noHold’s AI Platform Integrates with ServiceNow’s Knowledge Base

July 28, 2016, MILPITAS, CA – Earlier this month, noHold created a new connector integrating with ServiceNow®. To date, noHold has completed a dozen integrations, with plans to continue creating connectors to Facebook, Alexa, and more. 

ServiceNow is a company committed to changing the way people work, offering service management for every department in the enterprise including IT, human resources, facilities, and more. Using an open API set, noHold was able to develop a connector that enables a seamless integration between Virtual Assistants and ServiceNow’s knowledge platform. 

A multi-billion dollar company that produces oil and gas is using the Virtual Assistant and connector to streamline content management operations. The connector allows content to remain in its current location, without having to duplicate it to noHold’s platform. The benefits of this connector include: 

• All content can be managed from one repository of information. 
• Improve customer satisfaction by providing the most accurate information from a single interface.
• Personalization of the customer experience.
• Expands the Single Point of Search vision.

The addition of the ServiceNow connector has added great value to the list of integrations done by noHold. Moving forward, noHold is continuing to develop more connectors to further integrate with various platforms and other Virtual Assistants. Diego Ventura, Founder and CEO of noHold, explains, “Virtual Assistants are designed to decrease the level of effort required by end users to complete a task. Connecting Virtual Assistants to other platforms is key to make sure end users can transparently tap into the capabilities of a company’s back-office systems and devices.”

About noHold, Inc.
noHold is a privately held company established in 1999 and is headquartered in Milpitas, CA, USA (Silicon Valley). noHold is the acknowledged leader in Web based Self-service solutions with a mission to deliver real answers to real questions – real fast. Simple to use, easy to implement and as close to human as you can get, noHold turns automated customer support into cognitive customer interactions. noHold customers include Cisco, Intel and a host of industry leaders. More information can be found at http://www.nohold.com or subscribe to noHold’s vlog to hear more from CEO, Diego Ventura.

Press Contact
Veronica Cech
Marketing Associate
vcech@nohold.com    

noHold Virtual Assistants Integrate with Oracle Knowledge Base

Enhancing the Customer Experience for a Leading Security Software Company

May 26, 2016, MILPITAS, CA –noHold developed a connector that allows a Virtual Assistant to leverage content that is stored in Oracle's knowledge base.

One of the world’s largest dedicated security technology companies, and long-standing customer of noHold, has implemented this type of connector to continue to provide their customers with a world-class customer support experience, without having to transfer existing content to a new knowledge platform.

This security software company needed a way to keep their content in its current location (Oracle), improve the quality of the Virtual Assistant's solutions (embedding the solutions within one interface), and still maintain the diagnostic and intuitive aspect that the Virtual Assistant is known for. Before the connector was in place, the Virtual Assistant answered users’ questions with links directing out to relevant articles hosted on Oracle's site. Now, with the connector, the Virtual Assistant can pull content from Oracle's knowledge base, and display it directly on the Virtual Assistant interface.

  

This integration has proven beneficial for multiple reasons:

• Avoid content duplication - eliminates the need to maintain same content in different repositories.
• Ability to track performance metrics - Metrics captured with the Virtual Assistant can be used to improve content quality in Oracle's knowledge base.
• Single Point of Search - provides a seamless experience for users.

“Single Point of Search is strategic to providing a consistent end user experience even if content resides in different repositories. In the future, Virtual Assistants will be connected with almost anything we can think of, from repositories of information, to multiple devices, to other Virtual Assistants.” -Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold.

About noHold, Inc.

noHold is a privately held company established in 1999 and is headquartered in Milpitas, CA, USA (Silicon Valley). noHold is the acknowledged leader in Web based Self-service solutions with a mission to deliver real answers to real questions – real fast. Simple to use, easy to implement and as close to human as you can get, noHold turns automated customer support into cognitive customer interactions. noHold customers include Cisco, Dell and a host of industry leaders. More information can be found at http://www.nohold.com or click here to subscribe to Diego’s vlog.

