New Genesys Survey Finds Leveraging Existing Contact Centre Investment is Critical to IP Telephony Adoption in Customer Service

March 2006 – Most customer service organisations are poised to invest heavily in IP telephony (IPT) in the call centre in the next three years, but only if they are able to leverage their existing software and telephony equipment, according to a new survey of global enterprises sponsored by Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., an Alcatel company (NYSE: ALA, Paris: CGEP.PA).

Summarising the findings, Wes Hayden, Genesys CEO said: “Clearly IPT is gaining momentum, however, customer service organisations have very different needs than the enterprise as a whole. It’s not “if” but “how” IPT is embraced that is the most critical issue for customer service organisations.”

Respondents indicated a strong preference for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Open IP standards, which allow them to leverage their existing investments while migrating to non-proprietary solutions. Open IP was highly regarded because of its ability to provide on-going interoperability between key business applications, databases and telephony equipment.  

In total, 500 contact centre technology managers from 20 industries were interviewed by telephone or surveyed online for this study in October 2005. The survey covered a wide range of large and small customer service organisations, ranging from five seats at a single site, to 30,000 seats across 300 sites.

Among the key findings of the survey:
  • Most respondents clearly recognise the benefits Open IP offers in allowing contact centres to leverage their investment in infrastructure components and applications from multiple vendors.  
  • More than three-quarters of all respondents expect within three years to deploy or support customer interaction applications or technologies that are currently not planned for, which highlights the importance of a flexible and open technology environment.
  • The shift to IPT in contact centres is moving quickly, with 60 per cent expecting to deploy it in at least one contact centre within a year, and 82 per cent within two years, although most will only migrate some contact centres initially.  
  • Most organisations expect to have a mixture of traditional circuit-switched telephony and IP-packet switching telephony across their operations for some time, as they continue to use existing infrastructure rather than opting for a “rip and replace” approach. Forty-one per cent of organisations planning or deploying IP contact centres will migrate existing contact centres rather than add new ones.  
  • Regionally, the U.S. has been the slowest region to adopt IPT. Asia-Pacific is leading the charge, with IPT already deployed by 25 per cent of respondents – ahead of EMEA (19 per cent) and the Americas (15 per cent). 

“The move toward IP is more than an IT issue for us because our contact centre is the life blood of the business,” said one contact centre executive. “The business value of supporting our extensive set of existing applications depends on keeping continuity, and many of the single vendor IPT options would put us at risk.”

The survey is part of the “Contact Centre Realities” survey that Genesys conducts regularly on key issues impacting customer service organisations. As the leading provider of open software for enterprise interaction management, Genesys enables contact centres to leverage equipment and software from virtually any major provider.

A more detailed report of results of this IP Research Study is available by request from Genesys. To request the full report visit www.ipcontactcenter.net, or contact Genesys.

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 employees. Alcatel brings its leading position in fixed and mobile broadband networks, applications and services, to help its partners and customers build a user-centric broadband world. With sales of EURO 13.1 billion and 58,000 employees in 2005, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: http://www.alcatel.com

Media Contact:
Lara Booth, Genesys, 0118 974 7024, larab@genesyslab.co.uk

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