• the use of our admin console to easily create and manage all your content
• chatbox customisation, with our dydubox
• access to pre-defined analytical reports to monitor your virtual agent’s ongoing performance 
• a ready-to-use knowledge base for Expert chatbots

Our pricing mainly depends on the expected number of dialogues. 

Our subscriptions are on an annual, renewable basis and include:

• the licence to use the solution and its advanced natural language processing algorithm
• standard shared SaaS hosting in France (also available in dedicated version on AWS and Azure in the European Union) 
• access to all our online documentation and video tutorials
• access to our support service, on working days between 9:30am and 6pm
• regular project follow-up

Optional 

Depending on your needs, there are options to enable certain advanced features, such as:

• duplicating the use of your bot in another language or for different consultation spaces
• enabling bulk data import / export (always in compliance with GDPR)
• managing unlimited user profiles

During the implementation phase:

• training, knowledge base creation support, use of advanced features, connection to APIs, etc.
• continuous monitoring for the optimisation and improvement of your bot, our teams can offer personalised support

At dydu, the bot administrator creates the knowledge base from scratch, so it’s not really machine learning. Our solution also doesn’t learn alone, we use a supervised learning mode.

Supervised learning here means that the action of a human, in this case the bot’s administrator, is required to ensure that the bot understands your users. We use supervised learning modules. These modules aim to help the bot administrator manage and improve the business knowledge articles by providing suggestions for improvements according to matching, suggestions for knowledge that is too close, quality alerts, audit reports, etc.

Bot management by a team of operational staff, with a well-defined scope, allows to properly manage the answers provided to users and to obtain a high level of user satisfaction from the start, unlike machine learning that requires a lot of data, and therefore dialogues, so that the bot can learn by itself.

The distance calculation method means that an algorithm directly calculates the distance between the user’s questions and the sentences in the knowledge base. The closer the user’s question is to a reference (same words/lemmas, in the same order or not), the higher the matching score. Read our article to find out more about matching scores.

Supervised learning here means that the action of a human, in this case the bot’s administrator, is required to ensure that the bot understands your users. We use supervised learning modules. These modules aim to help the bot administrator manage and improve the business knowledge articles by providing suggestions for improvements according to matching, suggestions for knowledge that is too close, quality alerts, audit reports, etc.

Dydu also owns its own matcher, meaning that we designed our own algorithm to match two elements together. To put it simply, our linguistic component calculates the distance between the user’s request and all the sentences in your chatbot’s knowledge base. If the distance is low, the chatbot can provide an answer to the question. This enables the chatbot to provide far more relevant answers than those using a key words system. This operating mode also enables to quickly identify requests that need to be added to the knowledge base, without constantly having to check what already works.

Other external matchers can be used in addition for our SaaS customers, Microsoft Luis and Q&A.

Supervised learning here means that the action of a human, in this case the bot’s administrator, is required to ensure that the bot understands your users. We use supervised learning modules. These modules aim to help the bot administrator manage and improve the business knowledge articles by providing suggestions for improvements according to matching, suggestions for knowledge that is too close, quality alerts, audit reports, etc.

The more the chatbot is used, the more it can learn with features that aim to help the bot administrator manage and improve its knowledge articles.

Using an external matcher can increase the chances of direct matching, i.e., providing the user with a correct answer and therefore increasing customer satisfaction. However, this is less true for French-language bots, where dydu is the market leader thanks to a highly effective matcher. External matchers could be useful, in addition to dydu’s matcher, for other languages though, for which our NLP (Natural Language Processing) component is less well-trained. This could make your bot even more effective.

If you are interested in using external matchers, especially for languages other than French, we can offer Microsoft Luis and Q&A in addition to our dydu matcher.

When users ask a question and exchange with the bot, they can therefore answer in natural language or click on one of the buttons (bot suggestions). These are guided choices.

Let’s take the example of the chatbot on our webpage. If you ask, “what are your offers?”, the bot will suggest 3 buttons to guide the user.

In SaaS (Software as a Service) mode, we host your project on dedicated and shared servers. We guarantee a software update every 15 days.

However, if you opt to host on your own servers, in on-premise mode, we provide software LTS (Long Term Support) every three months. You do the upgrade yourself.

Ask for a free quote to find out everything about the cost of hosting your project in SaaS mode !