Press Contact

Veronica Cech

Marketing Associate

vcech@nohold.com   

408.946.9200 ext. 356

All other product and service names are the property of their respective owners.

noHold’s A.I. Platform Expands Virtual Assistants to Every Organization within a Company

Including HR, IT, Legal, Marketing, Sales and Support

April 28, 2016, MILPITAS, CA – noHold, the acknowledged leader in web based self service solutions, expands its Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) platform to include Virtual Assistants that benefit all organizations within a company.

noHold’s flagship product, Support Advisor, typically answers support and customer care type questions. With the help of its customers, and recognizing the growth within the A.I. space, noHold has developed Virtual Assistants with the entire business in mind. Now, Virtual Assistants have graduated beyond solely being a part of support organizations. Recently, the expansion of the A.I. platform has grown to include Virtual Assistants such as:

• HR Advisor- allows employees to help themselves
• IT Advisor- for the enterprise help desk
• Legal Advisor- to enforce compliance
• Marketing Advisor- to prequalify sales opportunities
• Sales Advisor- to increase conversion rates
• Support Advisor- to reduce support costs

The diversity of applications really demonstrates the flexibility of noHold’s platform and the ease of multi-use implementations. "If you look at every technological advance," said [Phil] Libin [Managing Director at General Catalyst and founder of Evernote], "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)

Virtual Assistants are imperative for enterprises managing moving parts. noHold is looking forward to providing more and more clients with a full circle approach to a Virtual Assistant.

According to Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold, “When creating a Virtual Assistant for a specific organization within the enterprise, you must take into consideration the different features needed by those particular business units that will optimize the Virtual Assistant. For example, we discovered that when a Call Center Agent is on the phone with a customer, they need to have a sense of the questions they will be asking and why. In these situations, the Virtual Assistant cannot always ask questions serially, so we implemented the ‘Look Ahead’ feature, designed to show the Agent why the Virtual Assistant would be asking those questions. Having this ability to provide department-specific Virtual Assistants proves the flexibility of our technology.”

About noHold Inc.

noHold is a privately held company established in 1999 and is headquartered in Milpitas, CA, USA (Silicon Valley). noHold is the acknowledged leader in Web based Self-service solutions with a mission to deliver real answers to real questions - real fast. Simple to use, easy to implement and as close to human as you can get, noHold turns automated customer support into cognitive customer interaction. noHold customers include Cisco, Dell, Intel and a host of industry leaders. More information can be found at www.nohold.com or subscribe to noHold’s vlog to hear more from CEO, Diego Ventura.

Press Contact

Veronica Cech

Marketing Associate

vcech@nohold.com

408.946.9200 ext. 356

You Don't Have to Boil the Ocean!

When considering implementing a Virtual Assistant (VA), it is important to remember...you don't have to boil the ocean. What this means is, a VA does not have to start by covering every piece of knowledge in your company. There is no set rule on the amount of content that needs to be added to a good VA  because it can work on incomplete and empirical knowledge. 

We are biased towards starting with less content and letting the metrics tell us what is most important to your audience. In essence, smaller implementations will cost less and bring in results faster. Check out this video to learn more. 

So, how do you know what content you should be focusing on? We have found that EZIntel is an effective strategy for zeroing in on what your audience is looking for. Click here to schedule a call to learn more about it.

Cheers, 

Diego

BPOs Begin Leveraging noHold AI to Improve Efficiency in the Call Center

May 27, 2015, MILPITAS, CA – After the soft launch of noHold’s Call Center Virtual Assistant (CCVA) product for Business Process Outsourcers (BPOs), call centers around the globe are experiencing a streamlined method of delivering excellent customer support. noHold has recently received recognition from Gartner, one of the most reputable analyst firms in the industry, as a 2015 ‘Cool Vendor’ in Business Process Services for innovative customer management. This recognition, coupled with the recommendation that BPOs must automate in order to achieve non-linear growth and profitability validate the need for Artificial Intelligence in the call center.

