No code chatbots: TIBCO uses Amazon Lex to put chat interfaces into the hands of business users

This is a guest blog post by Nathan Sutton, Chief Architect at TIBCO. In their own words, “TIBCO fuels digital business by enabling better decisions and faster, smarter actions through the TIBCO Connected Intelligence Cloud. From APIs and systems to devices and people, we interconnect everything, capture data in real time wherever it is, and augment the intelligence of your business through analytical insights.“

Users today don’t expect to be tied to a desktop computer. They want to interact with systems on the go, in a variety of ways that are convenient to them. This means that people often turn to mobile devices and interact with applications and systems while multi-tasking. Users might not even touch their mobile device while operating the apps they use, particularly when they are in a vehicle, or when they are actively engaged in another activity. In home environments, this “hands-free” capability is facilitated by voice activation systems.

Business users now aspire to the same experience in a business environment. They want to operate the applications and systems that they use in their daily work tasks using voice control, just like they do at home. Imagine how much simpler daily work tasks would be. However, adding voice controls to systems has not been easy. Voice integration can be a very involved project, even for skilled developers. Moreover, today’s business users want to solve their own tactical and strategic business problems by building “low code/no code” apps. Plus, business users want these apps to follow the same end-user requirements we mentioned earlier: They need to be able to be used on the go anywhere, anytime, hands-free.

Easily add voice controls to any application – no coding needed!

We are excited to announce that TIBCO Cloud Live Apps now directly supports the use of voice to operate your apps. We use Amazon Lex to enable non-developers in Live Apps to add voice capabilities to their apps with a few clicks. The results: application end-users can now work their apps on the go, such as while they’re commuting or driving between customer appointments.

These voice activated apps can be built by business users themselves, without the help of a software developer. TIBCO has packaged the capability to allow anyone, even non-developers, to add a voice interface to any Cloud Live Apps application. It’s pre-configured, out of the box ready to go. With Live Apps, business users can also make some parts of an existing app available for users for mobile or via chat. Live Apps supports this by allowing the designer to simply select those parts of the app to make available via chat.

How did TIBCO make this rich functionality available to non-developers?

Live Apps works around the concept of a “case” and is designed to solve a specific business problem. Business problems fit well into a case management structure. A case could be an expense approval, a claim process, or a request to repair IT equipment. For each of these business problems, voice commands can be very different and have to be contextual to the app that you build.

Case management involves a system of data, actions to take with that data, and moving the case from one state to another.  We mapped the voice commands to follow this structure. You can now perform variety of actions using voice commands in Live Apps that can be applied to a wide range of industry and departmental use cases.  Amazon Lex makes the voice interaction possible without the use of code.

About the Author

Nathan Sutton is the Chief Architect in TIBCO’s BPM division with technical responsibility for all TIBCO low-code apps and process management offerings. Nathan is a long-time cloud evangelist within TIBCO. Away from work Nathan is keen on cycling and playing bass in a local band.