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Alcatel-Lucent: Genesys introduces next generation Genesys Voice Platform 8, software to improve the customer experience by integrating self- and assisted service
[August 21, 2008]

Alcatel-Lucent: Genesys introduces next generation Genesys Voice Platform 8, software to improve the customer experience by integrating self- and assisted service


(M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge)
RDATE:19082008

New York, August / SPEECHTEK -- external link Genesys
Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., an Alcatel-Lucent company
(Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced software that
significantly improves the customer experience by aligning self- and
assisted service, and integrating voice across all customer service
environments through open standards. Genesys Voice Platform (GVP) 8,
unveiled at SpeechTEK, marks a major new release of Genesys'
market-leading software platform for interactive voice response (IVR).

GVP 8 is significant because it acts as an integrated platform that
ends the standalone nature of voice self service. It is tightly
integrated with both Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and the
intelligent Customer Front Door (iCFD) solutions from Genesys and its
partners. iCFD is an industry-wide initiative to transform the
experience for customers entering the "telephone front door" of
enterprises and break down self-service as a silo by leveraging key
applications and business rules.

GVP 8 further leverages voice in customer service by tightly
integrating key technologies such as SIP, web integration, and voice
security software, as well as providing a single development
environment for contact centers that use the Genesys Customer
Interaction Management (CIM) platform.

"GVP is a very important element of our overall strategy," said Paul
Segre, President and CEO, Genesys, "because it brings to the forefront
the convergence of all the technologies that touch customer service.
Along with our CIM platform, GVP has led the transformation away from
silos and 'point solutions' towards a more holistic approach to
customer care."

"In the present 'down economy' we're not seeing companies abandon
customer service to focus on cost containment. Instead we're seeing
companies invest in technologies that help to lower costs, but also
improve customer service and personalization - either in self
assistance, live assistance or both," said Drew Kraus, Research Vice
President, Gartner.

"We're seeing an increased investment in newer generation
software-based IVRs that integrate much more tightly to both customer
data in CRM software packages as well as to real-time contact queuing
and routing engines."

Several leading industry experts commented on the significance of GVP 8
as an indicator of important industry trends:

"Genesys has succeeded in combining its scale assets and partnerships
to create and amplify the value of its GVP 8 platform," said Daniel
Hong, Lead Analyst of Customer Interaction Technologies at Datamonitor.
"GVP 8 is an integrated software layer that leverages the large
investment and focus enterprises have put into CRM, the web and
business rules engines over the past several years. What's interesting
is that Genesys is leading with innovative applications and
partnerships in its release of GVP 8 rather than the usual vendor
messaging around new features and functions."

"Today's customer-focused enterprises look for technology platform
providers who work well with partners and support rapid deployment in
multi-vendor environments," said Dan Miller, sr. analyst at Opus
Research. "Genesys successfully knit together the partner-friendly
attributes of two leading voice platforms, and attracted an "A" List of
application developers and integrators."

Some of the key features of GVP 8 include:

* Built-in integration for the intelligent Customer Front Door (iCFD)
The iCFD is a transformative solution bundle, focused specifically on
improving the customer experience. By using information from back end
systems, call center resources and customer preferences, the iCFD
intelligently directs the call to the best service, whether self or
assisted. It extracts these business routing strategies into one
central location which allows the business owners to decide where and
how to deliver the best service.

* GVP 8 supports mature open-standards of voice self-service platform
It supports virtually all key open standards and critical applications
including VXML, CCXML, SIP, VoIP, IP PBXs, gateways and softswitches,
virtual hold technology, video applications, security and voice
biometrics, and open compatibility with virtually any major third-party
hardware and software.

* GVP 8 has built-in SIP support GVP 8 leverages Genesys integrations
and SIP Server to connect to more VoIP environments than any other

platform, including Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel CS2k, Avaya, Cisco CCM,
Siemens 8000, Audiocodes, Paraxip, Cisco Gateways, Open IN, and others.

* Multi-tenancy for large enterprises and service providers For
software as a service and managed service providers, GVP 8 supports
mutitenancy, where several businesses can share a common platform and
access it from virtually anywhere.


* Integrated Development Environment "Composer" GVP 8 has a unique
development console that streamlines application development. GVP now
provides a single unified development environment for customer
interaction management.

Developers and customers can quickly create routing strategies, and
leverage business rules that gather relevant information such as
back-end data or workflow to control the process and understand the
context of a call.

* Common Platform for Both GVP and Voice Genie Customers Genesys has
provided a single common next-generation platform that brings together
its two key voice platform lines - Voice Genesys and GVP onto a single
system.

About Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc.

Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company, is the only company that focuses
100 percent 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, optimize 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 organization, from the contact center 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 external
link http://www.genesyslab.com or visit the industry blog at external
link http://www.betterinteractions.com

About Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) provides solutions that
enable service providers, enterprise 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
organizations in the telecommunications industry. Alcatel-Lucent
achieved revenues of Euro 17.8 billion in 2007 and is incorporated in
France, with executive offices located in Paris.

CONTACT: Press Office, Alcatel-Lucent
e-mail: [email protected]
WWW: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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