Compared to noHold’s flag ship product, the CCVA is a Virtual Assistant used by call center agents to reduce average handle time, manage traffic spikes, and decrease training time and churn. Currently, over 5,000 agents are utilizing noHold’s CCVA within multiple call centers around the world. This technology is able to support products across a broad range of complexities from security software applications to highly sophisticated networking equipment.

Benefits for adopting a Virtual Assistant for BPOs include:

• Procedure Guidance - using noHold’s Natural Language Processor and Inference Engine to guide users through complex solutions without the need of creating scripts.
• Crowd sourcing - agents have the ability to contribute content and fill knowledge gaps quickly, on their own.
•  Provides a safety net - during peak call times (i.e. crisis, holiday, new product launch, etc.) a CCVA is always available, so Average Hold Time and customer satisfaction are not negatively impacted during critical spikes.
•  Consistent and approved content- analysts agree that lack of consistency and quality of content is one of the most common issues among BPOs. Virtual Assistants offer a single point of search while empowering brands to offer approved solutions

In speaking with industry experts from various BPOs, one executive said, “At my company, existing and potential clients are demanding value additions and innovations in the Customer & Technical Support solutions we provide. We see Artificial Intelligence that Agents & Technical Support Engineers can use to diagnose problems in real time while serving a customer a must have solution. This type of solution combined with a strong well trained support representative can assure that the customers’ needs are covered quickly, and accurately the first time.”

“It has been comforting to see such a quick market adoption for CCVA.  In only a few months thousands of call center agents have experienced the benefits of Single Point of Search and Procedure Guidance by leveraging content and resources already available to their company.  Analysts are asking for more automation at the Call Center, now BPOs have a way to get it without a risky investment.” -Diego Ventura, CEO and founder of noHold.

About noHold, Inc.

noHold is a privately held company established in 1999 and is headquartered in Milpitas, CA, USA (Silicon Valley). noHold is the acknowledged leader in Web based Self-service solutions with a mission to deliver real answers to real questions – real fast. Simple to use, easy to implement and as close to human as you can get, noHold turns automated customer support into cognitive customer interactions. noHold customers include Toshiba, Cisco and a host of industry leaders. More information can be found at www.nohold.com.

Press Contact

Veronica Cech

Marketing Associate

vcech@nohold.com     

408.946.9200 ext. 356

All other product and service names are the property of their respective owners

National Small Business Week: Top 3 Benefits of Self-Service for the Small Business Owner

Photo Credit: auditionsfree.com

"Every year since 1963, the President of the United States has issued a proclamation announcing National Small Business Week, which recognizes the critical contributions of America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners" (sba.gov). This year, May 4th through the 8th is the week dedicated to honoring small businesses in the US. As a small business our self, noHold appreciates the value our solution brings within enterprises, but also recognizes the benefits that it can produce for small businesses. Here are the top 3 advantages to making a Virtual Assistant apart of your small business team.

1. Implementing a Virtual Assistant is cost effective. As a small business, saving money where you can is important. By offer your customers with a web based self service solution to cater to their support needs, you empower them to find the answers to their own questions 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week, thus reducing support costs.  

Photo Credit: ncsbc.net

2. The Virtual Assistant reduces the volume of calls/emails to contact centers, decreasing the load that a live agent would need to tend to. 

3. The Virtual Assistant is designed to be easily maintained making it convenient for small businesses who do not have a lot of man power. 

Photo Credit: dekalbchamber.org

Those are just a few of the advantages that come from a Virtual Assistant for your small business. While most of our clientele are enterprise companies, we have successful implemented a number of Virtual Assistants for smaller companies and they have seen great results.    

