Ground Breaking Year for noHold’s Artificial Intelligence Platform, SICURA®

December 26, 2019, MILPITAS, CA – As 2019 is coming to an end, we are happy to reflect on the milestones noHold was able to achieve this year. Here are a few of the major accomplishments:

• noHold launched several new AI offerings this year:
• Single Point of Search which provides companies that have multiple repositories of information, an easier way to find and efficiently deliver content to their customers.
• The HR Advisor, designed to help the HR staff of companies with a large or growing workforce. Employees can ask the Virtual Assistant a question and get an answer in real time. This leaves the HR department with more time/resources to handle the things that require human intervention.
• The Sales Companion – empowering sales teams to increase revenue and reduce sales cycles. This Virtual Assistant can be leveraged by the sales person, the sales manager, and the sales operations manager.
• noHold held its first AI symposium in Italy this summer. During this exclusive three-day event, attendees from all over the world joined together to receive personalized training and best practices by noHold experts.
• noHold has penetrated multiple new verticals this year including:
• Partnering with a financial institution that now utilizes Virtual Assistants for over 300 banks across the US.
• Also, deploying a Virtual Assistant for the Education space to more than 7500 Higher Education institutions.

“This year we have celebrated our 20th Anniversary, making noHold the most experienced company in the AI-based Virtual Assistant space. We couldn’t have done it without the support of our customers and the dedication of our employees,” said Diego Ventura, CEO and Founder of noHold Inc.

noHold Announces Sales Companion, the Virtual Assistant that Empowers Sales Teams to Increase Revenue and Reduce Sales Cycles

November 27, 2019, MILPITAS, CA – noHold is proud to announce its latest Virtual Assistant offering, the Sales Companion. Sales Companion is powered by noHold’s patented Artificial Intelligence platform, SICURA® and designed to help three different personas: The sales person, the sales manager, and the sales operations manager.

There are multiple advantages to the Sales Companion for the sales person. One is the ability to search for product information quickly, and easily forward that information on to prospects. This is not only convenient for the sales person, but it also improves the accuracy and consistency of the information being delivered to various prospects. Sales people can also leverage the Sales Companion to easily find arguments to handle objections, highlight competitive differentiators, search complex product catalogs, get assistance with the sales process itself, and find messaging templates.

Sales Managers also benefit from the Sales Companion Virtual Assistant by being able to communicate important messages to the team and encourage them to achieve their goals. It  also helps them make better use of material and techniques developed by marketing, and through metrics, managers can systematically capture what is most critical for their team.

For the Sales Operations Managers, the Sales Companion can be easily built and maintained because the Virtual Assistant is based on Artificial Intelligence developed by ingesting a single document to the noHold SICURA® QuickStart platform; no programming skills necessary.

Click here to see specific examples of how the Sales Companion can improve the sales cycle.

Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold, adds, “To ensure that the Sales Companion would be adopted by your team we focused on a few critical components. 1) An easy way for marketing and sales managers to communicate new opportunities to the team, 2) an easy way to capture what is important to the sales team and 3) an easy way to create and maintain the Sales Companion itself. Also, we designed flexible pricing that is proportional to the size of the team to guarantee ROI.”

noHold’s CEO, Diego Ventura, Invited to Speak at EDUCAUSE 2019

October 7, 2019, MILPITAS, CA – noHold’s CEO, Diego Ventura, is pleased to be speaking at one of the largest conferences for higher education IT professionals, EDUCAUSE 2019. The conference will be taking place in Chicago, Illinois on October 14^th to the 17^th. Diego, together with Borre Ulrichsen, CIO of Gonzaga University, will be presenting during the Lightning Round Session: Transforming the Student Experience. The session will emphasize the role Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing in higher education. Attendees will learn about implementing, deploying, and adopting AI technology to help students and faculty help themselves, while improving the overall experience.

In 2018, noHold announced it had been partnering with industry leaders to provide Virtual Assistant technology for over 7,500 educational institutions. Since then, noHold has made great progress in the higher education space, helping new customers such as Gonzaga University deploy an AI strategy that has innovated the way they connect with their students and faculty on campus. Moving forward, noHold’s hope is to continue to empower Higher Education to leverage Virtual Assistant technology that will help students as they navigate through the college experience with 24/7 access to the information they need, from any device, resulting in success throughout their college career. College staff will also benefit by capturing actionable metrics, increasing self-service, while relieving faculty/staff to focus on critical projects that require human intervention.

