Robohelp

Citation

(2001), "Robohelp", Work Study, Vol. 50 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2001.07950baf.004

Robohelp

Robohelp

Keywords: Internet, Customer service, Technology, Innovation

Kiwilogic now has 3i plc (http:///www.3i.com) on board as an investor, building on the e prior announcement that the company had completed its second round funding of 5.2 million Euros from Earlybird Venture Capital (http://www.earlybird-vc.com).

Dr Karl-Ludwig von Wendt, chairman of Kiwilogic, said: "We are very proud that, along with our existing partner Earlybird, 3i, one of the most important and renowned investors in Europe, is now involved with Kiwilogic – particularly at a time when only highly promising companies are securing venture capital. Together with 3i's excellent contacts in the global software and Internet industry, this round of funding gives us the backing we need to further pursue our successful international strategy."

The 3i Group buys stakes in young, high-growth companies (typically in the high-technology sector) and currently has stakes in 750 high-technology firms worldwide. The group also supports growth capital financing loans, management buy-outs and buy-ins.

Kiwilogic has developed software to enable online companies to implement Lingubots on their sites. A Lingubot is an interactive, intelligent online character which acts as a store greeter, customer support agent, product specialist and entertainer all rolled into one. Lingubots provide a visual and interactive persona for visitors thanks to their ability to hold text conversations with humans. Applications for the Lingubot technology include "virtual sales representatives" for e-commerce sites, helpful and friendly guides through otherwise complex company Web sites and animated mascots or logos to add an extra dimension to a company's brand.

This flagship Kiwilogic technology – the virtual electronic assistant – enables companies to develop sophisticated, interactive, intelligent online characters with their own individual personalities.

Lingubots:

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  Make life easier for visitors to a Web site, enabling them to quickly find exactly what they are looking for.

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  Are specifically designed to lessen the burden on customer call centres by answering questions in real time and helping visitors find the information and products they are looking for.

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  Provide an important role as part of an integrated e-commerce system whereby they can answer last minute product questions as well as highlighting promotional/cross-selling opportunities, thus increasing revenues from online purchases.

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  Enable businesses to capture important customer information by studying their dialogues with the Lingubot. While today's standard Web site does give information on where the user clicked it is impossible to find out what they actually wanted there.

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  Need no programming experience to implement.

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  Require no additional add-ons or plug-ins for Web visitors to use.

Kiwilogic's Lingubots are increasingly being employed by companies as diverse as Olympus, Gameplay and Epicall to increase customer satisfaction and reduce the amount of time and money spent internally on call centres and customer support.

Andreas Denkmann, investment manager at 3i, said: "Kiwilogic has innovative technology with a great deal of market potential, a convincing business model and experienced senior management which has already been through its share of ups and downs. These strengths are reinforced by the fact that natural-language agents and virtual advisers are definitely one of the key technologies for making the Internet more user-friendly and more successful. These agents will play a central role in electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) and release significant cost savings potential. All of this makes Kiwilogic an exciting and highly promising investment".

Kiwilogic was recently named best German start-up by Germany's leading weekly business magazine, Wirschaftswoche.