In similar news, noHold was recognized by Gartner as a 'cool vendor' in business process services for 2015. These 'cool vendor' titles are specifically designed to recognize the innovations of small and medium sized businesses that normally would not be able to compete with large enterprises. To read the press release and find out more about Gartner's 'cool vendor' series, click here. 

www.nohold.com 

Gartner Recognizes noHold as a 2015 ‘Cool Vendor’ in Business Process Services

April 30, 2015, MILPITAS, CA – noHold, a leader in web based self-service solutions, was named ‘Cool Vendor’ in Business Process Services, 2015, published on April 13 2015. Similar to Gartner’s Magic Quadrants, the ‘Cool Vendor’ series is used to discover emerging innovative SMB vendors with interesting and highly original technology that impact their respective markets in a meaningful way.

Out of the five companies chosen as ‘Cool Vendors’ in the Business Process Services space, noHold was the only Virtual Assistant vendor selected. noHold offers unique capabilities as its platform provides:

• noHold Connect (NHC) – allows communication between multiple Virtual Assistants, making it possible for clients to leverage content from partners’ Virtual Assistants.
• Single Point of Search – the ability to search for content from a single repository, even if the solution resides in other systems (i.e. CRM, Knowledge Management, communities)
• Procedural Guidance – using noHold’s Natural Language Processor and Inference Engine to guide users through complex solutions without the creation of scripts.
• Device Connect – the ability to connect to physical devices to retrieve information or perform tasks on the device.

Customer Management BPO has primarily consisted of voice-based services, but according to the Vice President of Gartner Research, TJ Singh, “the adoption of nonvoice multichannel and automated services – such as Web chat, email, SMS, self-service, and social CRM services – is growing significantly.” (Competitive Landscape: Customer Management BPO, 2014 – Making a Difference with Size and Scale in Multichannel, Analytics and Automation, TJ Singh, 14 May 2014).  

To download the full Gartner report titled, “Cool Vendors in Business Process Services, 2015,” click here.

“You stop being ‘cool’ the moment you say you are ‘cool’, but since it is Gartner saying it, we gladly accept it,” said Diego Ventura, CEO and founder of noHold. “I think that Virtual Assistants can help BPO companies disrupt the typical linear growth associated with this type of business. Virtual Assistants can empower agents to be more efficient and customers help themselves while collecting valuable market insight.”

About noHold, Inc.

noHold is a privately held company established in 1999 and is headquartered in Milpitas, CA, USA (Silicon Valley). noHold is the acknowledged leader in Web based Self-service solutions with a mission to deliver real answers to real questions – real fast. Simple to use, easy to implement and as close to human as you can get, noHold turns automated customer support into cognitive customer interactions. noHold customers include Toshiba, Cisco and a host of industry leaders. More information can be found at www.nohold.com.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Press Contact

Veronica Cech

Marketing Associate

vcech@nohold.com     

408.946.9200 ext. 356

All other product and service names are the property of their respective owners.

The Evolution of Virtual Customer Assistants

A look back at the advances Virtual Agents have made in the past 20 years.

Photo Credit: dailygalaxy.com

Virtual Agents have become a part of the mainstream culture now. Just take a look at Siri, Google Now, Cortana, and many other large brands are starting to follow suit and acquire Artificial Intelligence companies. As a company with over 15 years of experience working within the Virtual Agent space, noHold has constantly been advancing our technology to fit with the times. Here is a brief recap to show you how far Virtual Agents have evolved since their inception:

1. A Virtual Agent (VA) can get data only from its own database

2. VA can leverage content from other databases

3. VA can integrate with back office systems

4. VA can connect to external devices

5. VA leverages context intelligently by being super connected

As you can see, Virtual Agents have advanced tremendously.Going from only being able to retrieve data from their own database, to leveraging information intelligently from multiple sources is incredible. [Click here to read how noHold helped a global giant move from traditional support to leveraging a Virtual Agent for more complex issues.]

What do you think the next step will be in the evolution of Virtual Assistants? Is your company noticing the upward trend in Artificial Intelligence use and what are they doing about it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. 

