Genesys brings unified communications to the customer service experience with new UC Connect initiative

Seamlessly blends contact centres with the larger enterprise network through integration with Unified Communications platforms from vendors including Alcatel-Lucent, IBM, Microsoft and Siemens

CAMBERLEY, June 17th, 2009 – Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU), has taken a major step in bringing unified communication (UC) to the contact centre environment through the launch of UC Connect – a product initiative designed to foster integration and interoperability between the Genesys Customer Interaction Management (CIM) software platform and UC solutions from many of the major providers in the industry.

With UC Connect, Genesys integrates its industry-leading CIM platform directly with UC platforms including Alcatel-Lucent's MyInstant Communicator, IBM Sametime, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, and Siemens Openscape – breaking down the traditional barriers that, in the past, made it difficult for customer service agents to both transfer calls to back/branch office workers and/or use other innovative UC capabilities like instant messaging to access resources and expertise located outside of the central contact centre operation. 
   
Today, the rapidly increasing use of presence, instant messaging and softphones, all of which can reside within the leading UC applications, makes it possible for a much larger pool of workers to participate in and add value to a customer interaction. With the UC Connect initiative, Genesys and its partners enable a seamless hand-off from the contact centre to branch or back office workers, through a tight integration that protects infrastructure and application investments on both sides of the divide, while also maintaining various customer service best practices through features unique to UC Connect.

Traditionally, contact centre integration with the back and branch office was difficult because back office software and telephone systems were not designed to connect employees whose primary job function was not customer service to the contact centre. Routing an interaction to a back or branch office resource, reporting on it, passing along the appropriate customer information or notes, and maintaining consistent processes was impossible unless complicated contact centre/agent applications were deployed on the desktops of all knowledge workers. By integrating UC platforms with the Genesys CIM platform, UC Connect solves these problems.

UC Connect helps Genesys customers derive more value from UC investments by linking them to their customer service operation in a way that allows enterprises to measure the effectiveness of their employees while increasing the profitability of interactions with customers. Genesys UC Connect accomplishes this by first 'subscribing' to presence capabilities provided by UC platforms to determine the availability of 'enterprise resources', such as experts and back/branch office workers, and then mapping that presence to "agent-state" which is an indicator of an agent's real-time availability to accept interactions. Rather than displaying available enterprise resources to contact centre agents by name, the Genesys CIM platform abstracts these resources’ identities into skill sets and provides an aggregated view of their UC presence relative to the availability of the entire skill set pool. This prevents agents from becoming overly dependent upon any particular expert. 

Genesys UC Connect also integrates an Interaction Preview and Auction mechanism that sends an interaction preview to all resources within a skill pool whose UC presence shows "Available" and renders this preview within the UC client. Only when a worker clicks "Accept" is the interaction sent to them. This ensures workers are available in real time without requiring manual updates to their UC presence each time they step away from their work station or when they are busy with other tasks.

"Today at Genesys we are working with various companies and partners to connect UC enabled Enterprise employees/experts to the customer service and sales operation – and to accomplish this goal in a way that drives both operational and capital efficiencies, increases sales, improves customer experience and firmly aligns with our Dynamic Customer Engagement direction," said David Sudbey, Executive Vice President of Strategic Solutions and Global Channels. "UC Connect represents our firm commitment to supporting our customers as they adopt new innovations and strive to find more value in them."

For consumers, the UC Connect initiative means they will be able to easily call an 800 number or customer service centre and if required, be connected seamlessly to a back office expert or other employees. As a result, Genesys expects the UC Connect initiative to improve the overall customer experience while creating efficient processes that reduce the cost of service.

About Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc.
Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company, is the only company that focuses 100 per cent on software to manage customer interactions over the phone, web and in email. The Genesys software suite dynamically connects customers with the right resources – self-service or assisted-service – to fulfill customer requests, optimise customer care goals and efficiently use resources. Genesys software directs more than 100 million customer interactions every day for 4,000 companies and government agencies in 80 countries. These companies and agencies can leverage their entire organisation, from the contact centre to the back office, to improve the overall customer experience. As a result, Genesys helps stop customer frustration, drive efficiency and accelerate business innovation. For more information, go to www.genesyslab.com.

About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, providing solutions to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organisation in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 16.98 billion in 2008 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Media Contact:
Duncan Burford, UK PR for Genesys, 01780 721 433, dburford@iba-europe.com

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