Cloud, AI & ECM: Doxis at Deutsche Bahn

To achieve efficient processes and top customer service, you have to be proactive. For this reason, Deutsche Bahn (DB) and SER consult regularly to determine which challenges can be solved using the Doxis ECM-based Bahn Content Management (BCM) platform. At the BCM User Day in Frankfurt am Main, they discussed the opportunities created by the nexus of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and information management.

New sales channels with more and more data, processes that have to be faster, and countless interfaces with digital customer apps and systems: How can Deutsche Bahn meet these challenges? “We clearly want to be more flexible. The bar is set very high in terms of response times and helping customers. For example, reliability when providing services. Operations management in the cloud offers clear benefits in terms of costs and flexibility,” states Christoph Schepers, Product Owner of the BCM unit, who co-hosted the BCM User Day. Consequently, Deutsche Bahn is migrating its entire IT to the cloud. The project, spearheaded by the Board of Management of Deutsche Bahn, started in 2017 – and it is expected to be complete within four years instead of the planned six. The Doxis BCM platform is one part of the migration.

“Instead of worrying about storage and server operations, our employees are now focusing on automation and AI to improve the customer experience,” adds Schepers. At the BCM User Day, application managers from the entire Deutsche Bahn organization came together and exchanged information with SER: What new requirements do they have and what insights can SER give them in terms of intelligent document and process management?

“AI by itself is as dumb as a rock!” declared Dr. Gregor Joeris, CTO and Managing Director of the SER Group, in his opening keynote speech on the risks of artificial intelligence. “What makes such technology truly intelligent: the underlying data and proper training,” adds Joeris. However, if companies can fulfill these prerequisites, AI offers them real opportunities. With AI-based content services from Doxis, Deutsche Bahn can, for example, use content analytics to automate routine activities, find information faster across the enterprise and meet compliance requirements. “Deploying AI can help us run business processes faster and in a more automated manner, making us more cost-effective and efficient for our customers,” says Schepers, who is pleased about these possibilities for Deutsche Bahn.

“One specific use case is the automated assignment of inbound emails to the right business context and process. In this respect, Doxis really helps our employees. Moreover, the ability to perform a company-wide search is very important to us. With so much information stored across various applications, coinciding with changes in staff, our users must still be able to quickly find all data and documents. It is, of course, exciting to see how we can use Doxis to categorize this information in clusters – and not only based on one dimension, e.g. by product, supplier or customer, but based on all of these dimensions simultaneously.” At the BCM User Day, participants were impressed by the potential offered by enterprise search, process automation and IT operations in the cloud when it comes to streamlining and improving information management.

“The competition also motivates us to pursue trends such as AI and cloud computing,” says Schepers. “The technological backbone for our digitalization strategy is our BCM platform where we implement business processes. The BCM platform plays a key role for us and provides a foundation for a whole range of applications: from archiving data and tax-related documents to mapping processes in the legal department or handling claims in freight traffic. We are in discussions with SER about what other solutions are possible here.” These potential solutions were also discussed at the BCM User Day. Users want, for example, to be able to work with mobile applications, such as those offered by Doxis mobileCube, which enables them to scan, store and access documents on the go. Another long-standing topic is collaboration. Currently, for instance, DB still largely works on paper with external appraisers for its real estate management business. The Doxis iRoom was positively received by the users: This solution enables employees to share documents securely with business partners and integrate them into processes using workflows.

Stefan Girmann of SER describes the lively exchange generated by the BCM User Day: “Close contact with customers is critical for us. We have to be available to advise customers on how to overcome their challenges. We provide new insights that demonstrate to them that they have made a future-proof investment with Doxis. Last but not least, from such events we learn how we can continue to develop Doxis to offer our customers the best possible solutions for their digitalization needs.”