Cheers!

www.nohold.com

Virtual Customer Assistants and Self-Service Used to Enhance CRM Platforms

Photo Credit: vocalcom.com

Last week, ComputerWorld published an article on Microsoft’s newest CRM suite, fully equipped with their Personal Virtual Assistant, Cortana. “Tasks available via Cortana voice commands will include setting up meetings and reminders, searching for contacts, accounts and activities, calling up customer lists and creating new records” (Cortana to Give Voice and Ears to Dynamics CRM).

It seems like Microsoft is making the right moves, at the right time by enhancing their Dynamics CRM platform. Research from trusted analyst firms in the industry are advocating for a shift to omni-channel CRM systems; that is, moving from a Contact Center to a Customer Engagement Center (CEC). According to one of the leading analyst firms, it is imperative for companies to include multiple business applications and technologies that will coexist and work cohesively. Some examples of functions that incorporate to create the full CEC ecosystem are: knowledge management solutions, social media channels for customer to receive support (including blogs, communities, and forums), providing mobile support options, and more.

Other CRM vendors are further validating the need for omni-channel CRM platforms. Recently, the customer service and engagement vendor, [24]7, acquired Virtual Assistant company, Intelliresponse. Another example is Nuance’s acquisition of VirtuOz a while back. These CRM vendors are realizing the value of adding Virtual Customer Assistants as another channel to enhance their CECs. Since self-service is becoming one of the most preferred means for communicating with a company, it is going to be key for CRM vendors to incorporate a way for customers to self-serve if they are on the web, social media, forums, mobile, or at kiosks.  

Do you think other vendors will follow suit with Microsoft? How do you think these acquisitions of Virtual Assistant companies will change the way we use CRM?      

www.nohold.com

A Look Back at noHold's Top Stories of the Week: September 22nd-26th

1. Virtual Agents Help Fight the Flu Season 
Here is a video with some do's and don'ts for the coming flu season. 

During peak seasons, such as these, a Virtual Agent can help relieve some of the congestion in the call centers. Click on the blog above to find out how. 

2. Virtual Agent Tips and Tricks: Virtual Agent for our Company's Community Forum

This week's Tuesday tip: Virtual Agents are a great asset to social media pages, community forums, or blogs. 

3. noHold CEO Travels to San Francisco for the Intelligent Virtual Assistants Conference Presented by Opus Research












"The time to differentiate is now," explains Dan Miller, lead analyst and founder of Opus Research. "Coke, Domino's and Hyatt are part of a leading-edge group of firms that employ human-like assistants for sales, customer care, technical support and answering questions. Within a few years, they will be virtually ubiquitous." (Opus Research's Intelligent Assistant Awards (IAAs) Recognize Hyatt, Domino's and the US Army for Human-Like Automated Assistance).

4. Throwback Thursday: Virtual Agents for Wearable Devices

When asking the community what they think about wearable devices, there has been an overwhelming lack of consensus on this technology. People have mixed feelings whether to embrace this disruptive tech, or reject it completely. With the announcement of the Apple Watch to come out in 2015, we'll see if wearable devices will gain a little more traction than before...

Please click on the link above to read the full  blog. 
________________________________________________________________
www.nohold.com

Virtual Agent Tips and Tricks: Leading Analyst Predicts Top Customer Service Trends for 2014

A few months back, Kate Leggett (Principal Analyst at Forrester) wrote a blog titled “Forrester’s Top Trends for Customer Service In 2014.” She suggested 12 new developments to adopt this year to keep customers satisfied and coming back to your business for more. Here are just a few of her tips that really hone in on how to provide over the top customer service.

“Trend 1: Customers Demand Omnichannel Services”
noHold's opinion:
People like to have multiple options when it comes to customer service. Although voice is still the most used channel of communication, it is still important to offer other preferred channels, such as self-service, to balance out the company’s support ecosystem.

