null

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.

Please Log In with your CIONET account first

novobanco delivers personalized digital experiences to customers

Portugal's novobanco sought to reinvent banking with personalized, digital customer experiences. The bank decided to migrate to a container- and microservices-based application infrastructure. Microsoft Azure Red Hat® OpenShift®, a jointly managed solution, helped the bank adopt a hybrid environment for new and existing applications.

Portugal’s novobanco sought to reinvent banking with personalized, digital customer
experiences based on open banking practices. To support this strategy, the bank decided to
migrate to a container- and microservices-based application infrastructure. Microsoft Azure
Red Hat OpenShift, a jointly managed solution, helped the bank adopt a hybrid environment for
new and existing applications. Now, using continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/
CD) and DevOps approaches, novobanco has increased its digital services adoption, reduced
time to market for applications, and improved partner integration using open banking
application programming interfaces (APIs).

Rethinking physical and digital banking experiences
novobanco operates a vast network of branches and business centers across Portugal,
complemented by its novobanco Linha Direta telephone banking service and digital banking
offering, novobanco Online.
Shortly after American equity firm Lone Star Funds acquired 75% of its capital in 2017, the bank
engaged management consulting firm McKinsey & Company to help define a three-year IT strategy.
“We needed to change the way we developed our offerings to speed time to market,” said Manuel
Domingues, CIO, novobanco. “Achieving that goal meant addressing four key areas of our business
to increase efficiency: our technology, our processes, our organization, and our culture.”
Working with McKinsey, the bank planned a new approach to digital business based on cloud
computing and big data, supported by a microservices-based architecture and DevOps practices.
This new approach would not only help reduce operating costs but also support entry into new digital
markets with open banking application programming interfaces (APIs).
“By changing how we acquire and engage with our customers, across physical and digital channels,
we could meet our larger goal of expanding our customer base,” said Domingues.

Building a managed, secured environment for application development
After searching for a cloud platform, novobanco chose Red Hat OpenShift for its local enterprise
support and multicloud capabilities.
“Red Hat OpenShift was the ideal choice to be able to deliver customer services flawlessly while
switching between hosting containers on-premise and in the cloud,” said Domingues.
The bank worked with Red Hat Consulting to test several use cases, including running a microservice
in Red Hat OpenShift using the Spring Boot Java™ framework, a DevOps pipeline for automating
development processes, and a proof of concept (POC) demonstrating digital channel interactions.
Next, the bank deployed Microsoft Azure Red Hat OpenShift in production and began migrating
its applications—as microservices—to this on-premise environment, jointly managed by Red Hat
and Microsoft. Red Hat’s single sign-on (SSO) technology helps secure novobanco’s microservices,
integrating with the bank’s existing Azure Active Directory servers to validate user credentials and
extract identity information.
The bank now uses its container environment—as well as React.js, an open source JavaScript user
interface library—to design and deploy low-code front-end applications, such as its smartphone app.

Focusing on innovation for customers and partners

Reduced time to market for digital services
With a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) approach supported by DevOps
processes and automation, novobanco can deliver new, personalized services to its customers
faster. For example, the bank recently developed new push notifications for transaction validation
that improve security and reduce messaging costs for customers. Additionally, using Red Hat and
Microsoft’s cost-effective, jointly managed service also helps novobanco stay productive by
mitigating time-consuming infrastructure maintenance tasks

The bank is already seeing positive outcomes from spending less time on routine delivery processes
and more time on innovation, including 20% year over year (YOY) growth in mobile interactions and
a 7% YOY increase in the number of active digital customers. As the result of a 165% YOY increase
across most of its portfolio, digital now makes up more than 1/3 of the bank’s total product sales.
As part of this approach, the bank is developing frameworks for various needs—such as simulations or
integration—with defined patterns that can be reused by more than one development team

Improved responsiveness with scalable, supported hybrid infrastructure
With plans to design all new applications to be cloud-native, novobanco can use its vendor-agnostic
Red Hat OpenShift container environment to prevent lock-in to specific cloud providers. The flexibility to move workloads between clouds will help the bank cost-effectively scale to meet demand.
Additionally, developers no longer need to build applications to run in specific environments, improving productivity and supporting DevOps collaboration.
“With Red Hat OpenShift, we can move workloads between on-premise and off-premise environments without needing to change any code,” said Domingues. “Some applications will remain on
premise for now, such as those with specific regulatory requirements, any that might be affected by
latency, or any that have not yet been optimized for microservices or the cloud. When we’re ready, we
have the flexibility to move them to Azure Red Hat OpenShift without any service interruptions or
outages.”

Improved support for integration with third-party partners
Supporting its open banking API approach with a scalable, secure integration process will help novobanco enter new digital banking markets by partnering with other financial services organizations.
“Running containers and microservices on Red Hat OpenShift allows us to support open banking APIs
as well as integrations with SaaS or PaaS technology solutions from partners,” said Domingues.

Enhanced technology adoption with expert support and guidance
Engaging Red Hat Consulting and participating in Red Hat Training on Red Hat OpenShift helped the
bank’s teams quickly gain the necessary skills to support its digital strategy. In addition to support
during the POC stage, Red Hat consultants helped stabilize the bank’s OpenShift cluster in production, set up a cluster for testing configuration changes, and manage platform implementation and
upgrades. For example, the bank continues to work with Red Hat for infrastructure, development,
and application architecture optimization.
“Red Hat Consulting helped us take advantage of best practices so that we could focus on developing solutions and integrations that meet our business needs and delivering new features to market
faster,” said Domingues.

Enhancing hybrid approach to continue digital services journey
novobanco plans to continue using Red Hat OpenShift as the foundation for both legacy and new
applications, with a goal to shift up to half of its modernized applications to run in a multicloud environment. The bank is also looking to adopt Red Hat Runtimes, a set of lightweight runtimes and
frameworks that are ideal for highly distributed microservices architectures.
“Hybrid infrastructure and DevOps are changing the way we develop our services and applications,
and Red Hat OpenShift is an essential part of our journey to digital delivery,” said Domingues. “As we
evolve, we expect to achieve further scalability and reliability, among other benefits.”

About novobanco
novobanco is a reference in the Portuguese financial system, recognized by its high standards
of service quality and commercial dynamics with which its clients, individuals, companies, and
institutions are served. It addresses a broad range of clients’ financial needs, acting in a transversal
way in all areas of financial services, such as retail and corporate banking, asset management, and
insurance. https://www.novobanco.pt/

Technologies

Microsoft Azure Red Hat OpenShift®

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.