Our BMS is intuitive, effective and easy-to-use for everyone. You don’t need IT skills to make your bot a success, but business expertise and knowledge of your customers, employees and users’ needs, in order to provide them with the right answers and solutions.

During the bot implementation phase, our project managers will train you on how to use the BMS and provide you with the best practices for building a knowledge base.

Once your operational staff have been trained to use our user interface, they can create and manage the chatbot completely autonomously.

The time spent managing your bot depends on its scope and your own organisation. It is important to spend as long as necessary on bot management, especially at the beginning.

Regular bot management will also enable you to instantly adapt to difficult situations. 70% of our bot users (whether internal or customer bots) reported that their chatbots were even more useful during a crisis (Chatbot Observatory, April 2019 and March 2020).

Your CSM will :

• Help you improve your knowledge base (use of features, optimisation of your existing knowledge)
• Monitor your chatbot: KPI monitoring, extraction and formatting of analytics, preparation and holding of steering committees
• Carry out a scoping of desired / required changes
• Share their expertise

Depending on your needs, we can also offer :

• Bot performance and knowledge base audits
• Training courses
• Workshops
• Technical expertise: chatbox changes, additional API settings, server migration, etc.

This support is optional and comes at an extra cost.

Chatbot customisation includes :

• Text elements: your bot’s name, GDPR disclaimer, onboarding, header title, banner, welcome sentence, etc.
• Graphic elements: font, colours, avatar, logo, etc.
• Features: enlarge, reduce, collapse buttons, “copy conversation” and “contact” tabs, feedback, language display, character counter, etc.
• Your brand’s tone: language, jokes, emojis or gifs, etc.

You can deploy your chatbot autonomously and configure and customise the front-end of your bot with the dydubox interface. This enables you to easily try out different chatbox designs, text and features, and to change them whenever you want.

Additional answers

This enables you to complete an answer or to configure an action, based on data provided during the dialogue. The bot identifies pre-defined words and triggers an action.

For example, the bot could trigger an escalation to a human operator after 3 misunderstandings or if the user utters the words “terminate my contract”.

Alternative answers

The bot can answer the same question differently if it is asked several times. This improves the conversational experience, by making the bot sound more natural.

For example, if a user asks “how to contact customer services” twice in the same conversation, the chatbot can provide the same answer phrased differently, because it has alternative answers for this question.

Push rules (behavioural targeting)

This feature allows to observe the end-user’s browser behaviour and trigger an action at the right moment. For example, the chatbot could pop up and offer to help if the user is inactive on the site for more than X minutes.

Context conditions

This feature allows to condition a bot’s answer according to the value of a variable. To answer the question “I’m 21 years old, can I vote?”, the bot tests the value of the age variable (greater than or equal to 18 years) and provides the right answer according to this variable, instead of a generic answer, such as “any French citizen can vote from the age of 18”.

Consultation spaces

This enables the chatbot to adapt the answer to the user, depending on criteria such as which device they are using, or whether or not they are logged into their customer account (different answers to the same question according to these criteria).

Let’s take the example of a bot with two consultation spaces (mobile and PC) and a user who asks, “how to share my schedule”. If the user is asking this question from a mobile phone, the answer will be in text form. But if the user is using a PC, then the chatbot will provide a step-by-step tutorial in the sidebar.

Variables

User data can be retrieved during a conversation and used in an answer or API call. These variables can come from an explicit user declaration, a transfer to the chatbot (via its web page), or information from an API (e.g., name, age, type of contract, etc.).

Web services

By using web services from your chatbot’s knowledge base, you can access external information, such as tracking an order, or push information out to feed a CRM or ticket management tool, for example. If the bot is connected to a specific company app (CRM, IS, HRIS, etc.) via a web service, it can use the data to provide personalised answers.

]]> https://uat.dydu.ai/en/questions/features/what-features-does-your-software-include/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-features-does-your-software-include Thu, 06 Jan 2022 15:59:14 +0000 https://uat.dydu.ai/?post_type=dydu_faq&p=746060 Our software is the fruit of a decade of research in natural language processing, to enable our clients to create high-performing bots that can hold a smooth conversation and provide generic or personalised answers according to the user and context.

Some features aim to improve the end users’ experience (front), whereas others aim to improve the bot manager’s experience via the Bot Management System (BMS) (back).

