The bank is now processing more than 300,000 payments per day without latency or
other performance issues.
“For instance, if we want to expand our business in Africa, we can simply deploy new services within
our existing banking stack instance, with minor tweaks to address any unique regional or country
market conditions,” said Herve. “Having a stable, reliable operating system and application platform
in place makes scaling easier. Where we previously struggled to run a mobile app for 200,000
customers, Red Hat OpenShift now enables a high-quality experience for nearly 500,000 users.”

Creating a cloud-based future for mobile services
With a Linux and container foundation and automated processes in place, MCB continues to look for
new ways to improve Temenos Transact with innovative technology, such as hybrid cloud computing.
“As we have begun setting up our private cloud environment, we have also started to test a public
cloud solution to access even greater scale as our customer base continues to grow,” said Herve.
“Our Red Hat technology will make it easier to move workloads between these cloud environments.
We see cloud as a key element of our digital transformation journey, and working with Red Hat is a
big part of helping us achieve our vision.”


About Mauritius Commercial Bank
Mauritius Commercial Bank, founded in 1838, is the country’s oldest and largest banking institution.
It is also the oldest banking institution in sub-Saharan Africa, and one the oldest in the Commonwealth
that still uses its original name. MCB has a local network of 40 branches and 150 ATMs in Mauritius
and operates major subsidiaries in Seychelles, Maldives, and Madagascar. It offers a broad and
growing range of products and services to individuals, businesses, and other organizations

Partners

CIONET Circles

CIONET Business Circles

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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?

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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.

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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 !

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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.

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Check out our latest news

Testimonials

Geert Goethals
Geert Goethals
CIO
Sibelga
Bahadir Samli
Bahadir Samli
CIO
ING Belgique
2-Feb-29-2024-11-35-00-9309-AM
Bart Kerkhofs
Vice President & Head of IT
Bridgestone EMIA
Untitled design (1)-Apr-01-2022-10-58-34-57-AM
Michał Paprocki
Group CIO
Euroclear
1-Feb-29-2024-11-34-59-8990-AM
Manfred Boudreaux-Dehmer
Chief Information Officer
NATO
Untitled design-Nov-22-2023-08-42-05-3178-AM
Annick Faes
Vice President IT and CIO Medical Devices EMEA
Johnson & Johnson
Piet_De_Ceuleners
Piet De Ceuleners
Global IT Director
Melexis
1658251930890
Dirk De Bevere
Large Enterprise Sales Leader
Telenet Business
Untitled design-7
Stef Schampaert
Country Managing Director BeLux
Red Hat
CIONET Belgium - Advisory Board Member - Geert Lejon
Geert Lejon
Vice President Head of Belux / Head of Comms Benelux
Cognizant
Kevin_Ledegen
Kevin Ledegen
Group IT director
SDWorx
Gunter-Van-Craen_Small
Gunter Van Craen
Chief Digital & Information Officer
Bekaert
Thomas Kessler
Thomas Kessler
Partner | CIO Programme Leader
Deloitte
Emmanuel Gob
Emmanuel Gob
CIO
DPD
pascal pauwels
Pascal Pauwels
CIO
Colruyt
Untitled design (4)-Dec-13-2023-10-53-15-5032-AM
Koen Segers
Managing Director Belgium and Luxembourg
Dell Technologies
benoit dewaele
Benoît Dewaele
Group IT Directo
Vandemoortele
Dirk Deridder-1
Dirk Deridder
CTO - Technology Services & Practices
SMALS
Thierry Driesens
Thierry Driesens
CIO
TVH
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Koen Vandaele
CIO
Delen Private Bank
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Liesbet D'hoker
Managing Director
Kyndryl BeLux
steven-vermeulen
Steven Vermeulen
CIO
Digitaal Vlaanderen
Jack Hamande
Jack Hamande
Director General Digital Transformation
Federale Overheidsdienst Beleid en Ondersteuning
Tom Tomczak
Tom Tomczak
Chief Commercial Officer (CCO)
NRB
1726588748718
Cassandre Laurent
Directeur général
Agence du Numérique
an swalens
An Swalens
Head Of IT (CIO)
National Bank of Belgium
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Elke Laeremans
Chief Digital & Supply Chain Officer at Casa International
CIONET Belgium - Advisory Board Member - Koen Van Loo
Koen Van Loo
CIO
Group S.
Peter Sany
Peter Sany
Executive Advisor
Zoom
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Steven De Haes
Dean
Antwerp Management School
Marleen Thorré
Marleen Thorré
Head of Digital EMEA
Mitsubishi Chemical Group
christel-plessers
Christel Plessers
Head of IT European Markets
Mercedes-Benz Europe
bauduin cor
Baudouin Corlùy
Chief Market Development Officer
LCL Data Centers

Team

Luc Hendrikx
Luc Hendrikx
Partner - CEO
Inès De Bien
Inès De Bien
Partner - CCO
1-Feb-08-2022-10-22-08-68-AM
Daniel Eycken
Partner - COO
Hendrik Deckers
Hendrik Deckers
Partner - Founder
Untitled design (1)-2
Jelte Scheys
Tribes Sales Director Belgium
foto Herman
Herman Roelandts
Tribe Master
Joseph Antoun
Joseph Antoun
Senior Programme Director
1-Dec-16-2021-02-15-57-02-PM
Eman De Sutter
Programme Manager
4-Feb-08-2022-10-22-09-03-AM
Shelly Deracourt
Programme Manager
Untitled design (5)-Sep-01-2022-02-47-55-60-PM
Charlotte Coen
Partner Success Manager
Untitled design (1)-Nov-22-2023-08-56-42-6802-AM
Ivana Bradvica
Programme Manager
ML B-W-1
Martine Lefevre
Financial Controller
Vlera Berishaa (1)
Vlera Berisha
Community Manager
Phaedra Vanhaeren
Phaedra Vanhaeren
Programme Manager

Contact us

Would you like to know more about CIONET Belgium, membership or partnership opportunities? Do you have feedback or any other question? Send us a message!