Genesys chooses Microsoft platform to build new Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) solutions

WOKINGHAM – 23 May, 2005 – At its annual G-Force user conference, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., an Alcatel company (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA), announced that it has chosen the Microsoft platform to support Genesys’ first offering designed specifically for business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions.

Designed for multi-national contact centres, outsourcers can take advantage of the new Genesys Global Communications Manager and the Microsoft platform to create an open, standards-based contact centre infrastructure. This infrastructure will allow both enterprises and outsourcers to enhance customer relationships, lower telecommunication costs and establish a solid base to support best-of-breed contact centre interactions.

These solutions will be based on a service-oriented architecture aimed at reducing network inefficiencies and operational costs for contact centres, improving the control, visibility and quality of customer interactions, and raising agent productivity through increased collaboration.

Growth of Outsourcing
Enterprises are becoming more comfortable outsourcing non-core business processes. In fact, analyst firm IDC estimates the worldwide contact centre outsourcing business will grow to US $71 billion by 2007, with half a million outsourced agent positions globally by 2008. This rapid growth signals a growing need for smart tools to manage the international networks that connect globally-distributed contact centres.

There are, however, challenges with outsourcing including: the operation of offshore contact centres, the need to distribute interaction loads evenly to multiple contact centres, high transcontinental telecommunication costs and finding an infrastructure that limits the risk of information and infrastructure silos.  

“More companies are realising that outsourcing some or all contact centre operations allows the company to concentrate on its core business, while still providing the superior customer service that drives loyalty and repeat business,” said Elliot Danziger, Chief Technology Officer, Genesys. “The Genesys Global Communications Manager helps multi-national contact centres manage outsourcing challenges and streamline customer interactions in a way that is cost-effective.”

Based on the Microsoft platform, benefits of Genesys Global Communications Manager include:
  • A software-based, multi-enterprise communication framework that provides seamless interactions among enterprise and outsourcer
  • Static and dynamic distribution of calls among centres to maximise the efficiency of handling interactions and improving service levels
  • Queuing of calls close to the point of origin until an ideal resource is identified
  • Reduced hardware capacity requirements
  • Increased overall agent utilisation rates at the contact centres
  • Seamless call transferring among agents or enterprises to ensure smooth interactions
  • Disaster recovery options for immediate transfer of interactions to backup centres
  • Creation of repeatable assets by utilising standards-based software
“Integration is critical within the enterprise, but even more so, it is critical among multi-national locations and outsourcing partners,” said Sanjay Katyal, Director, emerging ecosystems, Microsoft Corp. “We are happy that Genesys chose to partner with Microsoft to offer its first set of BPO solutions. Our growing set of BPO partners are increasingly looking for these types of enabling solutions that take advantage of the power of the Microsoft platform. This allows for greater flexibility in scaling, collaboration and support of disparate applications and legacy systems, without outlaying significant cost.”

Front-End Platform Improves Call Routing, Reduces Costs
Global Communications Manager is a front-end platform. All customer interactions enter into a point of presence (POP) control node located near the enterprise and are intelligently routed to any of the outsourcer’s contact centres, regardless of location. This reduces the number of legs a call must traverse, which in turn reduces bandwidth requirements and communication costs and improves voice quality. International toll charges are significantly reduced, and geographically-dispersed offshore contact centres function as one ‘virtual’ centre.

iGATE Global Solutions, an integrated operations and technology company that helps clients optimise their business through strategies such as BPO, will implement a test of the Global Communications Manager for its clients. The company seeks to streamline its inbound call system, so calls that can be handled in the U.S. will be handled domestically, and calls that can be outsourced will be routed to a particular country.

“The Genesys’ Global Communications Manager offers cost and efficiency benefits that make sense for our business,” said Alex George, Head, Contact Centre Practice, iGATE Global Solutions. “We hope to see significant transport cost savings, a more balanced load and the ability to more easily distribute calls across multiple sites, allowing us to shift our internal resources to other aspects of customer service and core business operations.”  

About Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc.
Genesys, an Alcatel company, is 100 per cent focused on software for contact centres. Leading companies in the Global 2000 and Fortune 1000 use Genesys to deliver interactions that drive better business. With 3000 customers in 80 countries, Genesys directs more than 100 million customer interactions every day. Genesys allows enterprises to achieve key business objectives by tying together customer interactions, people, and customer information in both traditional telephony and IP environments. Sophisticated routing and reporting across voice, e-mail, documents and Web interactions, coupled with integrated self service, ensure that customers are quickly connected to the right resource - the first time. Genesys solutions stop customer frustration and allow enterprises to deliver superior customer satisfaction and improved business results. For more information visit us at www.genesyslab.com.

About Alcatel
Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers or to their employees. Alcatel leverages its leading position in fixed and mobile broadband networks, applications and services to bring value to its customers in the framework of a broadband world. With sales of EURO 12.3 billion in 2004, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: www.alcatel.com.

# # #

Media Contacts:  Paul Roberts, Genesys, 0118 9747144, proberts@genesyslab.co.uk