Concept: Japan-based outsourcing company transcosmos has unveiled a package service that comprises a chatbot and FAQ content designed to assist municipalities across Japan in serving COVID-19 vaccination inquiries from their citizens. The service aims to provide citizens with the information they need regarding the vaccine rollout, thereby reducing staff workload.

Nature of Disruption: transcosmos has developed a chatbot platform preloaded with expected general questions and answers to help each municipality throughout Japan make their inquiry support stress-free. It offers the service in two plans: ‘Shared Plan’ and ‘Dedicated Plan’, enabling local authorities to choose the service based on usage and size. transcosmos will deploy its proprietary platform DEC Support for the chatbot service. To make the service convenient for users, the company offers a chatbot on the top FAQ content as a packaged service. The FAQs are updated regularly with Health, Labour and Welfare about the COVID-19 vaccination and Q&A content. Additionally, the service conducts a log review on requests received by call centers and updates the FAQ accordingly. The monthly reporting feature allows municipalities to enhance chatbot operation by identifying future challenges and deriving a solution in advance. The service supports websites as well as LINE, a smartphone messaging app.

Outlook: The COVID-19 is responsible for a global pandemic and 1.88 million deaths worldwide. It brought many people’s lives into chaos and wrecked economies, facilitating an enormous setback. As pharma companies have developed a drug to cure the infection, municipal corporations are rolling out mass immunization programs. Releasing inoculation plans would give rise to general inquiries such as safety concerns, the execution process as the nationwide distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine begins. Therefore, to support municipalities across Japan, transcosmos has built a chatbot. Moreover, transcosmos intends to digitize municipalities’ contact centers with the best service framework and cost using calls, emails and fax. The packaged service solution can help municipalities across the world to streamline the process of inquiries.

This article was originally published in Verdict.co.uk