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Welcome to CIONET Belgium

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Upcoming Events

 
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Belgium 28-8-25 Country Members Physical english

20 Years CIONET - CIONET Belgium: Summer Festival

A special celebration marking 20 years of CIONET—two decades of empowering digital leaders and driving innovation in the technology landscape. This exclusive event will bring together our members to reflect on the incredible journey we've shared and look ahead to the future of digital leadership.Featuring keynote presentations from visionary CIOs, industry pioneers, and founding members, we’ll explore how far we’ve come and what lies ahead in the ever-evolving world of technology. Together, we will honour the contributions of our members who have shaped CIONET’s legacy while offering insights into how the community will continue to lead in the years to come.This is more than a celebration—it’s an opportunity to reconnect, reflect, and recharge with your fellow digital leaders. Don't miss this exclusive experience packed with inspiring talks, networking opportunities, and special recognitions that highlight the best of CIONET’s history and future.Let’s celebrate the past, present, and future of the digital community you helped build.

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Belgium 28-8-25 Country Members Physical english

Summer Festival - Advisory Board

A special celebration marking 20 years of CIONET—two decades of empowering digital leaders and driving innovation in the technology landscape. This exclusive event will bring together our members to reflect on the incredible journey we've shared and look ahead to the future of digital leadership. Featuring keynote presentations from visionary CIOs, industry pioneers, and founding members, we’ll explore how far we’ve come and what lies ahead in the ever-evolving world of technology. Together, we will honour the contributions of our members who have shaped CIONET’s legacy while offering insights into how the community will continue to lead in the years to come.

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Belgium 2-9-25 All TRIBERS Virtual english

What Does It Cost to Host an App? ; A practical guide to calculating hosting costs across infra, licenses, and operations

You’ve been asked a simple question: “What does it cost to host this application?” But the answer is anything but simple. The platform sits across multiple data centres. The app spans a few VMs, shares a backup system, uses licensed monitoring, and touches five different teams. Your CMDB should help, but it’s rigid, outdated, or incomplete. And yet, you still need to provide a number, clear, explainable, and grounded in reality.

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Upcoming TRIBE Events

 
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August 5, 2025 Squad Session Invitation Only Virtual polish

AI Act – praktyka stosowania na rynku polskim

AI Act – dyrektywa unijna regulująca wiele zasad wykorzystania AI w modelach biznesowych- już obowiązuje na polskim rynki. Ciekawe są prawdziwe i realne przypadki jej stosowania. Spójrzmy na temat od strony regulacyjnej, czyli prawnej. Ale zobaczmy praktykę aktywnej w temacie kancelarii prawnej. Zaprosiliśmy mecenaskę Aleksandrę Maciejewicz z kancelarii Lawmore, która od dłuższego czasu jest niezwykle aktywna i praktykuje w tym temacie. Poznamy podstawę prawną, praktyczne case’y i opis sytuacji oczami prawdziwego praktyka.

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August 6, 2025 Squad Session Invitation Only Virtual polish

DORA: wszystko, co chcielibyście wiedzieć, a baliście się zapytać

Michał Kulesza, adwokat, partner w departamencie technologicznym kancelarii Rymarz Zdort Maruta i szef zespołu regulacji ICT, przeprowadzi nas przez kluczowe wątki rozporządzenia i zmierzy się z pytaniami zgłoszonymi przez uczestników. Omówimy zarówno krytyczne aspekty na początku wdrożeń, jak i dostrajanie zmian na poziomie organizacyjnym i strategicznym. Masz konkretny temat, który warto poruszyć? Zgłoś go w trakcie rejestracji. Zamiast czytać między wierszami DORA – porozmawiajmy o tym wprost.

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August 7, 2025 Squad Session Invitation Only Virtual polish

Automated Systems Testing

Duże tempo developmentu i dokonywanych zmian wymaga nowej klasy testowania. Jakość systemów obserwowana na produkcji będzie pochodną skuteczności tego procesu. Duże nadzieje wiążemy z platformami wspierającymi testowanie i opartymi na AI. Sesja ta pokaże, gdzie jesteśmy w poszukiwaniu takich rozwiązań i gdzie ewaluuje myślenie szefów testów i ich rozwiązania organizacyjne.

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CIONET Partner Updates

CIONET Partner Updates

Recent Cases

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Schneider Electric leverages AI to help develop employees’ careers

Schneider Electric’s OTM platform uses AI to empower employees to make connections, volunteer for new opportunities, and gain new skills and experience within the organization.

Male Data Scientist and Female Developer Working With Errors in Code on Desktop Computer in Creative Office. Caucasian Man and Woman Succesfully Fixed a Software Bug And High Five Each Other.
CREDIT: GORODENKOFF / SHUTTERSTOCK
 
 

AI is coming into its own as a practical technology for helping companies with a range of initiatives, from improving customer experience to streamlining business processes. And, while the technology’s long-term impact on the workforce remains unclear, some companies, such as France-based Schneider Electric, are putting AI to work to aid employees in advancing their careers.

The global energy equipment and solutions provider’s Open Talent Market (OTM) platform, launched in early 2020, gives employees more agency around identifying mentorship opportunities, upskilling, and growing their networks within the organization. Using AI, the platform scans user profiles to identify the right skills for projects in the organization, or to pair up mentors and mentees who would be a good fit for each other. It even enables employees to market their skillsets internally. 

“I remember sitting in an auditorium in the office in the US in late 2019 when I was relatively new to the company,” says Shannon Booth, senior talent development partner at Schneider Electric, of the company’s initial presentation for OTM. “And I just remember sitting there thinking, ‘This is going to be so useful for me,’ because I don’t feel like I’m a natural networker.”

