AEM Forms Forum 2023

In 2013, eggs unimedia hosted the Adobe technology event around forms and processes for the first time, at that time still under the name Adobe LiveCycle User Forum. The event format has always offered a compact opportunity to learn more about the leading forms and document platform from Adobe and to be inspired by renowned industry and technology experts. As always, there was plenty of inspiration, real-world examples from companies, strategy thoughts and deep insights into Adobe technologies.

For this year's anniversary edition of the AEM Forms Forum, eggs unimedia announced in advance that there would be a surprise guest after the lunch break. However, nothing more was revealed.

Professor Dr. Christian Stummeyer, holder of the professorship "Business Informatics and Digital Commerce" at the TH Ingolstadt, introduced the day with an exciting keynote. In the first part, he described "the customer of the future" and vividly illustrated which consumer types companies will have to adapt to in the future. The preferences of digital natives are very different from those of traditional consumers and are characterized by mobile use, "Amazonization," sustainability, personal appeal, convenience, social media and influencers.

The second part of the presentation dealt with the megatrend "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) with its various facets such as Large Language Models (e.g. ChatGPT) or generative AI (e.g. Adobe Firefly). Prof. Stummeyer presented the possibilities as well as the current limits of the technology very clearly. The dream team of the future is "customer & AI". The preferences of the "customers of the future" will be taken into account by companies and AI will provide support in addressing them personally.

eggs unimedia helps BMW Group turn test drive registration into a digital experience with Adobe Experience Manager Forms. Why is this so critical? Test drive sign-up forms are at one of the most important points in a potential car buyer's digital customer journey: because this is when a website visitor becomes a lead - or not. Natalia Deriagina from BMW and Christoph Behounek from eggs unimedia took the participants on an impressive journey. eggs unimedia developed a globally deployable solution for the BMW Group's so-called Request Forms based on AEM Forms, which takes into account the special requirements of 180 markets, different car configurations per market, integrations with third-party systems such as Stock Locator, Dealer Search, Customer Management System, different data protection requirements, etc., as well as covering 40 language versions.


After that, it was time for the lunch break. Also on the second day of the event series, the catering was praised in the highest tones.

The surprise guest of the day was awaited with great excitement. It was Stefan Kröll, cabaret artist from the district of Rosenheim and nationally known from performances at the Schlachthof or Lustspielhaus Munich. With his current program "Aufbruch" he has been on tour for a year and at the AEM Forms Forum he played a "Best of". With his interlude in best Bavarian he provided for many thigh knockers and an ideal mood for the afternoon. By now, at the latest, everyone in the room knew the meaning of "glabbal" (sandals) and "wax" (pointed, sharp-edged), which Kröll said was one of the most beautiful words in Old Bavarian.

Afterwards, things got technical again. Mareike Krüger and Nadine Herczeg from HDI global SE took the stage and gave the participants an insight into the current project. The two speakers are employed in the Process Governance and Optimization department and are responsible for process planning, analysis, control and monitoring.

HDI global is part of the Talanx Group, operates in over 175 countries and is one of the leading B2B insurers. Last year, HDI global introduced AEM Forms as a cloud service and, with the help of eggs unimedia, began digitizing the first processes based on AEM Forms. The agile way of working and the MVP approach to project planning ensured rapid implementation.

In the meantime, there are internal best practices and the successes of the past months have generated a lot of attention and interest in the solution - without actively marketing it. In the future, all claims notifications in the industrial customer segment are to be converted to AEM Forms, and a cross-functional team for the creation of forms is to be established for this purpose. Julian Manzel from eggs unimedia, who has been involved in the project as a consultant from the beginning, reported on the approach to implementation. This was characterized by a focus on standard functionalities, agility, an MVP approach and an early enablement of HDI.

Much has changed in the past 10 years. One thing has remained the same. Martin Grimm from eggs unimedia has always given the talk on what's new in AEM Forms, and in this context he also illustrates the full capabilities of the platform.

A lot has happened in the past 12 months: for example, an Adaptive Form Wizard for creating forms was added. In May 2023, Adobe released an integration of Adaptive Forms Core Components into the AEM Page Editor in the prerelease stage. This is an important new feature because it improves form versioning, Adobe Target integration, multi-site management, live copies, and the use of AEM Sites themes. Another new feature is the so-called "Next Gen Composability". Behind this is the ability for authors to create forms using their "favorite tools" outside of AEM, such as Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets in the cloud. Incoming form data is then stored directly in Excel spreadsheets or Google Sheets in the cloud. This capability is currently still in Adobe's VIP program and customers can participate upon request.

The biggest new feature of AEM Forms is Headless Adaptive Forms. A separate presentation was dedicated to this new technology as the grand finale of the event.

Headless is a software architecture in which the presentation layer of the front end is decoupled from the back end so that content or services can be delivered across multiple platforms and devices. So with Headless Adaptive Forms, companies can natively integrate forms into desktop and mobile apps, websites and chat apps.

Dominik Emmert from Adobe and Jan-Erik Timme from eggs unimedia dedicated themselves to this brand-new topic and vividly demonstrated the possibilities and advantages.


In their live demo, they showed how customers of the fictitious demo brand "Ampleggs Engineering" can request maintenance of their solar system via a "headless" form. The request form was integrated with different applications (app, customer portal) that brought their own front end. All changes in the backend of the form are passed directly through to the application without the need for deployment.

In the future, it will also be possible to integrate headless adaptive forms into the WhatsApp messenger service, including prefill service, field validation and submit action.

We are currently only at the beginning of the Headless trend, because with the ever-increasing number of touchpoints (app, web, chat, digital signage, voice, metaverse, etc.), this architectural approach is becoming more and more important.

In their live demo, they showed how customers of the fictitious demo brand "Ampleggs Engineering" can request maintenance of their solar system via a "headless" form. The request form was integrated with different applications (app, customer portal) that brought their own front end. All changes in the backend of the form are passed directly through to the application without the need for deployment.

The event ended at 4 p.m. In summery temperatures, people talked shop and exchanged ideas for a long time on the terrace in front of the small locomotive hall.