OliverIQ, the Smart Home as a Service (SHaaS) platform designed to bring smart home solutions to the broad market, has announced the availability of the OliverIQ Hub with built-in customer support from the AI-powered Ollie chatbot. Announced at CES 2024, this affordable plug-and-play device allows OliverIQ service providers to deliver comprehensive smart home services and on-demand device support to new and existing customers.
Unlike do-it-yourself platforms, OliverIQ is the first truly complete smart home offering. This subscription service, available exclusively through ISPs, security dealers, home builders, professional integration firms, and retailers, integrates with smart devices from leading manufacturers, unifying whole-home control in the OliverIQ App. With a few taps in the app, customers can enable advanced automations called Experiences that enhance the safety, comfort, efficiency, and convenience of their homes. Experiences include an “Away” mode that simulates occupancy or a “Wake Up” routine that starts each day smoothly with coordinated lights, music, and shading.
OliverIQ providers can embed the OliverIQ software on their own hardware, including routers, control panels, thermostats and more — and now, with the OliverIQ Hub, they can also deliver OliverIQ SHaaS to customers immediately using a dedicated hardware device. The OliverIQ app and hardware can be white-labelled, strengthening customer loyalty and brand presence.
“OliverIQ makes service providers the smart home hero for their customers,” said Will West, co-founder and CEO of OliverIQ. “Homeowners have become accustomed to using separate apps, fobs, and switches for everything. Arriving home, opening the garage, unlocking the door, and turning on the lights is a multi-step process with at least three separate actions. With OliverIQ, your home welcomes you when it senses your arrival by opening the garage, unlocking specific doors, setting the thermostat to a comfortable temperature, and turning on lights and media according to your preference. This solution effortlessly transforms a collection of devices into a true automated system, enabling service providers to make their customers’ smart home dreams a feasible reality for the first time.”
The OliverIQ Hub plugs directly into a wall outlet and automatically begins the device discovery and commissioning process. The hub features support for leading connectivity standards such as Z-Wave, Zigbee, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, with Matter support planned. OliverIQ can control an unlimited number of devices with unlimited remote support, and customers can add new devices from their preferred brands at any time. This is a future-proof service for the evolving smart home.
The OliverIQ Hub comes equipped with Ollie, OliverIQ’s multilingual technical support chatbot. Users can ask Ollie setup and troubleshooting questions and get easy to understand, step-by-step instructions, often with rich media support such as how-to videos. Ollie can access the status and error codes of connected devices, diagnose issues, and provide real-time troubleshooting steps. The chatbot can even directly interact with connected devices to perform some troubleshooting workflows autonomously, improving user experiences and reducing service labor.
Ollie’s capabilities lower service and support costs. For example, the AI assistant handles a wide range of questions, reducing the need for human intervention and enabling faster resolution of customer issues relating to troubleshooting, device onboarding, or system maintenance.
With the OliverIQ Hub and Ollie, OliverIQ now offers a next-generation customer experience, with plug-and-play installation, seamless device onboarding and real-time AI-driven assistance. The OliverIQ Hub with Ollie gives partners the ability to provide comprehensive smart home services with minimal overhead, helping them scale their offerings quickly and cost-effectively.
“The smart home market is maturing, but the experience remains disjointed. Just 40% of smart home device owners coordinate their smart home devices in routines or wider automations. Plus, difficulty with installation, configuring device settings, and getting products to work together are among the top reasons buyers return smart home devices,” said Jennifer Kent, VP research, Parks Associates. “Service providers are well positioned to deliver a better, whole-home automation experience, and they need tools to help them manage that process well and cost-efficiently.” The OliverIQ Hub is available exclusively through OliverIQ partners, including broadband and internet service providers, security dealers, home builders, professional integrators, and retailers. For more information on the OliverIQ Hub and Ollie, visit oliveriq.com.
