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In just a short couple of years, New York-based LiveTiles has grown from a small start-up to a global software tech power, with the company’s offerings being employed by huge brands across multiple industries.

LiveTiles co-founder and CEO Karl Redenbach spoke with the Media & Entertainment Services Alliance (MESA) about the origins of his company, the latest tools the company is offering, and what’s on tap in the software firm.

MESA: When LiveTiles first got off the ground as an Australian startup in 2014, the company’s stated goal was to create a user-centric platform to help organizations collaborate. What has the company done to meet that goal, and has that goal changed?

Redenbach: It’s been an incredible team effort to expand our global footprint. Since we began, we acquired some of the biggest customers in the world.

With no code, a major television network has built a dashboard over SharePoint they use to manage its operations. With drag and drop features, the world’s largest apparel brand has created a page in the Cloud that connects its teams around the world. With no IT expertise, LiveTiles customers in all industries are building pages that drive their organization’s communication and collaboration by uniting their people and their resources on a single screen.

The goal was to give our customers a more user-friendly SharePoint experience. To save them time and money on deployment and maintenance, to let teams collaborate on their mobile devices — basically to empower end users to take control so that companies could succeed in the digital workplace.

While we’re still committed to this goal, and this is a core element of our history, our journey continues to expand beyond just the SharePoint ecosystem. LiveTiles has evolved to be an integrated platform for just about any business app on prem or in the cloud. Think cloud-based services like Google and Box, in addition to legacy business apps like SAP. We’re also building toward the future with the development of our AI products, such as LiveTiles Bots and LiveTiles Intelligence.

As AI continues to dominate the workplace, we believe it’s time for organizations to transition from the digital workplace to the intelligent workplace, and we’re excited to be at the center of this.

MESA: LiveTiles’ offerings have expanded from just two technology solutions to an entire suite of products, covering both small and large businesses, across multiple industries. What does the company offer that’s unique in the media and entertainment space, what makes what LiveTiles offerings stand out?

Redenbach: Our customers love LiveTiles because of the entire experience, from regular product updates every two weeks to a Customer Success team that is always available to assist. I believe that our team of hardworking, dedicated people is what sets us apart, and what makes LiveTiles not just a product, but a complete experience.

The media and entertainment space offers unique challenges, quite different than other industries. Collaboration is essential and speed is key. Managing work and communication across the breadth and depth of teams, verticals, internal/external vendors in M&E requires the kind of flexibility, scalability, security, and speed only a platform like LiveTiles can offer.

For example, if you’re a studio and producing a new feature, you’re working with teams/vendors as diverse as accounting, grip, talent, guilds, etc. In a digital world, how do you ensure each of these teams has the most current information they need to do their job? With LiveTiles, you’re now able to create an intelligent workplace to facilitate collaboration quickly, efficiently, and with less cost.
 
MESA: How does LiveTiles tackle data and analytics, what does the company provide its customers to better help them gain insights into the products they use?

Redenbach: One example is our recently released LiveTiles Intelligence: a tool that provides important insights into how an organization’s intranet is performing on a granular level. Visual heat maps, for example, help managers see how and what technology is being used by employees: Which pages and page elements are used the most, and which are being neglected. This information allows teams to make immediate modifications so that employees become more engaged with the technologies they’re using.

MESA: How might M&E firms make use of LiveTiles Bots, the web-based tool that allows companies to create customizable Virtual Assistants?

Redenbach: We’re super excited about the release of LiveTiles Bots, which will let teams build personalized Chatbots without custom development. The most common use cases we’re seeing are for HR-related Q&A, travel booking, password resets for IT, linking to knowledge bases and scheduling meetings, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The important thing to remember here is that LiveTiles Bots isn’t a mere Chatbot. Rather, it’s a Chatbot creator, giving teams the tools to develop virtual assistants that suit their needs.

For example, if you’re a talent agency and spend tons of time booking travel. With LiveTiles Bots, you can build your own bot that will look into each individual’s calendar and book the best travel for their schedule.

A second example: A medium-size production house has a lot of external vendor partners always asking questions about policy, billing, scheduling, etc. LiveTiles Bots allows you to build a Q & A bot, connected to your internal knowledge base, and automate all responses to vendors’ inquiries.

The possibilities are, quite literally, endless.
 
MESA: What’s next for LiveTiles? What services or offerings in the M&E space might we see next from the company?

Redenbach: We’re growing at a rapid rate, opening offices across the globe, most recently in Ireland and Switzerland. Every day, we’re expanding the LiveTiles team, attracting some of the most talented and experienced professionals in the world. The key thing for us going forward is to dominate the AI space.

LiveTiles Bots and LiveTiles Intelligence are only two components of our Intelligent Workplace Platform, combining the best of our user-centered design approach to provide an amazing UX for everyone.