Trends You Need to Know About from Cisco Live! 2016

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A couple weeks ago, Cisco Live! 2016 came to a close. This event surrounds itself by all things in the digital business world. Technology innovators, IT thought leaders, Cisco's top partners, thousands of educational sessions, and much more made up this 5 day event.

Throughout the week, there were lots of powerful announcements made including strategic partnerships, various cyber security tech, and innovative ideas regarding their collaboration platform, Spark. One of the top trends associated with Cisco's Spark is the integration of chatbots. "Organizations now also are looking for the capability in their enterprise communications environments, where employees can engage with bots to conduct such tasks as checking on the status of projects, listing meeting agenda items and booking conference rooms." (eWeek). Cisco is looking to stay ahead of companies doing similar 'bot-related' initiatives such as Facebook's Messenger, Microsoft's Skype and Slack. 

noHold is in the same thought pattern as Cisco, providing chatbots (Virtual Assistants) that actually work, giving end users what they are looking for. Chatbots need to be back by cutting edge AI technology and experts' experience in creating and maintaining effective automated agents. 

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We can't wait to see what next year has in store at Cisco Live! 2017. It will be back in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 25-29, 2017. For more information about the event, please click here.
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What's Trending at this Year's F8 Conference

Facebook's F8 Conference was held earlier this week in San Francisco, CA. This is an annual conference for developers to discuss new integrations, open source technologies and the latest immersive experiences.

One of the biggest product announcements at this year's conference was the Messenger Platform. "The new service is a framework powered by artificial intelligence, allowing developers to build chat bots that can communicate one on one with users in a conversational tone. The more use, the more personalized a bot can be in serving a user" (ABCNews). "If you look at every technological advance," said Libin, "the big jumps forward were when something becomes easier, has less friction, becomes more natural than whatever it replaced - so email from normal mail, chat from email, smartphone apps from desktop apps, I think bots are the next evolution of making something more natural." (Marketplace)

Click the picture below to watch a short introduction to what the Messenger Platform can accomplish. 

For a more in depth session on how to build your messenger bot, watch this video of engineers explaining how Messenger is reinventing online communication. It is about an hour long, but gives great details about how the Messenger bots work and a live demo.

This is an exciting time for Artificial Intelligence. As more and more companies are acquiring AI companies and expanding their research and development, the more validation is shown that the world is ready for a more advanced and interactive experience with Virtual Agents. They are becoming the preferred way for companies to communicate with their customers and vice versa.
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World Cup 2014 MVP...Technology: The First 'Digital World Cup'

Photo Credit: hdwallphotos.com

Who is excited for the World Cup to kick-off!? This afternoon (1:00 pm PST) Brazil will be facing off against Croatia in the first match-up of World Cup 2014: Brazil!  

This World Cup is going to be much different than the previous years, though. People are referring to it as the first ‘digital World Cup’ impart because of the the emphasis on smartphone applications and fan connectivity via social media. Twitter is going to be a sort of ‘ESPN zone’ for your phone; fans can stay updated with their favorite teams and share with others their own thoughts using ‘hashflags’ (tweeting using the three letter code for their country, i.e. #ITA). “The popularity of smartphones will make this year’s World Cup the most connected and interactive tournament ever” (Source: Why World Cup 2014 will be the Most High-Tech Tournament Yet).

Looks like wearable devices are making an appearance this year as well; FIFA is introducing goal line technology. Now, multiple cameras will be mounted on the goal and once the ball crosses the line, a notification will go out to wrist watches the referees will be wearing indicating ‘GOAL.’ This technology will be particularly useful for referees to determine if the ball passed the line in unclear situations.

Even the soccer balls are getting updated with cutting edge technology and aerodynamic designs. During training, various countries used a ‘smart ball’ equipped with sensors inside the ball to detect speed, spin, strike, and flight trajectory, as well as determining impact points for penalties and corners. Utilizing this technology gives insight into specific data that can help teach players how to improve their game (Source: http://micoach.adidas.com/us/smartball). Check out how much the official World Cup soccer ball design has changed over time.

Photo Credit: fastcompany.com

These were just a few of the technology highlights that will make their way to World Cup 2014. More tech advancements include security robots, foam spray to draw temporary lines, futuristic soccer cleats, World Cup Instagram profile, different ways to stay cool in the hot weather conditions, and more.  With all these new technologies and innovations, how do you think this will impact the games?

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Throwback Thursday: Customer Experience Action Plan

Happy Throwback Thursday!

     This Thursday I wanted to take some time to write about a webinar from 2011. This webinar comes from a leading analyst firm and is presented by well known analysts. "Build Your 2012 Customer Experience Action Plan Now" talks about exactly that... creating an effective action plan to increase positive customer experience. I can not emphasize enough the importance of happy customers. And it is not just the sales and customer service departments that make consumers happy, the whole company contributes to Customer Experience Management (CEM), from product design to IT and Call Centers. Even though this webinar is from a few years ago, I believe it still provides relevant/useful information to improve CEM. 

     Towards the middle of the presentation they start to explain how expensive live support is and suggest innovative alternatives to this costly option. One of these alternatives is a noHold solution, more specifically the Virtual Agents from a fortune 500 Telco and a leader in networking devices. Companies that utilize these self-service solutions decrease their expenses because customers will not have to connect with a live person; and also increase positive customer experience because they don't have to wait and speak with multiple representitives (which typically takes forever) that might not know the solution you are in need of.

     In the end, happy consumers = happy company. To check out the full webinar click here. If you do not have an account, you can register for one for free to watch on demand webinars. 

Have a great week!