Move over, Jenn. There's a new girl -- actually, a human-emulated electronic agent -- in town.
FlyQ, a unit of East Brunswick, N.J.-headquartered MiQ Interactive Corp., is targeting a broad swath of the travel industry, from airlines to GDSs and online travel agencies, with a set of virtual agent solutions for websites and so-called Interactive Voice Response products for call centers that David Palmieri, CEO of MiQ (pronounced MY-cue), said "blows Jenn out of the water."
In February, Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air introduced Jenn, an interactive virtual assistant based on an ActiveAgent platform from an MiQ competitor, Next IT. Jenn acts like a customer service assistant: Her face pops up on the computer screen when you click the "Ask Jenn" link on Alaska's website. Type a question into the question box and an answer is both shown on the screen and spoken in a human voice, one that users are to presume is Jenn's voice.
But with FlyQ, consumers click on a button or an image of the electronic agent and ask questions in their normal voices, using their computer's internal microphone or an external audio device. FlyQ's voice recognition technology enables the electronic agent to recognize the questions and provide preprogrammed answers in a human-sounding voice.
FlyQ believes that this two-way, voice-like communication is more effective than having a virtual agent such as Jenn do all the talking. FlyQ also states that its technology's data analysis tools are superior to Jenn's. For example, it can remember the preferences of returning users.
Next IT declined to comment on Palmieri's characterization of Jenn's capabilities.
The parent company of MiQ is @Aquila, founded in 1995.
In addition to FlyQ (FLY-cue) for the travel industry, MiQ is targeting other industries, such as medical and retail, with similar virtual agent solutions offered by different subsidiaries.
Palmieri, who most recently was vice president of Lufthansa Systems Americas, said one key distinction of his product was superior data analysis of consumer behavior in its Web, call center and mobile applications.
All of the text and voice dialogues of consumer sessions are stored in a relational database for analysis.
"It's game-changing technology" that improves the online-shopping experience, greatly improves conversion rates and makes operations more cost-efficient, he said.
Palmieri's boasts about MiQ are supported to some extent by Forrester Research analyst Henry Harteveldt.
"It's a big deal," Harteveldt said, referring to MiQ's travel industry entry. He said that compared with its competitors, MiQ appears to have a more complete solution, including Web, call center and mobile applications. Competitors include Next IT and ATG, with the latter offering an eStara click-to-call solution (where a consumer clicks a button, then enters a phone number; a live customer service agent calls them back).
Harteveldt said that as consumers face a more complex online travel shopping experience, the industry has fallen behind other industries because it lacks click-to-call and instant messaging capabilities. MiQ could ease and improve that experience for travel consumers, he said.
MiQ's technology could be used on a business-to-consumer and business-to-business basis, Harteveldt said.
"I could see this being an enormous benefit to cruise lines," Harteveldt said, adding it could streamline communications between the lines and travel agents.
FlyQ's virtual travel agent solution has no clients. Although the company is believed to be talking with a broad range of companies, Palmieri declined to discuss negotiations.
However, a joint venture between @Aquila (www.ataquila.com) and Aumtech, also headquartered in East Brunswick, provides call center and notification services to JetBlue, Hawaiian and Aer Lingus.
Palmieri said FlyQ was attempting to enter the travel marketplace through a co-marketing relationship, with a potential partner distributing the virtual agent solution to third parties.
He added that FlyQ would leverage a partner's sales force, and the partner would use FlyQ technology for the co-marketing effort.
FlyQ offers two business models: on-demand application service provider and managed service provider relationships.
Both would require up-front and minimum support fees as well as "per-click, call, minute, session and/or user fees," the company stated. The only difference is that under the managed service provider model, clients would own the application and have to purchase their own hardware.