“Trend 6: Knowledge Will Evolve from Purely Reactive to Giving Advice”
noHold's opinion:
It is going to be crucial for your company to invest in a knowledge management solution this year. “67% of consumers use web self-service to find answers to their questions” (Forrester's Top Trends for Customer Service in 2014). Since customers prefer self-service, it is important to have the company’s knowledge easily organized, shared, and analyzed so people can find the right solutions on their own time, quickly. Analysts foresee an increased use in Virtual Agents to support a more natural conversation. This will help create an enjoyable experience for the customer, instead of sending lengthy, irrelevant documents.

“Trend 7: Decisioning Will Power Offers, Actions and Connections”
noHold's opinion:
Predictive analytics is a growing trend this year. Brands are analyzing what you look at and your past purchases to try and predict what it is that you would want/ need. Predictive analytics is a great resource for cross-selling/ up-selling. For example, if someone buys something online and encounters  a problem, they can pull up the Virtual Agent, get the answer they need and the Virtual Agent will be able to provide them with the right content personalized for them.

“Trend 10: The Agent Experience is No Longer an Afterthought”
noHold's opinion:
Another top trend for this year is to increase Contact Center agent efficiency by simplifying their work space. One way to accomplish this is by implementing a Virtual Agent into the Contact Center directly. By doing this, your company will improve the Average Handle Time (AHT) per phone call, increase consistency, improve churn, and even new trainees can effectively give solutions to customers with the help of the Virtual Agent.

These are just a few of the top trends talked about in this article; there are many more predictions that can help your company exceed your customers expectations. To read the full blog, click here.  

How do you plan to keep customers satisfied and increase loyalty? 

Cheers!
www.nohold.com 

Virtual Agents Can Reduce Volume at the Contact Center by 50%

Seth Godin says “80% of your inbound calls are about the same ten things.” (Your Call is Very Important to Us, 2013) Virtual Agents have proven to reduce incidents by 50% in some cases. Here is a video explaining how a Virtual Agent can help reduce the volume of emails and phone calls to your contact center by providing answers to FAQs. 

Cheers!  

Throwback Thursday: This is Your Website with FAQ's. This is the Website of the Future. Any Questions?

Happy Throwback Thursday!

The CEO of noHold, Diego Ventura, recently sent me a link to a website called Internet Archive: Wayback Machine. This website has millions of archived web pages from over the years. After checking out some of my favorite company’s older web designs, I thought about support pages. I found a few support pages from various tech companies and was surprised at how different they were designed compared to today.

Intel Support Page (1998)

Above is a screenshot of Intel’s support homepage from 1998. Their support for that time consisted of having a list of products to click on and then pops up some general facts and solutions to typical problems. There was also a “Did this help?” question at the bottom where end-users could provide feedback about their experience.

Apple Support Page (1998)

For all the iPhone lovers out there, here is a screenshot of Apple’s support page from 1998. One of Apple’s support resources was to utilize their searchable knowledgebase, which allowed end-users access to try and find solutions to their problems.

Lastly, I wanted to share Cisco’s support page from 1996. They approached their support page with more FAQ style tools.

Cisco is doing a lot of work with the Internet of Everything and futuristic concepts, so I thought it was interesting to take a look back and see how the visionaries were providing support for their customers 20 years ago.

You can definitely tell the times have changed and technology has advanced greatly. Companies are putting more emphasis on the customer experience today and rightfully so. Having anything but an excellent customer service/support strategy is just not going to cut it in today’s world. With smart machines booming in the market, consumers are demanding that interactive component. You can already tell that within the last 20 years, websites have become drastically more engaging and interactive. End-users have a conversation with a Virtual Agent to find the solution to their problem, creating a more person experience for the consumer, instead of going through a list of FAQ’s. 

Cisco Support Page (1996)

Is your website stuck in FAQ-mode? How much has your brand's support experience evolved in the past 10 years? Do you envision a future where support pages are immersive and completely interactive? 

Cheers!

www.nohold.com

Throwback Thursday: This Time Last Year

Throwback Holiday Card - Circa 2011

2013

Hi all, 
As the end of the year is approaching, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at 2013.

