A) Smart Process Apps (SPA) and intelligent BPMS (iBPMS)– Are they Really the Savior for the Future?
Forrester is pushing the term SPA (Smart Process Apps) and Gartner the term iBPMS (intelligent Business Process Management Suite). Both trends are gaining traction in our ecosystem. Are vendors just repositioning existing products or are they creating new apps for new buyers with new business challenges by integrating analytics, social and mobile technologies into their processes and the applications they enable ? What is the reality around this repositioning? In this round-table we will share our experiences and discuss the following points:
- How does the SPA definition translate to actual offerings?
- Can the promise of faster ROI / rapid onboarding compared to BPM be delivered? How?
- How are leading vendors pricing smart process apps and are customers happy with these pricing models?
- How do vendors sell SPAs in the ecosystem with their channel partners?
- As solutions have more and more App components is the granularity of a solution getting smaller and cheaper or is the value equation just the same as before?
- Are customers actively discovering, defining and designing smart process solutions?
- Are buyers for smart process apps new buyers, existing buyers with new business challenges or existing buyers with the same business challenges as before?
B) Compensating & Reinventing Channel Partners In The Era of Cloud Computing
The cloud is fundamentally changing the way that ISVs market and sell their products. It is also changing the way IT departments buy and use software. However, we often overlook how the cloud revolution affects channel partnerships. In the era of cloud computing, if vendors and their partners don’t update their channel strategy, they risk being marginalized. Channel partners are seeing their businesses disrupted as cloud computing takes much of the installation expertise required out of setting up the solution. At the same time, in a SaaS/subscription environment the ISV is only making a fraction of the revenue each month and cannot afford to pay commissions for life-time values when the revenue is only generated incrementally. In this session we want to exchange views on:
- Do ISVs need channel partners when trying to transfer their customer relationships to online channels?
- How can channel partners contribute in the value chain for the new online customers?
- Can a VAR change his identity to become a provider of solutions and “Services” (MSP) rather than a simple “Reseller” of solutions only?
- Why and how do software vendors and their channel partners need to rethink the way they sell and how they compensate their channel sales force?
- What happens in the era of cloud computing where subscriptions are the dominant payment method?
- What steps are vendors taking to simplify licensing models while also addressing the increasing need for the right compensation?
- What compensation models should ISVs use for their channel partners?
C) Next Generation Document Service BPOs- From Back-File Conversion to Lucrative Document Process Automation
The document service market is undergoing a lot of changes. Shrinking margins and volumes of paper and fierce competition from low wage countries are forcing BPOs to look for new ways to reduce cost, add more value and speed up their time to market. In this session we will discuss key business issues and challenges BPOs are facing when going down the road of transforming from legacy digitalization services such as back-file conversion and scan-to-archive to a profitable new business in scan-to-process and day-forward scanning services. In this round-table we will share our experiences and discuss the following points:
- As DBPOs want to add more value to their services by stepping into the automation of document driven processes, what are the transformation issues from an IT-infrastructure, talent and change management perspective?
- What are best practices, pitfalls and lessons to be learnt from plans and actions to transform a BPO business for future growth?
- What are the risks and threats that need to be managed?
- Which new type of technologies and solutions can be deployed, which new services can be offered (cloud, mobile, self-service…)?
- Which packaged solutions & services can bring quick ROIs and process improvements
- Which skills are required and which external help can DBPOs get?
D) AP Automation in the Cloud –now that this is a Reality, what are the Challenges?
Having established global AP Automation in the Cloud offerings, we want to sit back, share our experiences and gain an understanding of the challenges that you are facing. In this round-table we will share our experiences and discuss the following points:
- AP Automation in the Cloud – reality in some European markets – held back by data protection fears in others. What are your experiences, what are the trends? Which markets are ready now, which should be avoided
- What type of cloud-based AP Invoice Capture & Process Automation solutions are out in the market today? What does their user adoption look like?
- What are the drivers for customer prospects and who is most likely going to be a user?
- Target market segments – is this only for small enterprises?
- What is the best sales and marketing approach to get users online?
