Genesys Releases Contact Centre Suite Version 7.2

New Software Enables Interaction Management Across the Enterprise

Wokingham, April 18, 2006 - Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., an Alcatel company (NYSE: ALA, Paris: CGEP.PA), has released Genesys 7.2, a new version of its award-winning contact centre software suite with major advances in the scalability, reliability and security needed for IP contact centres. By leveraging Open IP and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) technology, Genesys 7.2 can support up to 30,000 agents and provide contact centres with new forms of customer interactions, intelligent routing and call controls, and software-based ACD capabilities.

“With the 7.2 release of its Customer Interaction Management platform, Genesys delivers two capabilities key to supporting evolving contact centre requirements. First, enhancements to SIP Server strengthen the commitment to offer Genesys customers a standards-based choice when migrating to IP. Second, Business Routing Capability supports a growing enterprise trend to integrate contact centre and enterprise transactions with a single routing, queuing and reporting engine,” said industry analyst Sheila McGee-Smith, president of McGee-Smith Analytics.

SIP Application and Integration

Genesys 7.2 is the only IP contact centre solution that uses a completely open architecture to support virtually any hardware or software platform, regardless of vendor. This Open IP architecture allows businesses to integrate “best-of-breed” components without complex compatibility issues, giving companies total choice in selecting the most appropriate infrastructure to meet their business goals.

Genesys 7.2 also supports a mix of IP and TDM environments as well as hybrid environments that require multi-vendor platforms. Unlike “rip and replace” architectures of the past, these approaches allow businesses to migrate to an IP environment over time, spreading out costs and minimising risk.

Genesys 7.2 tightly integrates IP into key elements of the suite, such as the Genesys Voice Platform (GVP-IP) to support voice self-service, video and voice-enabled applications. The Open Media module lets businesses apply advanced routing capabilities and business process-based routing to virtually any customer application, including web, fax, sms, e-mail, chat, video or workflow management.

Because it can connect the contact centre with business applications, Open IP also helps businesses extend customer service beyond the traditional contact centre, leveraging customer data and knowledge from across the enterprise. It also brings the contact centre closer together - linking remote offices to better align service goals across regions.

Enhanced Call Control and Elimination of ACD’s

Genesys supports the integration of IP telephony services (phone-based services) with a broad range of customer contact channels, such as other phones, e-mail or chat. The Genesys SIP Server acts as an automatic call distributor (ACD) for 7.2 using software to direct calls instead of a hardware-based ACD. The Genesys SIP Server is fully scaleable, supporting up to 30,000 IP agents for effective use of virtual contact centre agents in branch offices or remote offices. A centralised SIP server provides the consistency, security, and virtual integration needed to tie together multiple sites and departments.

Open Media

Genesys Open Media is a software component that integrates customer interactions across any media channel (including non-Genesys interactions and back-office work items). Interactions and work items are received, sorted and routed to agents via the centrepiece of the Genesys suite, the Genesys Customer Interaction Management (CIM) platform. By integrating the contact centre with adjacent departments or other business processes within the enterprise, a much larger set of employees can be leveraged to provide optimal response.

Business Process Routing

Genesys 7.2 enhances Open Media functions with business process routing (BPR) capabilities. The software processes interactions by applying intelligent real-time routing, tracking, reporting and management capabilities to work items and interactions over any channel inside the contact centre and across the enterprise. All processes and systems within an organisation, including fax, workflow, e-mail management, Web chat, document scanning and short message service (SMS) channels, can be funneled into the single, prioritised Genesys Open Media queue.

“Companies need to transform their business processes to take advantage of all of the new ways that they can improve interaction with their customers, and the best way to do that is through an open contact centre environment,” said Steve Rutledge, vice president of product marketing for Genesys. “In this latest version of our contact centre suite, we’re taking IP and routing technologies to new levels of quality and reliability, while allowing customers to take advantage of the cost benefits of open standards IP.”  

<sub>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 3,300 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.</sub>

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