How the KMD x BotXO partnership leads to an Industry-Specific Chatbot Solution for the energy and utility sector
- The partnership: The Energy and Utility Industry-Specific Chatbot Solution was built in collaboration between KMD and BotXO.
- The idea behind: The chatbot has pre-built content to answer FAQ about electricity, water, wastewater, heat and renovation, depending on the specific company's version.
- Customisable chatbot: The Chatbot Solution is a model that can be adjusted to all energy and utility companies.
- Why partner up with BotXO: KMD chose BotXO because of BotXO technology, ease of use and specialization in the Danish language.
- Onboarding with KMD: It takes only up to one month for the conversational AI chatbot to be up and running.
- The technology: The chatbot uses NLU and sentiment analysis.
- KMD’s future goals: KMD expect to provide chatbot solutions for other sectors.
The Energy and Utility Chatbot Solution
The standard chatbot solution is based on KMD‘s extensive knowledge in the energy and utility sector and BotXO’s chatbot platform. The structure is built around the most frequently asked questions about electricity, water, wastewater, heat and renovation. Also, the solution includes modules for handling inquiries regarding settlement, consumption and self-service. The technology in the platform uses conversational AI and Natural Language Understanding (NLU).
Who is KMD?
KMD A/S is among the largest IT and software corporations in Denmark with branches in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense and Aalborg. Their services range from consulting, development, operation and maintenance to support software solutions, systems and infrastructure. The company develops software solutions for public entities as well as private companies.
KMD specialises in several different industries, herein the energy and utility sector, which KMD has been advising and delivering solutions to for the last 35 years. The sector has been going through a transformation with the liberalisation of the electricity market and the transition to green energy. As well as the merge of different market players and the implementation of the Danish ‘engrosmodel’. – A reforming of the retail electricity market, which implies a changed distribution of responsibilities in the electricity market. And all these changes entail a need for knowledge, about the market that are constantly up to date.
Why did KMD engage in the chatbot project?
To bring some light to why KMD has chosen to engage in the chatbot project, we’ve talked to Katrine Marcussen Baumann, Business Developer at KMD. Katrine is responsible for managing the partner business activities concerning new software solutions at KMD’s energy and utility branch.
She argues that the reason why they have looked to new artificial intelligence solutions, and at chatbots specifically, is that they can see a tendency in regards to those communication channels that the customers demand today and that the customers are becoming more digital:
"We see that digital communication solutions are becoming increasingly important in customer service. In order to meet the needs of customers today, and in the future, customer service must be ready for digital customer contact at all times, day and night. With a chatbot solution we can help our customers heighten their service level in a very cost-effective way."
The partnership model
The majority of KMD’s business comes from its software development. But a big part of KMD’s business profile is to collaborate with other IT and software companies, such as BotXO, to deliver the right software solution for their customers.
To KMD, neither the cheapest nor the most expensive solution are necessarily the best option. The best solution is the solution that has been produced due to a collaboration between the experts from KMD, the clients and the experts from their given technology-partner.
This type of collaboration is also the case with the partnership between KMD and BotXO. KMD is a strategic industry-focused partner to BotXO, what we call an Alliance Partner. This means that KMD develops, sells and implements the standardised industry-specific chatbot solution which is built on top of the BotXO Chatbot Platform. The partnership is, so to speak, a joint venture with joint go to market activities. Being an Alliance Partner means that the company can:
- Maintain relevance to customers while continuously providing business development.
- Extend existing solutions, helping customers helping their customers
- Retain customers with more solutions.
- Be acknowledged as a digital business advisor.
Both parties benefit from a partnership
There can be many reasons why organisations decide to partner up with BotXO:
“I think it’s fantastic that we have a platform that allows partners and customers to build their own industry-specific solutions, that are, essentially, specialized solutions built on our technology. It’s then much easier to go to market with those solutions because they are built to cater to different industry needs.” Tonny Rønnow, Head of Sales and Partnerships, BotXO.
According to Tonny Rønnow the partnership with KMD makes it possible to use the competences of both parties to the fullest:
"The partnership model is interesting because, in the case of KMD, we would not be able to operate on the same level of knowledge that KMD has regarding the energy and utility sector. Therefore, we wouldn't be able to make our solutions as relevant for the target group as KMD can with their knowledge."
Partnering with BotXO
"The reason why we chose to collaborate with BotXO, and in general why we chose to enter into a partnership with a company that focuses on this specific technology, is that we can benefit from their expertise and experience and get to the market faster. A big advantage of collaborating with BotXO is that they keep their fingers on the pulse in regards to the evolution of chatbot technology. Through this partnership, we have secured ourselves a partner that is 100% committed to and focused on chatbots, which is a technology that is constantly evolving and changing."
Focus on the Danish language
One of the factors that have had a huge impact on KMD in the decision of choosing to collaborate with BotXO has been BotXO’s focus on the Scandinavian languages and in particular the Danish language.
KMD built the standard chatbot solution, by using NLU and sentiment analysis because the chatbot must understand the input it gets from its Danish citizens: “It is crucial that the chatbot understands and can act based on the input it receives. Since the bot is built on the Danish language, it can capture and understand many things.”, says Katrine.
When building a dialogue flow in a bot there is not a 1/1 relationship between a given question and answer. Typically, people ask, “What can you ask the chatbot?”. But that question has to be turned around and instead we have to ask “What can the chatbot answer to?” Because a chatbot might have 50 or 100 questions or variations of questions for the same answer. Thereby, the success of the chatbot comes down to utilising the technology in the best way possible. In the case of KMD this entails having a Danish chatbot that can understand everyday language with its grammatical imperfections.
"The ability to embrace a great number of variations in the way different people communicate is one of the primary strengths of the BotXO platform. The chatbot has proven to have a success rate where it can understand a lot, and that is very important for our customers and us as well."
Reach out to hear more
If you wish to hear more about the Energy and Utility Chatbot Solution for the energy and utility sector, you are welcome to contact Katrine Marcussen Baumann at [email protected].
And if you want to know more about BotXO and the partnership model, you can reach out to Tonny Rønnow at [email protected] or +45 2265 2024.
Article written and designed by Kristina Egholm Rove.