“I’m looking forward to being part of EDUCAUSE this year, sharing lessons learned and best practices along with Gonzaga University. We plan to share student sentiment around Virtual Assistants as well as ideas on how to increase adoption. You can attend our Lightning Round discussion on October 16^th, and also find me at the Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise booth, number 1839.” – Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold.

For more information about the EDUCAUSE conference, and Lightning Round session, you can visit http://bit.ly/EducauseAI.

noHold, Inc. AI-based HR Advisor Makes it Easy for Both Employees and HR Teams.

 August 29, 2019, MILPITAS, CA – noHold announces its latest offering, the HR Advisor. This AI-based Virtual Assistant is designed specifically to augment the way employees are able to effectively interact with HR.

After interviewing an HR Director of a Fortune 500 company based in the Silicon Valley, noHold was able to understand some of the top challenges HR Directors face. One of her major pain points was figuring out, “How can we continue to service our growing, global workforce with the same staff, but with 4 times the work?” The HR Advisor addresses this challenge by using Artificial Intelligence to answer employee questions that typically congest the HR department. Some examples of the repetitive types of questions that can be automated with the HR Advisor include “Is my family still covered while I am away?” or “How much time do I get for maternity leave?”

The HR Advisor can be built in minutes, with no programming skills necessary. You simply take your current employee handbook and upload that document into noHold’s SICURA® QuickStart platform, which will automatically transform your employee handbook into a Virtual Assistant. Here is a short video clip that shows you the process and outcome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDU9g9ql0uE&feature=youtu.be

In addition to decreasing the amount of questions that take up a significant amount of time from your HR staff, another benefit of leveraging AI within the HR department is the advantage of being able to capture “Voice of the Employee” data. According to a national study on satisfaction at work, 75% of employees would stay longer at an organization that listens to and addresses their concerns. The HR Advisor is a great way for employees to provide feedback and employers to turn that feedback into actionable metrics. 

noHold’s Artificial Intelligence Solution Enters the Financial Services Industry with 292 Banks Worldwide

July 30, 2019, MILPITAS, CA – noHold has partnered with one of the longest standing financial institutions in the United States, and now almost 300 banks around the US are utilizing noHold’s Virtual Assistant technology to help their clients.

The Virtual Assistant supports customers of various banks that have questions about their services. For example, the Virtual Assistant can answer questions about refinancing, escrow, property taxes, etc. The unique aspect of the Virtual Assistant is its ability to provide customer specific data through an API connection. This includes answering questions such as, “What is my interest rate?”, “How much is my monthly payment?”, or “What is my principle balance remaining?”

On average, the Virtual Assistant helps over 5000 customers per month, and yields an answer rate of 90%. For questions the Virtual Assistant is not familiar with, an option for escalating to a live agent is provided.

“In the FinTech space, security is paramount. In the last 24 months, noHold has focused on getting security and compliance accreditations ranging from SOC2 to GDPR. Responsible personal information management is not only a legal responsibility, but a social one as well,” said Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold, Inc.

Highlights from noHold's AI Symposium in Italy, 2019

Terrazza a Mare

noHold held its first AI Symposium July 17-19th in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy. The event took place at the Terrazza a Mare, with scenic views of the Adriatic Sea. After a continental breakfast, the first day covered the following sessions:

Andrea Sahli, noHold

-How to Make your Virtual Assistant Bulletproof, by Andrea Sahli, Implementation Manager, noHold. This presentation covered best practices and considerations when implementing a Virtual Assistant. 

Joy Hall, Cisco

-Customer Use Case, by Joy Hall, Services Operations Manager, Cisco Networking Academy. Joy shared her experience with Cisco's "Morgan" from the beginning of her journey in selecting noHold to now. Today, Morgan is used by more than 9,000 higher education institutions. 

Francesco Ventura, noHold

-Security and Compliance, by Francesco Ventura, Program Manager, noHold. Every day we hear breaking news about well-known brands and individuals being faced with critical security concerns and issues. Francesco shared some steps we can take to be compliant, and secure.

After lunch at Terrazza a Mare, the group took a Laguna Tour by boat (motoscafi) to Bilancia di Beppi. The next sessions took place in a garden-like outdoor setting, under the shade of a gazebo as attendees sipped cool drinks. The tour concluded with a traditional net fishing demonstration by the owner of Bilancia di Beppi. 

Ciao! 

-The Role of Virtual Assistants in the Enterprise, by Diego Ventura. Diego talked about the challenges that companies face today, and some real-life examples of how to approach these challenges with AI technology.

