About Ask OpenEnvoy

This article is intended to provide an overview of the Ask OpenEnvoy feature, its capabilities and guidelines for use.

Ask OpenEnvoy (Ask OE) is your one-stop shop for getting insights from your data quickly and easily. This knowledge base article will guide you through what Ask OE excels at, what exciting improvements are planned, and some limitations to keep in mind.

Ask OpenEnvoy is currently in beta. It may occasionally misunderstand your questions or provide unexpected responses. Your patience and feedback are appreciated as we continue to refine this feature.

 

What is Ask OE

Ask OpenEnvoy (Ask OE) is a revolutionary conversational analytics feature designed for OpenEnvoy users (initially, Ask OE will be for use by admin users). Imagine your entire organization getting clear, immediate answers to your spend data questions with a simple conversation. That's the power of Ask OpenEnvoy! This innovative feature provides unparalleled insights, putting your team in complete control of your financial analysis.

Use Ask OE

User will see a new options on the left hand pane of the application called Asks. From here, users will be presented with the following screen. Simply click on the 'New ask' and type your question. More about how to ask a question, see below sections.

 

Ask OE

 

What Ask OE Does Best

  • Uncover a Wealth of Information: Ask OE provides structured access to a vast range of data points within your workspace. Need invoice details, vendor information, or team configurations? Ask OE has you covered!

    • Sample questions to try:
      • What teams are currently active in my workspace?
      • Tell me which jobs are awaiting approval. (You can also use the job ID!)
        • For example: Show line item details for job OE0001792.
          Screenshot 2024-04-04 at 10.00.47 PM
      • Who are my top 3 vendors by spend?
      • Visualize the top 3 vendors by spend as a pie chart.
      • Give me details about the vendor Top Gauge Customs.
    • Learn more about prompt engineering here
  • See Your Data Come Alive: Ask OE offers multiple visualization formats to present your data clearly. Choose from line charts, tables, bar graphs, and pie charts to best suit your needs.

  • Master Multi-Query Tasks: Ask OE can handle complex queries that combine information. Want to see active jobs from a specific vendor and analyze spending over a certain timeframe? No problem!

  • Real Time / Near Real time: Ask OE stays informed by synchronizing data every 15 minutes. This ensures you have reasonably recent information for insightful reporting and analysis.

Guidelines to Get the Most Out of Ask OE Beta
As Ask OE is currently in beta, so it may occasionally misunderstand your question or provide unexpected responses. Here are a few additional guidelines to minimize any misunderstandings:
  • When data tables are returned, you can follow up by asking for add additional columns of data or to sort by specific columns.
  • Including quotations around specific names or labels can help get better responses.
  • Some fields unique to your workspace may not be available yet.
  • Be specific and use OpenEnvoy terminology to get the best results. For example, asking for jobs that "went to Pending or Conflict" instead of "went to exception" will yield better results.
  • Ask OE’s ability to ask for clarifications when it doesn’t understand a question is being improved.
  • When referring to vendors, line item descriptions, users, and teams, use exact naming. For example, if a vendor is named “Zoom Air & Rail” in your workspace, prompts for the vendor “Zoom Air and Rail” won’t yield results for the vendor. We’ll be improving Ask OE’s ability to recognize approximate string matches and aliasing soon.

We’ll continue to update this list as we improve Ask OE.

What's Coming Soon?

We're constantly working to improve Ask OE and make it even more valuable for you. Here's a glimpse into the future:

  • Real-Time Data, Almost There!: We're actively working on reducing the data sync timeframe to provide near real-time access to your data. This means you'll see updates reflected much faster.

  • Customization Power Up!: You'll soon have more control over how you see your data. We're developing features that allow for greater customization of reports and visualizations, letting you tailor them to your specific needs.

  • Expanding Ask OE's Knowledge: We're committed to making Ask OE an expert in all things related to your workspace. In the future, Ask OE will be able to answer questions about workflows, approval policies, system settings, and more!

Things to Remember

While Ask OE is a powerful tool, it's important to be aware of a few limitations:

  • There's a Short Data Refresh Window: Currently, data is updated every 15 minutes. This means there might be a slight delay in reflecting the very latest changes.
  • Visualization Options are Preset: Ask OE offers a variety of visualization formats, but entirely custom visual presentations are not yet available.
  • Complex Queries Have Limits: Ask OE can handle many things at once, but there may be limitations on how intricate or specific a single query can be.

We hope this article gives you a clear understanding of Ask OE's capabilities and its development roadmap. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to our CSM and Support teams!