This case study discusses the development of the Alexa skill 'Empfangsdame' by Ralf Eggert, who has 29 years of programming experience. The skill facilitates guest reception with a custom intent and uses PHP for its tech stack, facing challenges such as signature validation and invocation issues. Following its launch, the skill achieved notable usage stats, including 25,000 customers and 450,000 utterances in the last month.

1. Case Study
ALEXA SKILL »EMpfangsdame«

2. Me Ralf Eggert→
Programming
Since 29 years
COBOL, Turbo Pascal,
C64 BASIC &Assembler,
ABAP/4, PHP, JS
North-Frisian
Islander
Bornin1972
Trainer, Author,
Coach, Developer &
Consultant
CEO
TravelloGmbH

3. The idea

4. How it works
Alexa! Start
GUEST reception! I am very pleased
Thatguests are here!
Say hello to Ralf
Nice to see you Ralf.
Your hair colour really
fits togetherwith our
Pillow cases.
Please welcome
Martha
Whereon earth have you
Been such a long time
Martha?
Thanks Alexa
I was delighted to meet you
Ralf And Martha!

5. SUccess

6. My Tech Stack
Alexa Skills Kit
HTTPS Service End Point
(no AWS LAmbda)
PHP 7
ZendExpressive FRamework
PHPUNit

7. Some Numbers
1 custom Intent
1 Extended Slot Type
31 defined Utterances
100 Greeting Phrases

8. CERTIFICATION PROCESS
7 days for first Feedback
3 Issues:
- Signature validation
- Single-Word invocation
- NO response on »abbrechen«
23 hours to go live
After re-Submitting

9. BIGGEST CHALLENGES
SLOT TYPE For GERman
First names incomplete
Signature Validation
Setup Second
END POINT Server

10. STATISTICS
Top 10 of activated Skills
a week after going live
49 customer reviews so far
Last 30 days
- 25.000 customers
- 50.000 Sessions
- 450.000 Utterances

11. LEARNINGS
Test and Test and Test
Don't Forget the
Signature Validation
Do not trust the Built-in
Slot Types blindly
→ TEST AGAIN
→ Extend them

12. Thanks
ralf@travello.de

13. Photo credits
Entertainment Nation
Wandering Wings
Acoustic FolkBand
FLICKR CC BY 2.0
Pete
Project 365#227:
150813 Feeling Wired
FLICKR PD 1.0
morebyless
numbers
FLICKR CCBY 2.0
Guillermoluis2
DSC_3961 (2)
FLICKR CC BY-sa 2.0
U.S. Department of
Defense Current Photos
170408-A-FS382-0223
FLICKR PD 1.0
European Southern
Observatory
ESO publication statistics...
FLICKR CC BY 2.0
Alan Levine
ClassicLearning
FLICKR PD 1.0