E.ON - Bestes FinTech-Lösungen
Company: E.ON, Essen, Nordrhein-Westfalen
Company Description: The E.ON Group is one of Europe's largest operators of energy networks and energy infrastructure and a provider of innovative customer solutions for 50 million customers. Thus, we are decisively driving forward the energy transition in Europe and are committed to sustainability, climate protection, and the future of our planet.
Nomination Category: Kategorie für Neue Produkte und Produktmanagement Awards
Nomination Sub Category: Business Technology Solution – FinTech-Lösungen
Nomination Title: Voice 4 Dashboards
Releasedatum des neuen Produktes oder der neuen Dienstleistung bzw. Releasedatum der neuen Version -erforderlich: 30.07.2021
With S4/HANA being introduced across more and more E.ON companies, the common standard within corporate CFO functions became SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC). Out of this, the idea was born to equip the new dashboard standard SAC with E.ON-specific voice functionality which was subsequently realized under the name of Voice 4 Dashboards.
The How. Behind Voice 4 Dashboard lies the integration of four technical modules: Microsoft Cognitive Services Speech-to-Text (STT)/ Text-to-Speech (TTS), RASA Natural Language Understanding (NLU), Cognigy AI and SAP Analytics Cloud itself. The #ConversationalExperience developers under the lead of Stefania-Catalina Baincescu ensured smooth backend collaboration between all the systems through API connectors and Azure services. The result is a voice assistant which serves as an intermediary between the user and SAC and operates in the following way:
First, to make sense of the voice input, it is captured, converted into text by Microsoft Speech-to-Text and then fed into Cognigy, a conversational AI platform. Cognigy platform is using RASA, NLU model, to make sense of the user's intent and then the input is passed to SAC. In SAC, the action is made to show the desired chart to the user. Afterwards, SAC passes back the data requested by the user to Cognigy which in turn is embedded into the answer and converted to a voice output using Microsoft Text-to-Speech.
A Collaborative Effort. Voice 4 Dashboards required collaborative effort of various E.ON departments: EDG Digital Finance provided the blueprint for the dashboard with the "EDG Kostenmonitor", including the specification of the German language as well as the reporting levels (up to department) and cost element groups. The#ConversationalExperienceteam provided the required speech recognition, speech generation and language understanding applications. In jointly implementing the solution architecture, Corporate Digital Technology worked with SAP to create the SAC dashboard and functional control. The entire project led by Digital@Finance was developed in cooperation with the Schmalenbachgesellschaft, an association which fosters a knowledge exchange on innovations in the CFO segment.
The initial experience from the pilot operation that has started at EDG is very positive. The various components interact smoothly and visualize the requested information within seconds. In addition, there is a voice output that, depending on the request, returns concrete values, names the visualized information or answers e.g., questions about how certain measures are calculated. The solution even masters the challenging mixture of German and English when, for example, a question is asked about the budget utilization rate of an area designated in English.
The voice interaction format is especially important as it promises direct access to financial data for colleagues with visual impairments or physical impairments when using a keyboard.
Project manager: Kai-Peter Menck (Digital@Finance): "We are excited about the GoLive of the first voice assistant within the CFO segment! The expansion to other SAC dashboards and applications is as obvious as increasing the complexity of the topics covered. The beginning has been made!"
Katharina Steinfeld (Head of S2R & DT Controlling at EDG): "This result is an important building block on our way to becoming a modern finance organization. This pilot has provided the impetus to further expand the use of SAC. The option of barrier-free voice control is, of course, a big plus."
Jochen Blessing (Head of Digital Finance, EDG) adds, "The pilot has shown how we can harness the high potential of SAC and the use of voice control for EDG. Further reports are already being planned. The collaboration is an outstanding example of the innovative power that cross-group cooperation can unleash."
Stefania-Catalina Baincescu (Technical Lead Conversational Experiences at E.ON): “Building the Voice4Dashboards project was very interesting for the team and me. Not only did we have to ensure the natural two-way communication between the user and the SAP Analytics Cloud dashboards but also the integration with third party systems. In doing so, we reached our goal to bring everything together and match the user's intent with the desired charts.”
The video provides a first impression of the Voice 4 Dashboards assistant and the "EDG Live Cost Report" based on fictional demo data.
You can see how the customer navigates through the dashboard and accesses relevant data in a fast way in the form of a live conversation.