On 18 October 2018, some 400 participants – the largest number ever – attended the 15th annual conference of novomind AG, which was held under the motto “gemeinsam.entdecken” (share the discovery). The software developers from Hamburg welcomed customers, partners and friends at the venerable Curio Haus at Rothenbaumchaussee. Among them were decision-makers from leading companies such as OTTO, Görtz, Deichmann and HanseMerkur. The number of international participants has also increased year after year – this time, a Messenger expert from California’s Silicon Valley traveled the longest distance to attend the conference.
“Passion, passion, passion” – in his welcome address, CEO Peter Samuelsen highlighted one of the key ingredients in novomind’s formula for success. “We want our software products to be the best in their respective segments worldwide – and this is possible only with expertise and passion.” In keeping with the motto of the conference, he then embarked on a discovery tour of the latest opportunities, prospects and possibilities of Commerce and Customer Service Software, the two business units of novomind.
Author and publisher Sascha Lobo marked out the general framework of the conference topics. In his keynote address entitled “On the stupidity of digital customers”, he explored the change processes in society initiated by the Internet. His theory: The “exponential progress caused by data streams” as a prerequisite for a new "platform capitalism" ultimately leads – in the post-smartphone era – to a new, revolutionary "Robotic Social Commerce". The basic precondition for this is the smart further development of artificial intelligence.
This has been one of novomind’s key topics for the past 18 years: the intelligent use of speech pattern recognition in the development of commerce and customer service software. novoinsight then presented the state of the art in three different topic slots.
The “Customer Service Software” slot was dedicated to the central novomind iAGENT communication platform and the intelligent use of as many channels as possible – and certainly of the right ones – for the best possible customer communication. The experts from California and Dubai had interesting news to tell about messenger commerce and chatbots and so had their fellow IT experts from Germany’s HanseMerkur health insurance fund or Dortmund’s energy and water utility.
The “Commerce Software” slot addressed the growing range of solutions surrounding the powerful and flexible novomind iSHOP shop system. More and more of today’s customers opt for flexible SaaS solutions such as novomind iSHOP. They are the optimum, forward-looking basis for modern omni-channel commerce, which was graphically illustrated by brand shops such as Görtz and Lloyd Shoes. It goes without saying that any successful e-commerce strategy today also requires a professional PIM system and international marketplace integration. Impressive practical examples, e.g. from OTTO, Klingel Group and Deichmann, showed how the individual systems and components for online retailing can be coordinated for optimum interaction.
novomind 2018/2019: growth, partnerships, internationalization
As an annual conference, each novoinsight serves as a performance and benchmark check for the company. novomind has been growing at a double-digit rate for many years and is pursuing a controlled growth strategy. Two factors take center-stage, namely internationalization and partnerships. Following a first branch in Alexandria, novomind has opened a second international branch in Dubai this year to make further inroads into the Middle Eastern and North African (MEA) markets. And this year’s exhibit at DMEXCO in Cologne served as a symbol for the company’s future strategy – novomind teamed up with six specialized partner companies for an eminently successful trade fair presentation.
“Being a Hanseatic company firmly rooted in Hamburg, we have ambitious but also realistic ideas for our future,” says CEO Peter Samuelsen. “We want to push ahead with our internationalization and sign up further partners to achieve our goals.” Another big step has already been taken this year: In August 2018, novomind became one of a few select enterprises worldwide that are allowed to integrate the WhatsApp Business API for their customers. As an official WhatsApp Business solution provider, novomind has opened another door to the global commerce and customer service software market for itself and its customers.
Schließen