IT-enabled business transformation and business risks.” “Boards need to extend their governance accountability from a mono-focus on finance and legal to including technology and providing organisational capabilities to ensure that IT sustains and extends the company’s strategies and objectives”, concluded Steven.
Finding a new balance Xavier Bourgois, CIO and Senior Vice President IT of Barco, explained how to find a new balance by exploring - as a technology company - new services and new XaaS business models. Barco is a hardware and software manufacturer of display and projection technology, collaboration connectivity and image processing. “We live in a deflationary macroeconomic environment characterised by globalisation and shorter technology cycles. Growth is slower as we are no longer in a traditional replacement market. Today, customers demand outcomes and will only pay for what they get. That is why tech companies have to rethink who they are and evolve from being a technology vendor to delivering outcomes, using the right mix of hardware, software and services. In order to create an ‘outcome-based proposition’, they have to understand the outcomes customers desire, as well as innovate technologies and business models”, Xavier explained. Barco tackles these challenges by exploring new services through the ‘XaaS’ (Anything as a Service) concept. Examples in other industries, such as Car as a Service - making use of intelligent car sharing, Scan as a Service in the healthcare sector or shared workspace services show the way to go. New XaaS business models are attractive and simple to use, customers only pay for the results, and they can turn the service on or off at any moment. This requires new business processes and eventually upgrades of the IT tools.
Steven De Haes, University of Antwerp
“This transition to finding a new balance requires hard choices about the role of the IT department and about how IT becomes a service broker for its internal customers”, he highlighted.
No data, no glory Philip Taillieu is co-CEO of Be-Mobile, a world leader in smart mobility, providing a wide array of solutions through its integrated mobility platform. The company offers solutions such as Connected Vehicle Platforms, Traffic Management, Smart Parking, Mobility Payments Platform, Mobility as a Service, etc. No data, no glory… The platform offers a unique combination of infrastructure intelligence, user intelligence and personal messaging. The mobility database integrates data from sensors in traffic lights, cameras, radars, etc.; crowdsourced data from drivers, social media, police and emergency services, parking payments, etc.; other data from public transport, car and bike sharing, filling stations, toll services, etc.; and floating car data from GPS systems, smartphones, telcos, etc. Today, Be-Mobile provides the data coverage of more than 10 million European vehicles. How did they deal with this rapid growth? Philip explained: “We did this by having a
clear strategic vision, investing in new breeds of people while trying to keep early champions on board, and gradually bringing governance and structure in the company. Moreover, the company was split into business units, allowing each of them to focus on their own specific offering. Finally, as things change rapidly, open communication lines have proven to be necessary.”
Data, the new oil Gert Vanhaecht, CIO Belfius Insurance and Head of IT Digital and CRM Belfius Bank, stated that Belfius goes for 100% digital with all banking and insurance services having a digital extension on the internet or mobile apps. In 2016
Xavier Bourgois, Barco
CIONET Belgium EVENTS
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