At VMworld this year, we announced the new virtual assistant capability as a part of Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub – the digital workspace app for employees. As of last week, this service is now generally available for our customers as a part of the web and iOS Intelligent Hub clients. In today’s blog, we’ll discuss the new offering, pre-requisites, and configuration.
Why did we think it was important to include VMware AVA as a part of Intelligent Hub?
Our customers (including VMware!) are focused on improving employee experience (EX) as a strategic project going into 2020. The numbers don’t lie, better EX results in increased productivity, a positive correlation in recruiting and retention numbers, and higher customer satisfaction scores. With the demographics of the workforce changing – 50% will be millennials in 2020 – the definition and requirements for a great EX are shifting. Employees want to self-serve as a part of their corporate experience, just as they can within their personal lives. Now, with VMware AVA, employees can go to their digital workspace app for more than just app access and SSO, corporate directory, communication alerts, approvals, and the intranet page. They can now ask VMware AVA for help finding the right tools, troubleshooting assistance, ordering new devices, opening tickets, managing their tasks, and much more. VMware AVA supports the open ticket flow out of the box and can easily be extended to support other relevant flows.
Check out the demo today.
So, what do you need to start taking advantage of this new service?
We recommend that customers have Workspace ONE Enterprise licenses. Customers will need Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub, Workspace ONE Access, and Workspace ONE mobile flows. Configuration is done in the hub services console which can be accessed either from Workspace ONE UEM or Workspace ONE Access.
VMware AVA requires IBM Watson as the Natural Language Processing (NLP) provider. Customers can connect their existing IBM Watson Workspace to Intelligent Hub. If you don’t have IBM Watson today, we recommend working with the IBM team to acquire Watson.
Once you have the pre-requisites in place, you are ready to configure and start using VMware AVA in Intelligent Hub.
Within the hub services console, you can connect your Workspace ONE environment to your Watson environment. You can upload the Workspace ONE pre-trained template to your Watson Workspace that allows you to take advantage right away of the common task of creating a new ticket. With Workspace ONE mobile flows, you can communicate directly with your ITSM system of choice. It is simple to expand upon this use case for more custom intents and flows. VMware AVA also supports the Watson Discovery Service, allowing employees to find answers they need to be successful. For more information on the setup and services, we have detailed documentation available on our knowledge portal.
Now, you are ready to get started! Delivering great experiences to employees is a journey, and one you’ll certainly iterate on as you get feedback and learn more about your employees. With IBM Watson integration in Intelligent Hub, you can simply train VMware AVA to learn and respond to your employees, intuitively guiding them and allowing them to meet and achieve their goals. A win-win for you, and your employees!
Learn more at vmware.com/employee-experience.