Features to improve the end-user’s experience

• Understanding: Politeness and small talk, phrases, monitoring of activity and improvements
• Personalisation: authentication, variables, context conditions, behavioural targeting, web services
• Rich / natural conversations: additional / alternative answers, social base, rich content, accessibility

Features to improve the bot manager’s experience

• Bot management: WYSIWYG*, knowledge article status, comments
• Chatbox customisation via the dydubox: design, informative texts (such as GDPR disclaimer, introduction, etc.), features, channels
• Improvement: dashboard, analytics, matching knowledge, misunderstood sentences, audits, quality alerts

*WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get): a visual text editor that enables you to preview the text before it is published.

The bot’s use cases are defined alongside your project manager during the chatbot implementation. They will help you identify the features you need, and also train you to use them.

If your project requires a lot of customisation and advanced use cases, then you can access our advanced features.

However, you can also create a simple chatbot, using our software’s basic features to meet your needs and objectives.

To find out more, read our series of articles on key features according to your use case:

• Chatbots and Recruitment: Benefits and Keys to Success
• Customer Service Chatbots : Benefits and Keys to Success
• Chatbots and After-Sales-Services : Client testimonial

Dydu can currently understand 10 languages:

–        French

–        English

–        Spanish

–        Italian

–        Romanian

–        Portuguese

–        German

–        Dutch

–        Polish

–        Finnish

We recommend creating your bot in one language, deploying it, analysing the dialogues and making improvements, before translating into another language. This will enable you to identify the most frequently called upon knowledge articles and translate them first.

To translate a chatbot from a source language, you need to export your knowledge base, translate the articles while maintaining the structure, and import the translation. It is important to take great care when editing the file.

Once your chatbot has been deployed in several languages, it will detect your user’s browser or application language and select the most appropriate language by default. The user can also manually select a language in the chatbot, via the flag button.

Rich content includes :

• Formatting of bot responses: bold, italics, underlined, bullet points, colour text
• Integrating hypertext links, emojis, videos, images, gifs and documents (via hypertext links only) in your answers
• Sidebars: adding content outside of the answer bubble to provide additional information (with text, images, videos, step-by-step tutorials, etc.)

These features are available in the Bot Management System (BMS) when you create your knowledge base and are very easy to use.

Chatbots are usually integrated on a web page or on your entire intranet or extranet site via a floating button, for example. You can also deploy your chatbot on Google chat (Hangout), Messenger, Microsoft Teams, or mobile and desktop apps.

To integrate your bot on an external channel, you need a connector. A connector enables users to communicate with dydu bots on external channels, such as Google chat (Hangout), Messenger, MS Teams, etc. A connector is developed to match dydu features with those of the targeted channel. For example, how will text formatted in the back office be displayed on a channel like Slack? How are links displayed ?

Callbots are, by very definition, accessible by telephone (landline or mobile), via a phone number.

Voicebots can be accessed via connected objects that use voice, such as connected speakers, and can also be deployed as “voice chatbots”, to make them accessible for people with disabilities. They can be accessed in the same place as the chatbot (computer, tablet or mobile).

RPA is a technology that enables anyone to configure computer software, or a “robot” to emulate and integrate human actions within digital systems to perform end-to-end processes. RPA robots use the user interface to capture data and operate applications just like humans. They interpret, trigger responses and communicate with other systems to perform a wide range of repetitive tasks.

Connecting your bot to RPA technology enables your users to perform tasks directly in the bot, such as checking bills, making a claim, updating customer account information or changing a reservation. Your chatbot need to be connected to your company’s tools (CRM, IS, booking management tool, etc.).

We work with our partner UI PAth to connect bots with RPA technology.

At dydu, we’ve experimented 2 use cases with our partner UI PAth. We connected RPA technology to a customer relations chatbot, to change or cancel reservations.

To interconnect your bot with your applications, you need open APIs or web services. Our experts can carry out a feasibility study for you.

Here are some examples of possible interconnections (a non-exhaustive list) :

• JIRA : create a ticket, retrieve a ticket number, check your ticket status.
• Salesforce : retrieve and/or modify information from an account.
• SAP : check availability of a training course on a given subject, request and view leave balance, submit a leave request, get your last payslip.
• Service Now : create a ticket, retrieve a ticket number, check your ticket status.
• Remedy Force : create a ticket, retrieve a ticket number, check your ticket status.
• Easyvista : create a ticket, retrieve a ticket number, check your ticket status.
• Twilio : send an SMS, e.g., confirmation of recorded incident.
• Odigo, INNSO, Genesis, Cisco, etc. : livechat escalation.