 
 

To make use of the platform, employees set up a profile where they can upload their resumes directly from LinkedIn, including current skills, past experience, future aspirations, and more. And, on the flip side, employees can also post opportunities for projects in their department where they might need a certain skillset that isn’t available on their current team.

“The more information you give, the more it’s going to give back,” says Booth, adding that the platform uses AI to match employees with opportunities, relevant roles, projects, and potential mentors to help grow their careers. OTM also includes a career development feature, where employees can “explore potential career paths and establish short-term development tracks to address upskilling,” she says.

Shannon Booth, Schneider Electric

SHANNON BOOTH, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

 

More importantly, the platform’s AI helps employees gain ownership over their career paths without bias around gender, age, or ethnicity.

“We want employees to find meaningful work, we want to offer equal opportunities, we want to be inclusive so that everyone has equal opportunities and access, and we really want employees to feel empowered to drive their career. All of that ultimately, when it works, increases talent retention — that is one of the main goals, to retain our employees,” Booth says.

 

Filling skill gaps on the fly

Another major benefit of OTM is that it enables Schneider Electric to address any skills gaps in the organization without having to hire temporary workers or recruit outside the organization.

 

For example, Felix Ramos, who manages a software application that is in high demand from internal employees and external customers, turned to OTM to expand the capabilities of his team, which is small and operates with limited budget.

 

“We could not have supported all [internal employees and external customers] without volunteers from the Open Talent Marketplace,” says Ramos, program manager for energy management software at Schneider Electric.

 

Felix Ramos, Schneider Electric

FELIX RAMOS, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

 

With OTM volunteers, Ramos’ team was able to expand its capacity by “at least 1.5x to 2x,” he says, noting that the experience was equally beneficial for the volunteers, many of whom “altered the courses of their careers because of their experience on our team.”

 

“It was easy to post a job, and once I did, within hours I would have candidates applying. And it empowered me to do so without going through layers of people, approvals, and milestones to engage a candidate,” Ramos says, adding that OTM helped him become a stronger manager as well by enabling him to gain more experience with recruiting and managing a wide range of diverse candidates.

Jessica Kipper, senior director of software product management, found her team under-resourced for an opportunity to showcase options for a better user experience on a global hospitality client’s website. Because her team wanted to move quickly, Kipper posted to the OTM to find UX designer help.

“We scoped four to eight hours weekly, across four weeks, with a UX designer from another team that wanted to increase her exposure to sustainability and work on other interesting projects to further her skill set and broaden her network. She partnered with our designer to outline the problem and approach to the deliverables,” Kipper says.

 
Jessica Klipper, Schneider Electric

JESSICA KIPPER, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

 

The UX designer conducted interviews with the team to identify requirements and then created “three very different approaches to showcase various options for the client to consider depending on the core needs of their users quickly, but in a high-fidelity protype,” Kipper says.

With support from Kipper’s team, the UX designer they found through OTM was the “creator of the primary deliverables,” Kipper says, providing significant impact on an opportunity that might otherwise not have been capitalized on as efficiently without OTM.

 

Accelerating connections with AI

Leveraging internal talent to meet specific skills needs in the organization also helps bring more passion to important projects. By identifying people who are interested in those topics, or who have the right skills, OTM can connect engaged workers with opportunities to assist in new departments and roles — and, as Ramos noted, in a way that erases red tape as HR doesn’t have to be involved in the process. Managers and employees can reach out directly to one another and connect over opportunities.

 

“It really accelerates connections” among the 120,000-plus global employees at Schneider Electric, Booth says. “It is shrinking the company in some ways, but also opening it up more broadly,” as employees can make connections with employees outside their office or region, forging internal connections not only locally, but globally.

Another way OTM facilitates connections is through mentoring recommendations. Employees interested in being mentors are matched by the system with those who express interest in mentorship. All it takes is the check of a box in a profile, and the AI takes care of the rest.

“The AI will pair you based on interests or goals or aspirations,” and a weekly summary is sent to all users that highlights opportunities for connecting with potential mentors or mentees, Booth says, adding that the AI works around the clock to identify opportunities within the organization to help grow employee careers and fill skills gaps throughout the company, without adding work to HR’s plate.

 

As for the employee’s side, Sophie Brause, a strategic projects services innovation team member, notes that “engaging in OTM requires time management, prioritization, communication, transparency, and managing up.”

 
Sophie Brause, Schneider Electric

SOPHIE BRAUSE, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC 

 

When Brause finds a project to work on through OTM, she makes time to work on it weekly or a few times a month. “I may block my calendar to show my team I am busy if I know I have the capacity to work on the project,” she says. “I was challenged once by a manager to think about how the skills, knowledge, and experience I am gaining in my OTM [work] can impact or reflect my current job. I will often take time to reflect on my OTM [work] and its relation to my current job.”

Customer experience program manager Laurie Beland, who has used OTM both as a recruiter and candidate, says OTM has provided her with opportunities to connect with other colleagues who have similar goals, helping her grow her “personal network, gain exposure to new areas of the company, acquire new skills, and experience a ‘trial-run’ with teams to help understand whether we’re a good fit for each other.”

 
Laurie Beland, Schneider Electric

LAURIE BELAND, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

 

“As both a recruiter and a candidate, I’ve learned new skills. OTM is a great resource that helps make connections in what can be an overwhelming global landscape. Every day I learn something new about our organization, even in departments I’ve been working with for years, and trying to navigate that solo — or even with support from a manager or mentor — can be daunting. Even something as simple as the platform’s automated suggestions can help introduce individuals to a whole new career path they didn’t know existed,” says Beland.

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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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!