Throughout 2013, noHold (with the influence of our customers) has focused on many different facets of the business. Towards the middle of the year, we officially launched the premiere of our updated website, www.nohold.com, and also announced our newest Knowledge Management platform, SICURA™, designed to augment our products portfolio. SICURA™ provides a better way to organize, store, and share information, securely. 

Our customers have expressed more interest in eCommerce, and focusing on ways to increase sales for companies in brick and mortar stores as well as online. eCommerce made quite an impression this year and is expected to continue to grow. SalesAdvisor™ makes it easier for companies to provide exceptional customer service, while providing support. Simple QR codes placed on the packaging of an item serve as a Virtual Agent that shows up on your smart phone and answers any questions you have regarding the product and ratings; and provides the end customer with limited time coupons and ability to share the experience via social media.  Virtual Agents enhance self-service and are quickly becoming a preferred interaction channel. 

This year, our customers have shown more interest in the integration of Virtual Agents to augment Salesforce.com. In particular, the Virtual Agent enhances Salesforce.com in five ways: 1) Integrates with Salesforce Knowledge, 2) Escalates to leads, 3) Pre-empts live chat, 4) Escalates to case, and 5) Provides personalized responses, all in an interactive and diagnostic experience. To get more information on augmenting Salesforce.com with a Virtual Agent  click here. 

Next year is going to be another busy year for noHold. Stay tuned for more details about how Virtual Agents play a role in the Internet of Everything (IoE) next year. 

Happy Holidays!

Throwback Thursday: The Advancement of Back-End Technology

This week I found a screenshot of one of the first administrative dashboards for a noHold Virtual Agent. As you can see to the right, noHold's "portal manager" was the place an administrator would visit to learn more about customer interactions with the Virtual Agent. The "portal manager" provided metrics to administrators that could be leveraged to augment customer satisfaction.

Knowledge Management has come a long way since the beginning of noHold. Companies now have the capability to gain more knowledge about their consumers and provide better service because of it. There are default metrics that companies can look at (effectiveness, abandonment, escalation, etc.) and they can also create custom reports. For example, a leader in the PC industry utilizing a customer-facing Virtual Agent is interested in custom reports by region. Being able to look at specific factors that are effecting support while getting closer to the end user experience is a major asset to building a stronger customer relationship. 

Another function for administrators that has evolved and become increasingly important is having open API's. With API's, administrators have complete control of the User Interface (UI) as well as integration with a myriad of 3rd party systems. This function gives companies the freedom to create seamless experiences while positioning the Virtual Agent in a way that complements corporate branding.  

Happy Throwback Thursday!

As Dreamforce 2013 Comes to an End, Check Out How noHold Augments Salesforce.com by Integrating With a Virtual Agent

As Dreamforce 2013 comes to a close, and your organization compiles trade show notes and best practices on how to get the best out of your Salesforce.com investment, remember that you are not alone. Leading brands have discovered ways to:

- Complement Salesforce Knowledge with interactivity and diagnostic capability while increasing First Contact Resolution (FCR)

- Shorten the path to a meaningful chat while reducing costs and right-channeling customers

- Transform automated customer service, support and sales into cognitive customer interaction

Take a few minutes to see how Virtual Agents augment your Salesforce.com investment by enhancing the customer journey.  