Chatbox authentication :

End-users are authenticated and identified via the OpenID Connect Protocol (OIDC).

Identification consists in establishing the user’s identity, to know who is chatting with the bot. In other words, authentication provides proof of the user’s identity by answering the following question: “Are you really this person?”.

Only authorised persons can interact with a bot with restricted access. An unauthenticated end-user will not be able to interact with the bot. Authentication is also required for accessing strictly confidential information, for example a customer’s bank balance for a banking bot, or an employee’s leave balance for a HR bot.

Dydu BMS authentication :

Back office authentication, via Single Sign On (SSO), enables the knowledge base administrators to connect to the back office via a third-party authentication system.

This facilitates and secures access to the dydu back office.

Let’s take an example. If a team member wants to connect to the dydu back office, they don’t need a special dydu login ID or password. They can simply log in via their existing authentication system, such as a Gmail account or Active Directory. Watch this video to find out more about SSO login.

You can connect your bot to livechat so that users can continue their chatbot conversation with a human operator. You can define the moment when the chatbot suggests handing over to an agent, based on behavioural targeting rules (inactivity, number of unsatisfactory answers, etc.). The past dialogue is then sent to the operator, so that they can help the user. A new chatbox opens when the user switches to livechat.

You need to have an account with a livechat solution to connect your bot. This service incurs additional costs.

A project manager provides support during the implementation of your chatbot, which takes place in five phases :

1. Project launch: defining the objectives, scope and organisation of the project plan (drawing up a provisional schedule and weekly progress reviews).
2. Design of the journey through use case scoping workshops and user interface design workshops.
3. Training on our Bot Management System (BMS), its features, best practices for building the knowledge base, and our tools for continuous bot improvement (dialogue review, analytics and base enrichment module).
4. Configuration of the knowledge base: management of user rights, creation and enrichment of themes, knowledge articles, decision trees, and configuration of use cases and translation if necessary.
5. Acceptance: functional and technical acceptance with end-to-end testing before the deployment of your bot.

You’re now ready to manage your bot alone !

If you would like to benefit from our expert advice after you’ve deployed your bot and get the most out of all the solution’s features, you can opt for extra support with a Customer Success Manager.

This could include project monitoring, help in improving your knowledge base, performance audits, training, workshops or technical expertise for more specific needs.

Bots are created and managed by the departments implementing them, via our Bot Management System (BMS). This simple and intuitive interface allows you to set up your bot, create your questions and answers, try out the different features, configure the chatbox, view dialogues and analytics, etc.

While setting up your bot, a dydu project manager will train you on how to use our BMS and show you all our best practices to build your knowledge base.

Once your operational staff have been trained to use our interface, the BMS, they are autonomous in the creation and management of their chatbot.

How do I create a knowledge base?

You can create a knowledge base from scratch by creating knowledge articles, or you can use existing content, such as an FAQ page or an old chatbot. We also offer packages with ready-made knowledge bases for Human Resources or e-commerce.

You can also use a lot of our features to develop your knowledge base and identify areas to improve.

• You can use the WYSIWYG* text editor to easily add questions, phrases, matching groups and answers in different forms (classic, sidebar, quick reply, additional answers, etc.).
• Test each knowledge article in your BMS and improve it if necessary.
• Different statuses are available for each knowledge article (draft, published, etc.) with a comments feature, so that several people can work on the knowledge base at the same time.
• Monitor your bot’s performance with a comprehensive dashboard and advanced analytics. This will enable you to detect any friction points and identify areas to improve.
• Manage your chatbox by choosing the colour, font, avatar, text elements (name, text, GDPR) and channel on which you wish to deploy your chatbot.
• Advanced features enable you to further enrich your knowledge articles with decision trees, use cases (script), variables, software interconnection via BMS modules, etc. Find out more about our features.

*WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get): a visual text editor that enables you to preview the text before it is published.

You can therefore import knowledge that already exists, such as in an old chatbot or an FAQ page.

