When we talk about enterprise mobility solutions, we are talking about the mobile apps that have changed the way users interact with enterprise systems, such as JD Edwards, Siebel, Oracle EBS, Fusion cloud ERP, etc. And how they draw data from back–end databases and forms. Cloud and MBaaS (Mobile Backend) systems have made mobile application development convenient. The rise of Integration Cloud Service (ICS) and Oracle Mobile Cloud Service (MCS) has made the mobile application development more ‘declarative’ where the configuration is done with minimal coding.

With AI, ML, and NLP in the cloud, enterprise mobility solutions has become more conversational, making the entire experience customer-friendly and a more convenient way to transact business, leading to the evolution of Chatbots. Chatbots are considered the latest and most powerful way to engage with customers and employees in the B2C and B2E space.

Change and evolution are the bywords for Industry 4.0. Enterprises do not want to be left behind as artificial intelligence and machine learning move more and more into the digital space freeing up the time of human capital. Enterprises must adapt to these times and keep pace as change is the only way to increase productivity. This is where Intelligent Chatbot for Oracle Enterprise Applications using Oracle Mobile Cloud Enterprise comes into play and enables or bot-enables Oracle Enterprise Systems.

What are Chatbots?

Chatbot uses Artificial Intelligence and is enhanced by NLP and ML. It can reduce, if not remove, the process of numerous navigations and provide answers to your questions through simple conversations. No more going through many web pages, no more reading the FAQs when looking for simple, straightforward answers.

Why are enterprises looking towards conversational bots?

The most commonly used apps are conversational messenger applications, with around 4 billion users transacting business through instant messenger applications. There has been a rapid transition from desktop users to mobile users in recent years. Even more recently, people have been moving from mobile applications to chatbots. A few reasons for this move include:

The increasing number of messaging apps

The users have become more conversant with chatting and messaging apps and find them far more convenient. Most smartphone users make prolific use of messaging, and now, mobile apps usage has saturated as most users work with an average of 26-28 apps per month.

The convenience of using chatbots

Chatbots need little to no training since users are already familiar with chat apps. In contrast, mobile enterprise apps need workflow training and visual navigation for users, resulting in some adaption challenges. However, with chatbots, the users are provided with a more human-like interaction, making them more accessible and convenient to use.

App fatigue for enterprise users

One of the more common reasons that drive the chatbots trend is app fatigue. An average user finds that nearly 80% of apps are used rarely. Adding enterprise apps on top of that can bring up more issues. Moreover, enterprise apps have a few constraints too. The users still need to manage and upgrade even the rarely used apps periodically. This causes app fatigue, and enterprises are looking to reduce app fatigue by developing more chatbots for specific scenarios and use cases.

Reduced development cost and time

With the advent of AI, NLP, and ML, it is easier to reduce the cost and development, and there is an increasing number of bot development frameworks used by enterprises across the globe.

The above reasons and more have led to enterprises looking towards chatbots, and Oracle Enterprise Mobility using Intelligent Chatbots and Artificial Intelligence is just in time to help with the transformation.

Evolution of Oracle Mobile Cloud Enterprise (OMCe)

A mobile developer spends most of the time developing back-end code. They need to write several lines of code to make functionalities such as push notifications/ SSO/ offline synchronization or user management work. It is why enterprises started to develop “MBaaS” (Mobile Backend as a Service). Oracle provides Oracle Mobile Cloud Service (MCS) to MBaaS.

Oracle also has the Cloud Integration platform known as Integration Cloud Service (ICS), which comes with pre-built connectors for all major ERP systems, databases, etc., and on-premises agents for database connectivity. With this, the whole mobile app development infrastructure is entirely on the cloud. Continuous innovations add the bot flavor to Oracle MCS.

Oracle Mobile Cloud Enterprise

Chatbots do not need an app installed on iOS or Android phones. They are compatible with all messaging platforms. By adding Artificial Intelligence, ML, and NLP algorithms, Oracle has developed a complete bot development framework on the cloud – Oracle Mobile Cloud Enterprise or OMCe. Furthermore, Oracle has added an Intelligent Bot Builder platform and Analytics. Oracle’s all-in-one Mobile Cloud framework for developing mobile back-end services includes bots and enhanced analytics.

OMCe provides a web portal-based framework for developing chatbots. It enables developing, programming, and training bots that respond to our conversations. Artificial Intelligence (AI) engine is at its core, and it uses NLP and ML algorithms to decode conversations, sense emotions, and provide accurate responses. It also has “Bot Analytics,” our Customer Experience Analytics (CXA) with analytics on bot adoption, match cases, etc.

Oracle Bot Builder Portal in OMCe

To develop the Oracle EBS approvals bot, enterprises can leverage the full extent of the Oracle Intelligent bot builder portal. It is a web-based portal that helps chatbot developers to configure the bot using less code by easy-to-configure intents, entities, and dialogue flow. And test them for matching results.

Chatbots for Oracle EBS approvals made easy

A single mobile application built on Oracle Mobile Cloud Enterprise (OMCe) can manage multiple apps and develop a chatbot approvals application. We can use the Mobile Cloud Service (MCS) layer of OMCe to build the back-end integration services from other systems such as Outlook, EBS, Salesforce, etc. The Intelligent Bot builder can build the Approvals app. Typically, approvals need instant responses, especially those requiring managers to check pending tasks and approve transactions.

Use Cases for ChatBots

Chatbots have made innovative inroads to enterprise systems and simplified transactions, including HR and Sales.

HR ChatBot:

The chatbot can dramatically change the HR employee self-service process and help navigate through multiple pages in a mobile app. The self-trained intelligent HR bot can handle queries on policies, leaves, corporate insurance, etc. The Time-Card creation bot can create time entries and enable entering time cards and respond to questions on the total time entered, any pending entries, and even copying time from a previous week.

Sales and CRM ChatBot:

The sales and CRM bot can enable sales managers to check relevant information about the sales or clients from a mobile device using a UI. They can ask a few questions such as the top five products that are performing well, the best price of a product sold the previous week, and even the new opportunities awaiting negotiation.

Conclusion

OMCe is one of the end-to-end bot providers that enables enterprise back-end integration, mobile cloud service features, and analytics. OMCe will have a more user-friendly “Visual Dialogue flow editor” and enhanced “Analytics” in a single platform. The Analytics (CxA) can provide deep insights into the bot usage and help make strategic decisions.

Continuous efforts based on human behavior improve productivity and lead to technology innovation. People have witnessed the revolution in the cloud, virtual platforms, mobile applications, smart devices, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). And OMCe, powered by Analytics, is the future and Intelligent chatbots are here to stay as they continue to revolutionize how we interact with enterprise systems.

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