What’s next in content services

Inspired by the recently published Gartner Hype Cycle for the Digital Workplace, 2019* and the Gartner Hype Cycle for Data and Analytics Governance and Master Data Management, 2019**, we took the opportunity to review the hot topics of the next two to ten years and where we align with them.

Gartner defines content integration services as a “…technology that provides a single point of access, a unified interface, common functionality and consistent governance to federated content sources residing in dispersed and disconnected repositories.” These services, the analysts say, are forecasted to unfold their full potential over the next five to ten years in the digital workplace and in data and analytics governance and master data management. It will happen when content integration services reach a higher maturity level and support businesses in their content challenges on a larger scale. This includes a more agile content strategy which enables them to unify any content and information from several sources. The goal here is to create a more holistic view, greater compliance and more efficient use.

In his evaluation of content integration services (relevant in both Hype Cycles), Marko Sillanpaa, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner, lists the SER Group as a sample vendor. At SER, we have foreseen the rising need for content integration services. Our answer: Doxis federation services. Already today, Doxis federation services provide a powerful tool to consolidate information silos and extend the standard search capabilities across several repositories and locations. This supports knowledge workers in finding the right information in shorter time and less effort. It ultimately leads to increased efficiency across your enterprise.

The analysts see employee experience as “fundamental to digital dexterity” and make it one of the three main themes of the Hype Cycle. Many trends today are based on principles of enhanced employee experience.

To constantly improve user experience and friendliness and adhere to the latest developments in this field, SER’s development team is deploying state-of-the-art methods such as scrum and agile development. On a technological level, Doxis adapts to handle complexity and a wide range of content management requirements. On a user level, Doxis is an intuitive software with many advantages. Users benefit from the fact that the focus of SER’s product development has been on the user from the very beginning. Users can customize Doxis according to their needs with dashboards, favorites, notes, etc. Smart assistance functions streamline complex tasks. Services such as automatic and intelligent classification and extraction add extra value. They lead to fewer errors and less manual work. By integrating cognitive services into content management, employees can find information faster and in the right context which enables them to spend more time on value-adding activities.

Content collaboration

Gartner also views topics like collaborative work management and content collaboration as core tools and services for digital dexterity. These should be part of the core applications of every enterprise.

The Doxis iRoom is a perfect match for content collaboration, not only within an organization, but also to integrate external partners directly and securely.

Extended AI and ML technologies in content services

In the field of AI and ML technologies, Gartner points out that “emotion AI” will become more prevalent over the next five to ten years. This technology is able to analyze the emotional state of a contact via audio, video or software input – an interesting use case especially for customer services, but also for the likes of internal communication, HR and sales.

As AI and ML are already integrated in Doxis in certain areas, we see great potential in what we call sentiment analysis. Here, we can already recognize the mood of the author of an email and mark this for further handling. This particularly benefits customer support agents in their daily routine to filter out the most “emotional” requests and act accordingly.

Content services platforms as a service (csPaaS)

Marko Silanpaa and Michael Woodbridge of Gartner define content services platforms as a service (csPaaS) as “...cloud-based platforms consisting of a set of services and microservices that enable organizations to exploit diverse content types and fulfill content-centric use cases across the business. …” As they see it, csPaaS solutions have the potential to simplify deployment, shorten development cycles and provide greater ongoing flexibility. The report says that csPaaS are forecasted to reach their peak in the next two to five years.

With more than 40 solution templates, which are available on-premises, in the cloud and in hybrid mode, Doxis also satisfies the need for highly flexible, simpler and faster deployments and implementations – essentially, what csPaaS are all about. These ready-to-run-solutions can easily be extended and scaled to meet the changing needs of an organization. We anticipated this trend for simpler, faster deployments already before the cloud became almost a commodity. Doxis solution templates and microservices have been at the forefront of innovation for a very long time.

Get in touch to learn more about SER’s vision and current capabilities to support your content challenges.

^{* Published: 23 July 2019, Analysts: Matthew Cain, Michael Woodbridge – login or payment required}
_{** Published: 10 July 2019, Analyst: Saul Judah – login or payment required}