If you decide to use an FAQ though, make sure to shorten the text first, as it tends to be longer than a chatbot answer. We recommend knowledge articles of 300 characters at the most.

Remember to carefully prepare your Excel file before importing, so that the information is as clean and relevant as possible.

The import feature is also particularly useful if you want to make your bot available in other languages.

If you want to deploy your bot quickly, we recommend starting with a hundred or so knowledge articles and a limited scope. This scope should cover the highest priority user needs to deliver maximum value. Once the bot has been deployed, you can enrich your knowledge base and expand its scope gradually.

In our experience, bots work well with 200/300 knowledge articles. 80% of requests tend to call on 20% of the knowledge articles.

To accelerate the deployment of your knowledge base, you can also benefit from a ready-made knowledge base for Human Resources or e-commerce.

1. Project launch: defining the objectives, scope and organisation of the project plan during a kick-off meeting.
2. Design of the journey through workshops to define the use cases, callbot configuration and analytics, in order to define the user path(s) together, as well as the interconnections required, the bot’s answers and the indicators to be measured. This phase can be very quick if you’ve already identified the use cases.
3. Training on our Bot Management System (BMS), best practices for building the knowledge base, and our continuous bot improvement tools (dialogue review, analytics and base enrichment module). Training lasts approximately 2 days.
4. Configuration of the knowledge base: management of user rights, creation and enrichment of themes, knowledge articles, decision trees, and configuration of use cases. Personality, tone, nuances, short answers, pauses… All these aspects are worked on with our experts to make the conversation as natural as possible, for a seamless customer journey.
5. Acceptance: functional and technical acceptance with end-to-end testing before the deployment of your bot.

Thanks to our partnerships, we can focus on developing our solution, maximising our potential and building our catalogue.

We work with three types of partners:

• Reseller-integrators, trained to use our solution, who sell and deploy it.
• Technological partners: our solution can be associated with many third-part technologies, such as livechat, RPA, etc.
• Marketplaces and business providers that promote innovative solutions.

We’re always looking to extend our network of partners, whether they be commercial, technological or integrators. Feel free to send us a message on our Contact page and we’ll get back to you shortly !

• Reseller-integrators, trained to use our solution, who sell and deploy it. Talan, CGI, C2S, Devoteam, CGI and Sword are among our strategic partners. Our other partners include Téléperformance, Axyus and PixelRaise.
• Technological partners: our solution can be combined with various third-party technologies (livechat, RPA, etc.): Microsoft, UI Path, Voxygen.
• Marketplaces and business providers that promote innovative solutions: Speedianet and Altays.

We also develop products with some of our partners that meet specific client needs, dedicated to particular use cases or industries:

• A legal and tax chatbot in partnership with PwC: this chatbot, for employees working in legal and tax departments, includes a knowledge base with more than 350 articles (questions + answers) about various themes, such as contract law, commercial law, GDPR, tax credit management, international tax, etc.
• Zen, a Microsoft 365 chatbot with Talan: this chatbot helps employees get to grips with their Microsoft work environment: PowerPoint, OneNote, Windows 10, OneDrive, Teams, Planner, Forms, SharePoint, Stream, Kaizala, Yammer, etc. The Zen base includes more than 550 knowledge articles in French and English and is regularly updated.

Our solution can be used by employees working in any department, such as HR, Marketing, Communications or Customer Relations, and in any industry (banking, insurance, transport, energy, real estate, etc.).

Bots are created and managed by the department implementing them, via our Bot Management System (BMS). This simple and intuitive interface allows you to set up your bot, create your questions and answers, try out the different features, configure the chatbox, view dialogues and analytics, etc.

Our BMS is intuitive and easy-to-use. You don’t need IT skills to make your bot a success, but business expertise and knowledge of your customers, employees and users’ needs, in order to provide them with the right answers and solutions.

Once you decide who will manage your conversational robot, we provide support in the form of :

• Training on how to use the BMS, our good practices, and a conversational design (UX) workshop.
• A project manager to help you create your bot’s content and knowledge base, as per your users’ needs. You’ll also discover the solution’s features and how to get the most out of your bot. Your project manager will be by your side during the entire pre-deployment phase.
• Continued support (optional) with a Customer Success Manager if you so wish.

The support we provide aims to make you autonomous in managing your bot, even if you don’t have any technical skills.