- Cloud crowd sourcing of e.g. supplier data – a model of the future? Risks and opportunities
E) Improving the Customer Experience and On-Boarding in a Dynamic World
Customer communication and engagement have changed dramatically over recent years. Factors such as mobility, social networking or being “always online” have completely reshaped our communication behavior. There is an increasing expectation by customers, suppliers and partners that business interactions are conducted in real time anywhere, on any device, and at any time. However for many enterprises, the customer’s needs can become lost and become subservient to structured processes and systems of record which attempt to standardize outputs. As such the customer on-boarding process is negatively impacted. Even worse, if there is no strategy on how to embrace the new communication paradigm, some corporations even decide to just continue as if nothing has happened. In this roundtable, we will share industry insight and experiences and discuss the following topics:
- What are typical real life customer cases of traditional versus new ways of customer engagement and on-boarding – The factors that determine the success? –
- How can new content and process approaches affect business agility?
- Which dynamic approaches are required to free skilled workers to accomplish a greater variety of more personalized tasks?
- Which technologies and business actions are required to bring the necessary change in practice?
- Can technologies such as Capture, ECM, BPM, and Dynamic Case Management, packaged with mobility and analytics help to deliver compelling, more personalized, and more varied customer experience? How?
- Who can sell it and who can implement it?
F) Lead Generation in a Social Marketing & Solution Sales World
As the range of media channels available to marketers has grown and changed with the arrival of social media and customer loyalty tools, and as customers increasingly demand easy to buy and deploy solutions, how can Sales & Marketing align to get the best results from lead generation and pipeline building investments. In this session we want to exchange our views on:
- How are information management solutions bought by end users and what sources of data do they use to help make their decisions?
- Does selling an information management “solution” always have to be a high cost sales and marketing effort?
- What are the best practices for lead generation including the right metrics and the best tools/systems?
- What role can social media play in the generation of leads for information management solutions?
- How do the leading vendors create and curate customer and prospect communities using social media tools?
- What are the best practices for nurturing opportunities and how do you build, clean and close the pipeline?
- What is needed to measure customer loyalty and its impact of pipeline metrics & predictability?
G) Moving from On-Premise Software to Cloud Services: The Impact on the IM-Software Vendors’ Business
Cloud –based Information Management software is still in its infancy. For software vendors the move towards cloud solutions implies profound changes in their value-creation logic. Not only are they forced to deliver fully web-enabled solutions and to replace their license model with service fees, they also need to build the competencies to host and manage business-critical applications for their customers. It affects all business model co
mponents, that is, the customer value proposition, resource base, value configuration, and financial flows.
In this roundtable we want to share our issues and lessons learned when transforming from an on premise-based software business to a cloud-based one and discuss the following points:
- Why are vendors reluctant to introduce cloud offerings?
- How long does the transformation take to rework solutions to become fully web-enabled and to serve multiple customers with the same instance?
- How is offering cloud solutions impacting the various vendors’ business components such as model configurations, customer value proposition, resource base, value configuration, and cash flows?
- What is the risk of losing traditional customers versus winning new ones?
- How are customers choosing their SaaS providers ?
- Do you need localized clouds, private, or public clouds ?
- How can you assess if your software company will be able to manage new challenges and responsibilities in providing SLAs, new pricing models, technical support staff, application transformation, cloud infrastructure and data center?
H) Finding The Signal in the Noise: Advanced & Predictive Analytics
From data mining several years ago to predicting the future? Many companies still wonder what predictive or advanced analytics can mean for them. Is it truly the next generation that will limit their business risk or is it still too complex and only useful for large enterprises. In this session we want to exchange our views on:
- Do all companies have big data without even knowing it?
- Do they need tools and systems in order to maximize the value of their data or can this be solved without complex IT systems?
- What is the current situation in the market, who are the main users of Analytic tools?
- Can this be made easily accessible for companies of all sizes?
- How can channel partners get started and benefit from the Advanced Analytics market?
I) Challenges of jointly managing Omni-channel Input & Output for Better Customer Engagements
Business is changing drastically from traditional content, output or repository based systems to an integrated information exchange between companies. A capture solution is not simply meant to optimize paper based systems but to connect the overall information exchange. This is where input meets output and vice versa. In this session we want to exchange our views on:
- How does the current market look with regard to current omni-channel input and output scenarios?
- Which will be the most appropriate input and output channels for smart communication and exchange in the future and which ones will be less relevant?
- Which content will be managed via which channels?
- Analyze the current status from a technological, legal and behavioral point of view
- How can we enhance and improve business productivity while decreasing communication issues? What are the key technology issues to overcome?
- How can we simplify and improve the user’s experience when she/he is engaging with organizations via multiple favored communication channels?
- Discuss solutions that vendors, integrators and consultants could provide for this market.
