Innovation methodologies, the role of IT

On December 7th over 50 CIOs and digital business leaders gathered in the prestigious Proximus headquarters to discuss how IT can play a vital role in driving innovation for their overall business. We had the chance to learn from 4 practitioners on how they see their role:

Christine Billaud, Business Technology Director at Volvo Construction Equipment, explained how he and her team have been tasked to continuously look for potential disruptions on how to conduct business in her market. It is a challenging journey, but one that ultimately leads to tangible business success.

Allan Farrell, CIO at media company FCR, explained how he revamped the complete organisation from the ground-up, in order to respond to the specific market changes the media industry is facing nowadays. With staffing and budget cut by over 50%, he managed to steer his organisation into a value-driven, integral part of the overall business;

Birgitta Brys, Chief Customer Service Officer at Worldline, recently participated in a trip to the Israeli start-up community, together with 10 other Belgian CIOs, as well as CIONET and Deloitte representatives. It was an eye-opening trip which showed her how a new approach to building an ecosystem can lead innovation for large corporations like hers;

Günther Ghijsels, Director ICT at Randstad Group, explained how his ‘digital factory’ is working alongside the business peers to deliver on tangible innovative projects and ideas.It came with though cultural change, but is now a cornerstone in shaping the future success of the Belgian Randstad operations, a model that is now being replicated in internationally. 

Loads of food for thought, which the participants were happy to debate on after the conference. 

According to the satisfaction survey the conference met the expectations of 96% of the participants. We wish to thank all the speakers, partners and CIOs who were present for their contribution in making this a success! And a very special thanks to our host of the day, Geert Standaert, CTO of Proximus for having us in this amazing location!

Whether you were there, the pictures here will provide you some good memories of the conference, and perhaps refresh your mind on a couple of messages from the discussions you had. If you could not make it, this is a chance to see what you missed. Make sure not to miss the next event: the CIONET Annual event with 10 top speakers from different backgrounds and expertise, January 30th. Click here for more info.?