apollon, the organisier of the OMN Innovation Day is amazed by the high number of participants
On 23rd May 2019, the 7th annual OMN Innovation Day took place at the Centre for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe. Internationally renowned digital experts, marketing and IT managers from the companies Fahrrad XXL, IKEA and ORSAY as well as technology partners of apollon GmbH+Co. KG spoke about “Digitization and AI” – the automation accelerator – at the exclusive marketing event for omnichannel commerce. A further part of the event was the first look at the upcoming release of OnlineMediaNet (OMN) the leading software for automated product data communication and omnichannel marketing. Around 250 specialists and executives from retail, mail order and industry came together to exchange ideas and be inspired by outstanding presentations. Jan Doering, freelance presenter and TV editor, hosted the event and held exciting live votes.
After Norbert Weckerle, CEO of apollon, had welcomed us, Dr Sven J. Koerner, the CEO of thingsTHINKING, kicked things off. Acclaimed in the press as one of the top 18 AI experts globally, Koerner took to the stage in keeping with his mantra “Life’s a rock show, better be on stage” and provided key insights into the world of artificial intelligence. On top the theoretical side, there was also some practical information. Nico vom Hagen, Head of IT at Fahrrad-XXL.de , presented the challenges of an ERP and parallel PIM implementation. Of particular interest were his ideas on the best practices companies should consider before implementing a PIM system.
Next up, Niklas Schultes took over. Trained as an advertising and fashion photographer, he was a long-term manager at Otto and was one of the drivers of Otto’s digital transformation. He is currently shaping the future of marketing at ORSAY as its interim Head of International Marketing. In his presentation, Mr Schultes gave an overview of ORSAY’s innovative projects in connected commerce.
This led seamlessly into the next presentation of a customer project – the multinational furniture group, IKEA. Adam Wretström and Robert Winstanley, both responsible for media production at IKEA, presented IKEA’s content strategy and gave insights into how OnlineMediaNet supports them in their day-to-day jobs globally, using the legendary IKEA catalogue and other ecommerce channels as examples.
Before the break, Oliver Kählert, Managing Director of e-velopment, presented just how crucial cross channel interaction with customers really is and how PIM systems are changing from master data managements systems to a central and digital core system for all marketing and sales processes.
After the refreshments, the programme continued. Thomas Bacani, Senior Sales Manager at Across Systems, presented the translation management of multilingual content. The audience was able to experience how they make their product information fit for international e-commerce. Following on from this, Johannes Betz, Head of Marketing & Academy at GMG, took over and led the guests into the world of colours. He demonstrated how to reliably achieve the right colours in today’s workflow, for example, with our mutual customer, IKEA.
The apollon presenters, Johannes Haas and Xuetao Li, were up next. They detailed the importance of good content in product communication and why master data alone isn’t sufficient. Using the excellent “live“ example of “Alexa“, Mr Haas and Mr Li showed us clearly that goods won’t sell without good data. A short break for a shot or two of coffee, apollon provided the presenters for the next presentation about AI in the form of Oliver Baum and Michael Deisler. We were enthralled as we found out how product content can be created and processed automatically with OMN and AI-based services, and this at all levels of the product data journey. Complete automation from product creation to product images to the production of product texts.
Impressed by the power of AI and the reduction in non-value added marketing activities, another highlight soon followed. Tobias Marks, Sales Director at apollon, gave a first insight into the new version of OMN – OMN5. The user interface was significantly optimized, and is now completely based on HTML5 technology and the latest II/UX insights to give the user an even more intuitive user experience. Thanks to the use of HTML5 the new version is even quicker, as well as adding even more security and flexibility. New search and workflow technologies, innovative marketplace connections and features such as an integrated spell check, inline table editing,an integrated dashboard and AI-based services complete the new version.
The icing on the cake was Prof. Dr. Klemens Skibicki, better known as Prof Ski, our keynote speaker. A consultant on the topic of digital transformation, he simplified the transition into the digital age and convincingly showed us that the management of the digital future is, above all, a question of mentality.
Norbert Weckerle, CEO of apollon: “This year’s OMN innovation day was a roaring success. I was overwhelmed by the number of participants, absolutely delighted. Special thanks to all of our speakers for their impressive presentations, for their openness and constructive cooperation in preparing the event. Also many thanks to our host, Jan Doering, who, as always, guided us expertly through the day. I would also like to thank Wenke Wuhrer, our events specialist, and her experienced team, as well as everyone else who contributed to this event and its preparation. The greatest thank you of all goes to our guests for coming, trusting us and giving us their valuable time. I am already looking forward to next year’s OMN Innovation Day, which as ever will be focused on marketing automation and omnichannel commerce.”
Further impressions, shared presentations as well as interviews with customers from a wide range business sectors can be found at: www.omn-innovation.de