J) Mobile Apps, Devices and Content in a Mobile Work Environment
Although strategies around mobility, cloud, apps, and the usage of mobile devices have been on everyone’s lips for many years already, only a limited number of companies have truly embraced and implemented them. However as the mobile workforce and overall employee workload has steadily increased over the years, it has become necessary for companies to offer remote working provisions so their workforce can be closer to the customer and their mobile workers become more self-sufficient. Thereby mobile workers are now being expected to capture, review and/or approve documents, communicate to clients on the road, make appointments and business decisions from wherever they may be. In doing so they are expected to be actioning more work via their mobile devices and to be as productive as if they would be in the office. In this round-table we will share our experiences and lessons learned when implementing mobile solutions and will discuss the following points:
- Which solutions have been implemented that truly enable productivity and efficiency increases in a mobile work environment? Which apps versus smart apps?
- Which are the preferred devices and how do you leverage cloud serv
ices? - How do you measure the desired ROI and/or planned intangible benefits of such solutions?
- What are the metrics: Did sales go up? Did personnel get freed up? Did cost savings materialise? Did customer satisfaction increase?
- Will BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and WYOD (Wear Your Own Devices) bring up new technology frameworks for workforces in the near future?
- How will current on-premises capture, content and records management applications meet this challenge?
- How will hybrid ECM systems become capable of delivering the anticipated required information to any device based on analytics driven by Big Data and the needs of the specific mobile knowledge worker?
K) The Future of the Channel – What are the Challenges, Threats and Opportunities in today’s Rapidly Changing Market?
Recent, disruptive forces in IT – including the Consumerization of IT, Mobility and Cloud technologies – have transformed “traditional” markets, shifted the nature of competition (and cooperation), and disrupted purchasing models. Nowhere is this more evident than in the changing relationships among customers, channel partners and vendors. In this roundtable, we will share industry insight and experiences and discuss the following topics:
- Working together: The triumvirate of customer, channel partner and vendor
- Forces at work: What are the main issues we see today? What are the risks?
- Market trends – What market forces do we need to pay attention to right now? How are these being addressed? By whom?
- IT professionals in the new world: What new skills, capabilities and knowledge is required? How and who can deliver value to the channel partners?
- Enablement and Engagement: Are there new rules of customer engagement? How does this impact channel partners? The vendor?
- Successful alignment – how can “1 + 1 = 3” (“partner” + “vendor” = “new business opportunity”)
L) The Changing Face of Document Capture and the Value Proposition
The Document Capture industry has changed dramatically from its roots in scanning paper to today’s diversity of content capture. The proportion of paper documents is shrinking, and the variety of multichannel-input sources and new capture devices that are smart, mobile and available everywhere and to everybody are changing the behaviour of business stakeholders (e.g. customers, suppliers, creditors and employees) more quickly than ever before, creating a demand for better and faster services. New content capture solutions will need to address these customer needs and change more dramatically over the next 3-5 years than ever before. In this session we want to exchange our views on:
- What needs to be considered when building Capture solutions that respond to the various trends such as reduced IT budgets, mobility, unstructured big data, multichannel engagement, social media, customer-centricity, cloud, touchless processing, etc.?
- Where do we see the priorities?
- What kind of components are under threat of commoditisation and which ones are still badly needed?
- How are customer expectations changing with regard to document processing given the trends mentioned above?
- How relevant is Document Capture going to be versus other enterprise applications?
- How do we experience the adoption of cloud computing in the markets we operate in?
N) SharePoint at the Crossroads – Do we have to plan for a Post-SharePoint Future?
SharePoint has had a major impact on the overall reach of document management and ECM. Being an IM-swiss knife, it has brought up many ‘good-enough ‘- ECM features, but customers need to rely on the third-party SI and ISV ecosystem to deliver add-ons and special customizations to make SharePoint work as a fully functioning ECM solution. Meanwhile Microsoft will continue to support on premise deployments for years to come, but new features, products, and services seem to be released to the cloud versions only, that are not available to on-premise customers. Many of these on-premise customers cannot go to the cloud because of regulatory restrictions or complex, customized implementations that prevent adopting SharePoint Online. Others do not trust the cloud or see no reason to change, so they won’t make the move. In this round-table we will share our experiences and discuss the following points:
- Will future differences of the on-premise and online versions of SharePoint split the SharePoint community?
- How will this change the third party ISV/SI ecosystem of SharePoint?
- Will SharePoint remain a good bet for ECM Software vendors and System Integrators for their future growth strategy?
- Which add-ons and applications are poised to succeed and which ones may fail in this cloudy SharePoint future?
