“A new era has begun!” – The SER Summit 2022 in review

SER held its first-ever SER SUMMIT in Munich on April 25-26 – and the response was overwhelmingly positive. The international audience of more than 250 attendees was thrilled for this opportunity to meet in person to exchange ideas and learn about the latest trends and innovations, including the special focus of the event – intelligent content automation.

After postponements due to the pandemic, the on-site event in Munich, Germany was finally able to take place on April 25 and 26, 2022. The SER Summit 2022 brought together customers, partners, prospects and SER employees from around the world to network with each other and ring in a new era of intelligent content automation. With a mixture of tech sessions, customer success stories, guest speakers like Forrester’s Cheryl McKinnon and IT investor Frank Thelen and other highlights, the wide-ranging program offered something for everyone. The summit’s theme – Digitize. Understand. Automate. – definitely struck a chord with attendees. All signs point to growth and transformation, as was evident in the technology sessions in which SER presented its state-of-the-art solutions.

"A new era has begun for intelligent content automation," said SER CEO Dr. John Bates in his opening remarks at the SER SUMMIT 2022. Bates discussed why he sees AI and content understanding as the biggest drivers of innovation in document and process management. Doxis Intelligent Content Automation builds a bridge to best-of-breed apps like SAP, Salesforce and Microsoft in order to break down information silos and enable a unified and comprehensive view of information.

Artificial intelligence, one major focus of the event, is playing a major role in the further development of SER’s platform. CTO Dr. Gregor Joeris talked about the role of contextual, composable (including AutoML) and embedded AI in the Doxis platform. He advised attendees on the keys to successfully utilizing AI and gave a glimpse of promising use cases.

The guest speakers also created a buzz. Forrester's Cheryl McKinnon and analyst Bernhard Zöller agreed that a company's success depends more and more on the flow of information and a company’s ability to enable remote work. McKinnon spoke about how content services and process automation are driving businesses. She described how the digitalization of processes, automation and better adherence to compliance guidelines are the main reasons for investing in content service technologies.

Tech investor Frank Thelen challenged the audience to think about how best to apply breakthrough technologies: “With artificial intelligence, robotics, 5G and other disruptive technologies evolving exponentially, our world will change drastically over the next 10 years. Those who understand and implement these technologies are the ones who will be at the forefront as entire industries are turned upside down.”

SER customers such as Helvetia, OTTO, Evonik, Raiffeisen Bank International, Wacker Chemie and KAGes reported on their success stories with SER solutions and provided visitors with valuable insights for their own projects. For example, Robert Jaksch from adesso SE spoke about introducing Doxis in the cloud and the connection to SAP S4/Hana C. Sebastian Gil Haenelt explained the digital transformation strategy of OTTO Group IT, where Doxis is playing a very central role.

There were also technical tracks and live demos of the Doxis suites for Intelligent Purchase-to-Pay Automation, Content Bridge for SAP & Salesforce, Human Resources and more. A major goal that SER has set itself is to further improve the Doxis user experience to meet the demands of digital natives even better – simpler, more intuitive and more state-of-the-art are the guiding principles. Visitors were able to provide direct feedback to SER UX designers in the Usability Lab.

The summit provided many opportunities to network and have fun. Guests mingled and danced at the Bavarian-style evening dinner. For those who felt good enough the next morning, there was a refreshing morning run. To conclude the summit, visitors had the chance to deepen their knowledge of beer at a tasting with a real beer sommelier.

The unamimous feedback from attendees: It was a resounding success and they are already looking forward to the next SER Summit! Franziska Thomas, VP Global Marketing, was also very happy with the event: "Our aim was to provide visitors a highlight in their year, and we succeeded in many ways. Our deep gratitude goes above all to our great speakers and, particularly, to our customers, who shared such entertaining and valuable insights about their Doxis projects."

Photos: Patrizia Adamo Photography