When the time comes to set up a conversational bot, business leaders generally ask themselves a number of questions. These range from the material aspect of the bot to immaterial questions. In any case, it’s worth noting that chatbots are conversational devices that don’t necessarily require heavy technological skills. In this case, you should prioritize chatbots designed in a natural language, with simple, automatable activities. So, should I opt for an open source conversational bot or not? It all depends on the objectives set by the users of these conversational devices.
Take your company’s objectives into account
Generally speaking, the primary aim of chatbots is to help automate customer requests. Users of this automated chat will then be able to access concrete answers to their needs, whether complex or not. At the same time, these automated conversational supports enable customer service staff to be more operational and make better use of their time.
Choosing an open sourceconversational agent also means taking into account the other benefits of chatbots. For example, users of this virtual assistance solution can have both standard and customizable answers. What’s more, chatbots are always available, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Unlike customer services, the platform extends its availability beyond call center opening hours.
What’s more, theconversational agent provides an almost instantaneous response to the user. Customers are always served in real time. It should also be said that the implementation of such software is part of a dynamic of innovation. The company relies on new technologies to adapt to ever-changing customer consumption habits.
Clearly identifying the business sector you need to cover will help you decide which solution to prioritize for this virtual assistance. When there are several different solutions to choose from, it’s not always easy to make a decision. To make the best choice, we recommend that you think carefully and compare software before making your decision.
Ensuring the long-term viability of the chatbot system
It would be pointless to create an automated conversational agent without ensuring that it works over time. Sustainability is therefore an important criterion to consider for a high-performance chatbot. This parameter may lead you to choose the right editor or open source solution.
It’s important to note that chatbots operate in a highly competitive environment. Your conversational agent must therefore be able to adapt to this world. Favoring recognized chatbot publishers, such as Botnation, therefore seems an appropriate choice.
In this case, you’ll benefit (for your chat bot) from several references and a broad portfolio of consistent solutions. This can be a guarantee for the longevity of your chat bot.
The benefits of Open Source
Contrary to what many people might think, open source isn’t always synonymous with free. Certainly, there are SaaS software packages that offer free services, notably for chatbot creation. This is the case, for example, with Botnation, a plug-in that lets you set up your own chat bot in record time.
For your conversational robot (from Open Source), you’ll potentially benefit from a free service and code that you can audit. Likewise, the community is generally enthusiastic and features will be at the cutting edge of innovation.
The only problem with open source software (for creating a chatbot) is that longevity is not guaranteed in advance. However, with proper maintenance, you can continue to use this conversational agent solution over the long term. In fact, Botnation includes a number of tools for periodic evaluation.
Chatbot infrastructure: another criterion to consider
When setting up a chatbot for your company, you also need to choose the right location and hosting.
The robot can be located in the Cloud. It will then operate in integrated infrastructure mode. The advantage here is thatvirtual assistance users won’t have to worry about maintenance. It’s the solution provider who takes care of maintaining the automated chat. Failing that, there may be a delegation of skills to take care of this task. You can host your virtual assistance using a single-tenant or multi-tenant solution. In the first case, a bot is equivalent to a database. With this type of hosting, you can create your conversational assistance in SaaS mode on a private cloud.
The other hosting solution available for a chatbot is the company’s own website. This is an on-premise hosting solution. With this type of hosting, you have total control over the management of the tool. When it comes to maintenance, it’s up to your in-house teams to take care of it, on a regular basis. If you want confidentiality for your corporate data, this chatbot hosting solution is the one for you.
It is also possible to choose a combination of these two forms of hosting. In other words, one part of the chatbot is handled by the SaaS software via the cloud, and the other is managed by the company. In this way, you separate the processing of your information from the other functionalities offered by the solution. This applies, for example, to livechat management or language processing through artificial intelligence. Of course, to implement this conversational solution, you need to have the necessary skills and competencies. Open source or not, make sure your in-house teams can support you in implementing these solutions.