- Do on-premise customers have to plan for a post-SharePoint future?
- What help can and do we expect from Microsoft?
M) How Linguistic Analytics can Mitigate Risk, Increase Efficiency, and Drive Revenue
Semantic analysis changes the game in traditional information processing by delivering insights and intelligence that can automate business processes or enable a whole new generation of search and discovery applications. Understanding the deep meaning of documents, as well as extracting facts and relationships, creates new opportunities for enterprise applications with complex and/or Big Content data sets, exploding the limitations inherent to traditional Boolean keyword search and statistical classification. In this interactive roundtable we will share our experiences and explore key issues, including:
- How semantic analysis can “change the game” for managing large amounts of information that every enterprise is exposed to day by day?
- How to identify use cases that your customers care about, from risk mitigation to business process efficiency to revenue creation
- Which vertical solutions can drive adoption and maximize value from semantic technologies?
- How does linguistic analytic and semantic technology work?
- How can semantics provide the next step for document classification?
O) Product Portfolio and Brand Strategies for Entry, Exit and Success
As software functionality becomes increasing componentized what are the best practices in product portfolio management, packaging, pricing and branding to maximize value and ease the selling process. In this round-table we will share our experiences and discuss the following points:
- Managing a portfolio of products effectively – what are the processes that work?
- How do leading vendors package suites of product functionality together to make it easy for buyers to assimilate, understand and procure?
- Corporate, solution and product level branding strategies that work best – how to plan and implement?
- What are the challenges in creating consistent messaging and positioning strategies for complex product portfolios and how to overcome them?
- New product introduction – organic and acquisition based – are there really any short cuts?
- Integrating acquired technology, functionality and product suites into existing brand architectures and product portfolios – why is it so hard?
- Can you sell products as solutions and solutions as products?
P) Enterprise Information Management or is straight forward ECM sufficient?
Most companies are using in one way or the other a system to manage their content, processes and data. This includes various platforms which are integrated or connected in an attempt to cover the entire information management process. Until recently, much of the integration work was done with an internal focus to integrate content with process and capture etc.
Nowadays, emphasize is shifting according to Gartner to a fully digitized business in which companies eliminate paper and connect their business processes for an optimized collaboration. In this session we want to exchange our views on:
- What does this mean for what we see as the ECM industry?
- Is it important to have a common expression in the market that covers the “digital era”?
- What new innovations are required in order to meet these new market demands or challenges?
- Does this require further standardization and what other impacts may it have?
Q) Is Information Governance simply a new hype or a serious aspect that cannot be ignored?
Content is being captured and typically is required to remain available for a certain time. Storage is piling up whilst no one really knows when to delete what and how to keep control over the ever growing content spread over a multitude of repositories. Information Governance appears to be the new hype and a must have solution or is it new wine in old bottles? I
n this round-table we will share our experiences and discuss the following points:
- Is there a compelling need for companies to have a Governance policy in place for their content?
- For who is this relevant?
- Are there already compliancy/regulations in place that enforce such governance
- Is this not something that can easily be added by existing ECM vendors as part of their ECM suite or is this really a new technology sector with its own dynamics
- Are their regional differences applying on IG?
R) The ECM Road to 2020- Competition, Commoditisation & Consolidation
Acquisitions have always been commonplace in the still fragmented ECM technology sector. Companies like Filenet, Documentum have been absorbed by Tier1 companies capable of serving customers globally. In the meantime, the ECM has kept growing with an estimated 20,000 companies operating predominantly in the ECM sector globally. It has continued to innovate with new applications and focus niches. Gartner predicts it will grow from a US$5-6B market into a US$ 10B market over the next few years. But the market is becoming more and more crowded and competitive with many vendors offering similar products and solutions. The differences between these solution offerings have become less clearly differentiated as the technology within these solutions have converged. At the same time, many ECM companies are privately owned, relatively small, not globally operating and still managed by the founders who, after running this for 20-30 years, are nearing their retirement age. In this round-table we will share our experiences and discuss the following points:
- What do these changing dynamics in the ECM market have as an impact on our business locally?
- How will the structure of the market look like and change during the next 5 years?
- Is ECM becoming a commodity and will the market become dominated by only large vendors with global distributing capabilities?
- What are the major threats & challenges facing vendors in this sector and what actions should they consider now to survive & thrive during the next 3-5 years.
- Can we keep up with the technological demands in the near future?
- For how long will we still speak of ECM?
