Beacon-Connect

Beacon-connect. About technology

A technology that brings together online and offline smart wireless networks in the unlicensed spectrum such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and IoT standards.

How Beacon-connect works

Beacon-connect is a technology that allows physical identifiers of wearable devices to be combined with the identifiers of applications and chatbots in a unified way. The function is accomplished by converting any OpenWRT-compatible router into an interactive radar beacon capable of recognizing and reporting client devices to send targeted messages directly to customer devices at the right time in the right place.

The main feature of the technology is not data collection, as in Wi-Fi radars, and not an advertising "spam" model, but the ability to "wake up" the service automatically in a convenient and customer-friendly place. And the customer himself subscribes to this function for his own convenience.

The technology can be used for communication through:

1. mobile applications,
2. chat bots,
3. voice assistants,
4. augmented reality web applications,
5. blitz application.

Technology features

Beacon-connect was developed by the FSITI family non-profit foundation with the help of investors and sponsors, and is protected by patents in the Russian Federation and the USA. The technology is being developed as a Smart City standard and will be available on a Freemium distribution model with an open API.

The uniqueness of the technology lies in the fact that it provides the organizer of any service with the ability to send messages to device owners at the moment they appear in the beacon's coverage area.

In other words, Beacon-connect combines online and offline formats of interaction with clients, in fact, forming a single information field between the virtual world and reality with personalized content for each customer.

A wide space for realizing this opportunity exists in industries aimed at mass audience coverage and, at the same time, focused on an individual approach to each person.

The implementation of the Beacon-Connect concept is possible by delivering push notifications to mobile applications of the service, messages to chat bots of instant messengers and social networks, activating voice assistants and augmented reality technologies during the client's presence in the zone of the organizer's beacons. This means that, having registered in the system once, the user will be able to receive information from the organizers of the project for an unlimited period of time and enjoy its benefits.

The organizers, in turn, receive a personalized communication channel that will deliver their "message" to the user without failures at the time of his presence in the beacon coverage area. An important "bonus" from the use of Beacon-Connect for the organizer is an up-to-date and reliable database of the list of all users registered in the service.

This is how the author of the FSITI, a serial inventor in the field of IT and communication algorithms, social entrepreneur Igor Lekontsev, estimates the main advantages of the technology:

Conclusion

This is not our first attempt to connect online and offline - all the researches of the Foundation's employees, starting from 2012, have been focused on such a solution. For such a long time, we have tried using Bluetooth beacons, geo targeting, ultrasonic sensors, face recognition and other technologies with their pros and cons. Subsequently, we found the most successful combinations of technologies to obtain the result and implemented them in Beacon-Connect. We are actively developing the community and want to attract like-minded people, technology partners, product managers of services and start-up projects, and all those who are interested in new opportunities. We are happy to present our product to the world and hope that it will take its rightful place in people's lives. The technology has already been used in the implementation of the book festival, is involved in organizing the customer flow of one of the largest banks and in retail, and also finds its application in government agencies.

Chatbots as a Microservice for Online to Offline Marketing

Chatbots with personalized content are among the most common Internet marketing tools - they are easy to develop, informative and can bring good conversions. But the functionality of "virtual interlocutors" still has significant points for growth, which are quite easy to activate with the help of Beacon-Connect technology.

What are the technical disadvantages of the functionality of chat bots based on TG, FB, VK, Viber, etc.:

1. Limited list of features. Today's chatbots are focused on a limited number of actions. These include applications, alerts, newsletters, and gamified activities. But these points are effective only for "warm" customers and represent only a small part of the chatbot's potential.
2. Provides up-to-date information only on outgoing message from the user. A considerable part of communication with the chatbot ends at the first dialogue, because, having received the necessary information, the user does not turn to him later. This is due both to the lack of situationally relevant incoming messages from the chatbot, and to the fact that over time, the dialogue shifts from the attention area in the messenger's message feed.
3. Suitable for online environment only. Classic chat bots are focused only on the online resources of companies and do not have the function of interacting with the user in relation to the offline space. As a result, marketing lacks the ability to harness the potential of the tool at the point of sale. And it is practically limitless.
4. Some functions in chatbots are not available. Chatbots work within the ecosystem of a messenger app or social network. If the ecosystem mobile app does not have permissions for certain features, then the chatbot will not have them by default. What functions are not available to the chatbot: access to Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, geodata in the background, microphone, etc. These restrictions prevent the chatbot from being geo-positioned in the background.

It follows from the above that the shortcomings of chat bots, on the one hand, do not allow companies to effectively interact with customers and provide them with personalized information in the actual binding to the location. On the other hand, in the perception of users, most of the chatbot mailings are transferred to the spam category. Beacon-Connect technology effectively solves both aspects of the problem.

What features a chatbot will get with Beacon-Connect

Beacon-Connect is an innovative technology that combines the functions of chat bots and mobile applications with Smart Wi-Fi, and also forms a multi-component database of resource customers.

What data companies receive:

1. a list of customers' mobile device identifiers,
2. their valid phone numbers,
3. pages in social networks, avatar image, username of the customer and other data.

What functions do chat bots get

1. activation of a dialogue when connected to a local network,
2. personalized newsletter linked to location,
3. an unlimited number of logical message threads with up-to-date information in relation to the location and other possibilities.

Thanks to its functionality, the technology is optimal for segments with a B2C audience and all spheres of social activity without restrictions on industry characteristics and tasks.

For example, among the solutions based on Beacon-Connect, the following can work with the same efficiency:

1. informing citizens about the location of public transport, social services and city events,
2. providing personalized marketing offers to customers who are in the vicinity of the point of sale,
3. navigation through hypermarket discounts using personalized mentions of promotional goods at the moment the customer is near the desired counter,
4. organization of events with a dynamically changing agenda based on the results of direct chat between customers and speakers,
5. organization of the flow of customers in offices and service points,
6. improvement of information support for car-sharing services,
7. as well as hundreds of other options based on the individual needs of the company and its audience.