-Group discussion: Customer Wish List, moderated by Sarah Ramoz, Business Development Manager, noHold. We opened up the conversation in order to learn more about what our customers are interested in, and also requested that all join the conversation. What should Virtual Assistants include in the future?

Bilancia di Beppi

In the evening, a Welcome Reception was held at Tahiri Beach Club & Restaurant. Drinks, tasty bites and great conversation was abundant with the orange thunder moon in clear view and the beach behind us. 

Tahiri Beach Club & Restaurant

Day 2

The second day began at Terrazza a Mare with a continental breakfast, followed by more intriguing sessions:

-Conversational Interfaces over any Database by Diego Ventura. Diego showed how Virtual Assistants can serve up answers from external databases. This session focused in on noHold's NLP2X offering.

Katherine Ventura, eBay

-Justifying a Virtual Assistant project by Katherine Ventura, Sr. Manager Global Procurement, eBay. Katherine shared an insider's view of the procurement process, building the business case and sourcing the need.

Diego Ventura, noHold

-Practical Machine Learning, presented by Diego Ventura. Diego's session took us through a real-life example of machine learning, and the research behind it. He also shared a high-level view of machine learning algorithms and where noHold is headed.

The Basilica of Aquileia

Lunch was provided at Terrazza a Mare, followed by a drive to Aquileia to tour one of the oldest Basilicas in Italy. After exploring the cathedral, the history, and taking in the wonder of the Roman ruins, the group headed to Cocambo. Cocambo is described as a laboratory for all things chocolate and coffee. The group enjoyed iced coffee (shakerato), and treats while the next set of presentations occurred. 

Cocambo!

 -Understanding the Voice of the Customer, Andrea Sahli. Andrea highlighted how to capture, report on and analyze the metrics produced by SICURA®

-Competitive Landscape, by Diego Ventura. An interesting presentation which opened the conversation to competitive products on the market. What is the competition doing? What other choices are available today?

The day concluded with an evening drive back to Lignano Sabbiadoro.

Venezia!

Day 3 

The third and final day of noHold's AI Symposium began at Piazza della Fontana with croissants and coffee overlooking one of the beautiful fountains in Lignano Sabbiadoro's center. The English translation of "Piazza della Fontana" is Fountain Square.

Piazza San Marco

The group boarded taxis and took the hour drive to Venice. Piazzale Roma was the busy meeting place where the 1-hour walking tour began. After group discussions, cool drinks, and many pictures later, the team met for lunch at Harry's bar; a legendary 1930's restaurant known for its Bellini cocktails, carpaccio and celebrity clientele. Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square) was the final stop where the team concluded the 3-day event with iced drinks in front of a live band. Arrivederci, Italy!

Overall, noHold's first AI Symposium was a successful and memorable event. If you are interested in learning more about noHold and the 2019 AI Symposium, please contact us at http://www.nohold.com/contact.html. We are happy to share the presentations and details. If you were unable to join us this year, please stay tuned for details about our next symposium or contact us at http://www.nohold.com/contact.html to subscribe to our email updates.

noHold is Hosting an Artificial Intelligence Symposium this Summer in Italy

June 27, 2019, MILPITAS, CA – noHold is excited to be traveling across the world to host its first AI Symposium. This exclusive three-day event will take place from July 17th to the 19th in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy.

Since 1999, noHold Inc. has successfully provided Artificial Intelligence solutions to businesses. As pioneers in this space, noHold experts will be sharing best practices in AI-based Virtual Assistants for the enterprise. During this event, attendees will explore how innovations in AI can benefit the enterprise, network with experienced Virtual Assistant professionals, as well as Fortune 100 companies that are using Virtual Assistants today. Some of the presentation topics will include strategies on building and deploying a world class Virtual Assistant, ensuring that security and compliance standards are implemented, strategic UI/UX design, and so much more. For more details on the symposium’s agenda, please click here.

Attendees can expect to:

• Receive personalized training and best practices by noHold experts
• Maximize your knowledge of the SICURA platform including not-yet-released technologies from noHold
• Experience an in-depth analysis of available AI technology through SICURA at no extra cost
• Learn how to maximize your virtual assistant’s ROI
• Build relationships with their colleagues in an idyllic setting

noHold’s CEO and founder, Diego Ventura, adds, “We are excited to share the experience we have accumulated over the past 20 years in this space with our customers and partners. It will be nice to do it in a global context and in the backdrop of Venice, one of the most unique capitals of the world.”