Blog - How to streamline the workday using the new AI-powered Companion

Summary

Ever feel like you’re constantly switching between business apps just to find that one bit of information you swear you saw yesterday? You’re not alone. Research from McKinsey shows that the average employee spends 1.9 hours each day searching for relevant information at work.

“The biggest disconnect between what executives think is happening and what employees think is happening is in IT. Technology impacting employee experiences goes beyond HR software … Outdated tech, outdated processes, and a lack of integration is slowing down employees.

— Tiffani Bova, Global Growth Evangelist, Salesforce

On average, companies deploy as many as 88 business applications, which contributes to the overall digital friction that is hampering productivity and increasing frustration. Who has time for 88 apps, right? Throwing another app at the problem isn’t helping. It’s only adding to the confusion.

LumApps is building a more human-centric, AI-powered intranet to evolve with the changing workforce

The evolution of Generative AI and conversational interfaces have opened new opportunities for how employees can interact with content and applications in a more human-centric way. Employees (whether at their desk, on the go, or on the frontline) want tools that align with their chosen ways of working and are just as seamless as the mobile apps and tools they use every day outside of work.
LumApps set out to create a solution that would truly address the pain points our customers are experiencing. We surveyed the market and brainstormed with three customers. We came up with a new AI-powered framework that allows for a whole new way of interactivity within an intranet.
This break-through technology eliminates barriers between tools, making the employee's needs top priority.

“We firmly believe that intranets must also evolve to more efficiently combine content and actions into one frictionless experience,” says Sean Winter, VP of Strategy at LumApps. “Companion is our first step in achieving this goal and will allow for this massive shift in how employees get work done."

LumApps Companion is a new AI-powered solution that helps reduce digital fraction and utilizes the popularity of AI to help teams work more efficiently. Companion streamlines access to mission-critical apps, related data, and company resources via a personalized employee dashboard, a conversational AI interface, and AI-orchestrated “nudge” notifications so employees never miss an important update.

The first intranet functionality of its kind, designed with customer feedback

A customer approached us about how to address digital friction – Why not build a centralized hub that brings it all together? LumApps accepted the challenge and we set out to create a tool that can provide quick access to services that can help streamline the workday.

Where other employee dashboards are focused on one service type – either HR focused or service focused – LumApps Companion is the first solution of its kind that gives employees instant access to a 360-degree, consolidated view of information from all of their business apps. Plus, employees can organize and tailor the personal dashboard to their needs and then complete tasks and actions within those apps without leaving the dashboard.

The customer use cases that prompted a streamlined workflow

LumApps designed Companion based on customer feedback and requests for a tool that would allow employees to access critical apps, important company resources, and stay connected to company updates in a streamlined, simplified manner.

According to a LumApps customer in the banking industry, employees were spending 20-25% of their time on non-job specific tasks, like HR paperwork and managing PTO requests. The leaders requested a tool where employees could manage all of these tasks without having to switch between dashboards.

With LumApps Companion, employees and managers can stop switching between apps with the following:

Quick and simple access to services, in the channel of their choice
Streamlined information display with no duplication
The ability for each employee to configure their dashboard

3 ways to get tasks done faster using LumApps Companion

1. Accomplish tasks without leaving your one-stop-shop dashboard

LumApps Companion comes with an employee dashboard that helps save time by centralizing your favorite business apps and services into a single page. Not only that, but you can complete tasks and actions within the apps without ever leaving your dashboard.

All of the tools you might use on a daily basis – like Workday, ServiceNow, Salesforce, SAP ERP – can be utilized via a single page where you can complete the most common transactions (like requesting leave or checking the status of your support ticket) directly from the dashboard to save you time and clicks while improving your productivity.

Companion comes with pre-built micro-apps (see below) and companies can build their own micro-apps to fit their needs, with each employee being able to organize their own dashboard based on personal preferences and priorities.

2. Quickly solve problems with the conversational AI digital assistant

LumApps Companion includes access to a conversational AI interface to empower you to self-serve common tasks like HR or IT requests. Digital assistant uses natural-language processing to understand your query and can retrieve answers from across the intranet and your connected knowledge bases in order to display the most relevant responses and resources.

You can use the digital assistant to quickly solve common tasks (like approving leave requests) and the digital assistant will suggest next-best actions, such as setting up out-of-office notifications. LumApps Companion not only proposes resources from LumApps and/or third-party knowledge bases, it seamlessly and intelligently displays the proposed steps, in a straight-through processing mode.

You can interact with the Companion’s digital assistant from your LumApps intranet (on your laptop or from your smartphone via the LumApps mobile app) or from the tools you prefer, such as Google Chat, Microsoft Teams, or Slack.

Lumapps Companion Leave request & OOO set-up

3. Stay up-to-date on company updates with work-life nudges in your preferred work channel

LumApps Companion includes access to our employee journeys tool which sends push notifications to employees in their preferred way to work, to guide them with automated touches.

LumApps Companion access in the flow of work

Here are some of the ways you can use journeys nudges:

Managers can create an employee journey, like annual review prep, that sends ‘nudges’ to help employees complete different steps in the review process
Build your own workflows with our no-code and flexible orchestration engine
Automate time-consuming tasks such as reminders, calendar invites, and more
Access nudges and resources in Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, email, and via LumApps mobile app’s notifications

How LumApps Companion makes life easier for all employees who are on a LumApps intranet

Companion is available for all employees - desk workers, frontline workers, and deskless employees - no matter what device they use (laptop, tablet, or smartphone) or where they work.

LumApps Companion leverages innovative technology called micro-apps. These ‘smart cards’ pull in information from 3rd-party tools and services, and deliver granular tasks or notifications into an employee’s workspace (either in the LumApps intranet, Microsoft Teams, Slack, or Google Chat) without forcing them to switch to a new interface to complete an action. It eases access to key data and transactions, and improves UX and productivity.

Thanks to LumApps Companion’s no-code builder and in addition to pre-built micro-apps, each company can build and design a custom micro-app in as little as one day or leverage LumApps professional services team or channel partners to build their own.

Want to learn how your company can use LumApps Companion to streamline your work day? Request a demo with our team.

Discover our latest content on Artificial Intelligence