Genesys enables expanded use of IP in contact centres by supporting Asterisk's® IP telephony platform

  • Move is immediately embraced by customers, including Groupama Rhône Alpes Auvergne in France, and E.Novation Contact Centers in the Netherlands

WOKINGHAM, August 21, 2007 - The use of IP technology in contact centres received a major boost today with the announcement that industry leader Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, an Alcatel-Lucent company (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU), will now support the Asterisk® open source IP PBX platform.

"Genesys is adding formal support for Asterisk in response to growing demand from our customer base. The increased importance of SIP and standards-based technology has paved the way for using open source for contact centres. We have reached a point where Asterisk and SIP are mature, reliable and proven technologies," said Wes Hayden, president and CEO of Genesys.

The addition of Asterisk is part of a broader strategy by Genesys to enable a smooth transition to IP through software that works with any infrastructure, allowing companies to leverage their existing investments.

In related announcements, Genesys customers unveiled key deployments of the technology, at Groupama Rhône Alpes Auvergne in France, and E.Novation Contact Centers in the Netherlands, and Global Speech Networks of Australia.

"For E.Novation Contact Centers, deploying Genesys on Asterisk allows us to create a flexible solution that leverages best-in-class software and platforms. E.Novation has brought together customer solutions and business processes that improve our customer service significantly," said Arnoud Munneke, Operational Director for E.Novation Contact Centers.

"Genesys has taken a leadership position in embracing new standards such as open source and SIP with Asterisk.  As a result, Groupama Rhône Alpes Auvergne has been able to fully leverage the open IP capabilities of the Genesys suite to reduce our implementation costs and take advantage of next-generation IP telephony," said Philippe Vayssac, Architect & Consultant for Groupama RAA Virtual Contact Centre.

"At Global Speech Networks, we are actively leveraging Asterisk and Genesys to provide customers with a highly flexible open IP contact centre solution. The openness of these platforms allows for a tight integration, supporting the dynamic and highly customised environments we require as a hosted contact centre services provider. While some in our industry have called upon others to embrace SIP-based telephony and open standards, Genesys has made it a reality. It is highly significant when the market leader takes such a step," said Nick Rodda, CEO of Global Speech Networks.

The announcement by Genesys, the leading provider of software for customer service among large enterprises, is also expected to accelerate the evolution of major contact centres toward using voice over IP technology. Since large contact centres handle millions of calls per month, the scalability and reliability of IP is critical to their adoption rate. While many businesses have moved quickly to implement IP telephony for phone services, contact centres must meet much higher standards and cannot completely abandon traditional systems, or take a "forklift" approach to implementing IP. A recent Genesys survey found that 82 per cent of contact centres expect to begin their shift to IP over the next two years - but most expect to use a mixture of traditional circuit-switched telephony and IP - packet switching telephony across their operations.

About Asterisk
Code for Asterisk®, originally written by Mark Spencer of Digium Inc., has been contributed to from open source software engineers around the world. Currently boasting over 1 million users, Asterisk supports a wide range of TDM protocols for the handling and transmission of voice over traditional telephony interfaces, and VoIP packet protocols such as IAX, SIP and H.323. It supports U.S. and European standard signaling types used in business phone systems, allowing it to bridge between next-generation voice-data integrated networks and existing infrastructure. The Digium logo, Digium, Asterisk, Asterisk Business Edition and the Asterisk logo are trademarks of Digium Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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 e-mail. 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 or visit the industry blog at www.betterinteractions.com.

About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) provides solutions that enable service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. As a leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent offers the end-to-end solutions that enable compelling communications services for people at home, at work and on the move. With operations in more than 130 countries, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach. The company has the most experienced global services team in the industry, and one of the largest research, technology and innovation organisations in the telecommunications industry. Alcatel-Lucent achieved adjusted proforma revenues of Euro 18.3 billion in 2006 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. [All figures exclude impact of activities transferred to Thales]. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: www.alcatel-lucent.com.

Media Contact:
Duncan Burford, PR for Genesys, 01780 721433, dburford@iba-europe.com

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