Two thousand students, never stranded by a strike
Luca leads the international office at one of Rome’s largest universities. Two thousand exchange students a year.
Listen to the story:
The challenge
Transport strikes are announced in Italian, on news sites and a government calendar. New students miss them. On strike days, they wait at empty bus stops and miss exams, then fill his inbox with appeals.
How the flow works
With xMap Flows, Luca built Owl. Owl is an AI employee: a flow of 6 blocks.
Every evening at six,
Every evening at 6 (Schedule)
Owl reads the Rome news for strikes,
Strikes in the news (News)
watches the city transport agency’s notices,
Transport notices (Web page watch)
keeps each strike once,
One per strike (Remove duplicates)
writes a clear warning in English,
Warning in English (xMap LLM)
and posts it to the students’ channel.
Students’ channel (Telegram Bot)
What it solves
- Notices in Italian: solved by News and Web page watch and xMap LLM
- Stranded at bus stops: solved by Telegram Bot
- Exams missed: solved by Remove duplicates and Telegram Bot
The result
Last month there were three strikes. Each time, every student had a warning in English the evening before, with the hours and the lines. Exam absences on strike days dropped from forty to two.
The buses still stop in Rome. Luca’s students just know first.
An illustrative scenario: the figures are modelled to show what the flow produces, not a customer's results.
The flow, block by block
- 1
- 2
Strikes in the news
Stories from news feeds (RSS or Atom) or a website’s news page: title, link, when, the source and a short summary.
- 3
- 4
One per strike
Keeps one of each item when the same one arrives more than once, for example from two searches that overlap.
- 5
- 6
Templates to build it
Ready-made flows with the same blocks. Open one, change the city and the kind of place, and run it.
- Changes to the tax rate pages of four tax authoritiesA change on a tax authority’s rate page, said in plain words the week it happens.
- Mergers, lawsuits and fines in the business newsMergers, lawsuits and fines in the news each morning, with the practice that could help.
- New festivals, tours and conferences in the newsFestivals, tours and conferences announced in the news, each with a sales angle.
- Disaster and relief news every morning, on a mapDisasters in the morning news, placed on a map, in a short brief.
- Climate and environment news, every weekdayThe climate and environment news each weekday, on a map, in a short brief.
- Supply chain disruptions in the newsStrikes, closures and shortages in the news that could hit your suppliers, each morning.
Industries
Learn how it works
- Location intelligenceUsing where things are, and what is around them, to make business decisions.
- Site selectionChoosing where to open a store, branch, clinic or facility.
- Lead scoringRanking prospects by how likely they are to buy.
- Build your first flow in ten minutesFrom a blank page to a flow that emails you a ranked list every morning.
- Enrich a list onceA CSV of addresses or companies back with phone, website, rating and an AI score.
- Watch web pages for changesA page that changed, said in plain words, or the new entries of a list such as tenders or listings.
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- A reading tutor down the street, for every new childMaya is the only coordinator at a small reading charity in Atlanta. She pairs children with volunteer tutors.
- The right hall for every free coding eveningJulie teaches coding to adults changing careers in Lyon. She works for herself.
Build this flow on your own city
Run a live search on the home page without an account, or let Ask xMap build the flow from one sentence.