During the testing period of Beacon-Connect technology, we worked out all possible technical features and were convinced of the high results. Also, practice has shown that when integrating even the most complex projects with Beacon-Connect, large-scale technological components are not required, and subsequent operation does without large labor costs on the part of full-time IT specialists.

On what platform can you create a chatbot for integration with Beacon-Connect?

Beacon-Connect integrates equally well with existing chatbots on various platforms. At the same time, there is a resource that is very convenient when developing new microservices - we checked: most of the existing Beacon-Connect.com projects were implemented jointly with Fasttrack.

Fasttrack is a platform for automated chatbot development. On this service, you can independently create chat bots for most of the available resources or order a comprehensive service for creating, adapting and filling a chat bot with content.

It is very valuable that service professionals do not limit themselves to standard instructions, but help find the best embodiment for existing technologies or participate in the development of innovative solutions. The second point was especially significant in the framework of our joint projects.

Chatbots as a Microservice for Online to Offline Marketing. Cases.

Innovative technologies are an area that is of great interest to the business community. But they are in no hurry to apply the latest developments in practice, even in the leading sectors of the economy - due to the lack of experience in working with innovations and fears of difficulties in operation.

However, the lost profit in this approach is often much higher than the associated risks and costs. At least when it comes to Beacon-Connect technology. We came to this conclusion after several months of introducing our system into the work of social and business projects.

In this article, we will explain how Beacon-Connect complements the chatbot functionality using several projects as an example.

What cases we will tell you about in this article:

1. technical support of the book festival program;
2. popularization of the institutions of Moskomsport;
3. loyalty program of one of the largest international operators of retail and small wholesale trade;
4. optimization of the service of a Russian commercial bank with state participation.

Local project with a complex structure

The festival "Women's Book Day" in Berdsk, which took place in March 2020, did not become the largest for us in terms of audience coverage. However, it turned out to be one of the most difficult to implement in the technical part. That is why we will tell you about this case in more detail.

As part of the concept of supporting the festival, a connection to the program was created by scanning a QR code located at the stands in the entrance group of the location. When a customer connected, Beacon-Connect technology registered device identifiers, remembered them and formed a common database.

A one-time registration provided customers with access to several branches of the local network of Beacon-Connect beacons. Each of the networks operated in the zone of a separate location of the festival with its own program and speakers.

When moving between zones, thanks to the automatic identification of devices from a common database, customers were able to ask personal questions to speakers and participate in the activities of each separate zone through a single chat bot. The actions took place in a Fasttrack chatbot with a personalized channel for each participant.

Thus, the chatbot connected to Beacon-Connect performed several organizational functions of the festival at once:

1. informing participants about the activities of the program,
2. implementation of the process and summing up the results of several competitions,
3. ensuring continuous communication between organizers and participants.

The results of real-time communication formed the information field of the festival and influenced the continuation of its program.

The complexity of the project was rooted in forwarding of feedback from chatbot customers to different addressees (speakers). Fasttrack professionals helped us out and this process took longer than anyhing else- actually took more time than debugging the processes, as well as the implementation of the festival itself. However, this experience has become very valuable for us, because it formed a good base for subsequent projects.

5-week competition program for Moskomsport facilities

The meaning of the project

Beacon-Connect became the basis for the implementation of a 5 week online competition for young people. When looking for solutions to popularize the chatbots of an offline sports establishment, the most obvious option may be to host a competition. But in order to captivate the audience for a long period of time and form the habit of interaction between young people and the institutions of sports and health centers, the most effective was the 5-week competition program in the online environment.

Implementation

Customers joined the competition program by connecting to a local Wi-Fi network and scanning a QR code in the halls of Moskomsport . Throughout the event, the chatbot provided them with the opportunity to take part in activities, among which were intellectual quizzes, photo contests, etc. It was possible to increase audience engagement thanks to rewards and prizes.

Organization of customer flow in a bank office

The meaning of the project

Reduction of service time without loss of service quality is one of the main tasks of service development for many companies. During its implementation, within the framework of the strategy of our client bank, a decision was made to optimize the management of client flow in new offices. The main tool for its implementation was the Beacon-Connect technology integrated with the existing chatbot of the bank.

Implementation

To use the service, the client only needs to connect to the Wi-Fi network of one of the bank's offices. The Beacon-Connect system remembers the data of its device and further identifies the client in an automatic mode.

Thus, upon arrival in the Bank's Wi-Fi coverage area, the client receives a chatbot greeting message and a question about the purpose of the visit on his mobile device. Choosing one of the offered service options in the chat, the client sends a response message and instantly receives information about the "window" number, as well as the sequence number in the queue.

As a result, the client stream is quickly distributed, bypassing the queue to the terminals. This fact is of particular relevance in the current epidemiological situation.

Pilot project with one of the largest international retailers

The project

Useful information at the right time and in the right place - this is the main principle of effective marketing campaigns, and at the same time - the principle of our latest project.

Implementation of the project

In the project with Beacon-Connect technology, a registered customer receives personalized offers about relevant marketing campaigns at the entrance to the retailer's point of sale via the company's chatbot.

This solution undoubtedly contributes to increasing customer interest. But one more emphasis on benefits for the consumer helps to achieve maximum efficiency of marketing campaigns - a reminder of the system about a particular promotional product at the moment the user approaches the counter with the specified product.

The process is carried out thanks to separate Beacon-Connect beacons located in different areas of the retail space. Connecting to each of the beacons activates certain branches of the chatbot content and does not allow the user to forget about lucrative personal offers.