Click Here to view the SlideShare Presentation: Augmenting Salesforce.com by Integrating With a Virtual Agent. 

noHold Augments Its Products Portfolio by Launching SICURA, Knowledge Management Platform

MILPITAS, CA, August 22, 2013—noHold, Inc. recently released a new Knowledge Management platform called SICURA. This software provides a better way to organize, store, and share information, securely. 

noHold has been a leader in the Virtual Agent space since its inception in 1999. By leveraging its expertise also in Knowledge Management (KM), noHold takes a step ahead of all its competition. SICURA™’s patented technology (US 6,604,141) is cloud-based, making it easy to install and deploy within your company; and is also mobile friendly. SICURA starts with a central component called ArticlesManager™, which is a system used to automatically index documents to make searching for information easier. Added to this platform are tools to help administrators manage content and capture usage Metrics. The Knowledge Management platform allows users two ways to retrieve the content:  through a Virtual Agent or Search ++. Search++ is an enhanced Google®-like search through the addition of a Natural Language Processor (NLP). Another feature added to the SICURA platform is its capability to integrate with external data sources via an open API set. Doing this allows for SICURA to connect to other solutions such as Live Chat, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), KM, and Content Management Systems (CMS). noHold packaged all these components together to create SICURA which can be used by agents, corporate, social media, partners, and the community. The slideshare below is a visual representation of the components that make up SICURA. 

SICURA the noHold Knowledge Management Platform from noHold, Inc.

The term SICURA means safe, secure, or assured in Italian. This name is fitting because the goal of SICURA is to provide users with a secure way to share and store knowledge. In this generation of cloud-based technology, secure content is imperative.  

After doing extensive research, noHold found out exactly what makes an effective Knowledge Management platform. According to leading analyst firms and industry experts, to be considered a competitor in this market, a KM Platform should meet certain characteristics and must include five knowledge sources. An effective knowledgebase also relies on four components. (1) A single repository of information, (2) an enhanced search engine with the capabilities to obtain and find keywords, (3) an administrator’s login to maintain the knowledgebase. This can be managed by the organization (structured) or can include unstructured data from channels like social media, (4) a User Interface (UI) presented via the web.  

According to Gartner’s Hype Cycle for CRM Customer Service and Support, 2013 by Michael Maoz, the formal definition of Knowledge Management is, “Knowledge management for customer self-service includes corporate knowledge, agent knowledge, customer knowledge, social knowledge and partner knowledge. It is the accumulation and management of a knowledge repository and the delivery of that knowledge through a self-service interface or the integration of the knowledge with a Web chat, virtual assistant or email response management solution. The knowledge can also be accessed by a contact center agent to assist with phone-based inquiries.” 

SICURA embodies these guidelines and more. The Virtual Agent makes the platform mobile friendly and can achieve higher First Contact Resolution rates because of its interactive and diagnostic features.  SICURA is supported in multiple languages and with the use of Metrics, administrators are provided with Voice of the Customer (VoC) and Knowledge Gap Analysis. There is a single repository of information accessible to the Enterprise on the Cloud and allows for personalization through integration with CRM systems, making it easier to create specific answers for individuals. SICURA also includes applications that are designed for the Call Center, Support, Sales, Marketing, and much more.  

In addition to announcing noHold’s new Knowledge Management solution, SICURA, it has launched a complete makeover to its website, www.nohold.com.  The new website promotes clarity throughout all products and provides great resources on all things Knowledge Management. 

“We had very specific objectives when we created SICURA.  We wanted to have a solution that was cloud-based, mobile friendly and designed to support multiple languages with a Virtual Agent capable of rendering information on the end user’s terms.  We have achieved those objectives with a solution that is cost effective and easy to deploy,” said Diego Ventura, the founder and CEO of noHold, Inc.

About noHold, Inc.

Smarter Self-Service. noHold is a privately held company established in 1999 and is headquartered in Milpitas, CA, USA (Silicon Valley). noHold is the acknowledged leader in web based self-service solutions with a mission to deliver real answers to real questions - real fast. Simple to use, easy to implement and as close to human as you can get, noHold turns automated customer support into cognitive customer interaction. noHold customers include Toshiba, Lenovo, Cisco and a host of industry leaders.

http://www.nohold.com/

Press Contacts:

Sarah Ramoz, Marketing Operations Manager               Veronica Cech, Social Media Assistant sramoz@nohold.com                                                           vcech@nohold.com

408.946.9200 ext. 305                                                        408.946.9200 ext. 356

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