Bot News
NOMI

By Brian Proffitt

It is no secret that the trend in customer relations is using avatars in place of human agents. Web-based avatars, in particular, offer increased savings for companies who need to run call centers and other types of customer relations. The only question now is: who will produce the better avatar?

NOMI is one such avatar, representing the technology of novomind AG, a Hamburg, Germany-based software firm specializing in electronic customer relations management (eCRM) solutions.

NOMI is what novomind calls an IPI (Interactive Personable Intelligent) Agent: a natural-language processing chat bot presented in either Flash or HTML format on a client's Web site.

NOMI is actually the front-end for two integrated products from novomind: IQ and TrueTALK. Each of these products represents a different layer in the company-customer relationship.

IQ is the application which actually generates the avatar for a client site, letting clients create their own unique interfaces as well as populate the agent's knowledge base with the answers to frequently asked questions. This is the first level of interaction, by novomind's definition.

The second level is handled by TrueTALK. This application allows a human agent behind the scenes to take over from the IPI Agent whenever a customer requests to speak to a live person.

Even with a human involved in the eCRM process, clients can still save on expenditures, since with TrueTALK, one operator can assist four customers at once, according to novomind.

Functionally, NOMI is an effective chat bot. Her responses were usually on target, though she does not handle idiom very well (I spoke with her in English, though she can also speak auf Deutsch). The Flash interface was very effective, and the HTML format was nice as well, particularly for those folk who don't have Flash readily at hand.

One improvement to NOMI might be the addition of cookie technology. She forgot who I was whenever I came to a new session, which sort of lessened the experience a bit.

No pricing information is available for the IQ and TrueTALK products, as novomind prefers to build fees based on client need. Given novomind's clientele, it might be safe to say that this solution may be targeted for larger businesses.