Stream Energy Unveils State-of-the-Art Customer Service System

• Genesys Software Platform Supports 'The Customer Experience' Initiative

Wokingham, December 20, 2007 - Stream Energy, one of the fastest growing companies in America, has installed a software platform by Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU), to create a state-of-the-art customer service system in order to keep pace with the company's dynamic growth.

With the initial installation now complete, Stream Energy's new approach to customer service will dramatically reduce hold times, eliminate the need for customers to repeat information after arriving at a live customer care representative and even let customers schedule a 'call-back' at a convenient time. In the first month since the installation, overall talk times for Stream Energy agents have decreased by nearly 30 per cent, 25 per cent of customers have shown a preference for using the new self-service options, and almost 90 per cent of customers using the call-back feature are finding it meets their needs.

At the heart of Stream's customer service system is the Genesys Customer Interaction Management Platform. The modular nature of the platform allows every additional investment in Genesys software to integrate with the existing infrastructure and increase its value by adding new features. For example, Stream Energy is now using the Genesys Voice Platform to give customers 24/7 self-service access to their accounts, allowing them to perform simple tasks such as checking account balances, locating pay stations or making payments by issuing voice commands over the telephone.

"We simply weren't satisfied with the time it was taking for us to handle customer inquiries," said Greg Martin, Stream Energy Manager of Special Projects. "The installation of the Genesys software platform marks the completion of the first major step in 'The Customer Experience' campaign at Stream, and is the first of many customer-centric enhancements aimed at improving the interaction experience for our customers."

"These technologies will improve customer service at Stream Energy by ending the frustration of long hold times, decreasing demand for agent time, and controlling costs by enabling Stream Energy to offer personalised customer service without adding new staff," said Paul Segre, president and CEO, Genesys.

Licensed by the Texas Public Utilities Commission in 2005 as a Retail Electric Provider, Stream Energy serves nearly 300,000 customers. The phenomenal success of the firm and increase in customers made it nearly impossible to keep pace with the volume of customer service inquiries.

As part of the new system, Stream Energy is working with a Genesys partner, Nuance Communications, a provider of speech recognition software, to ensure callers are understood completely so requests can be handled quickly and efficiently. 

The third important element of Stream Energy's 'The Customer Experience' campaign is Virtual Hold Technologies, another Genesys partner. Virtual Hold provides a software system that tracks callers who have waited on hold for a certain period of time and offers an opportunity for the customer to schedule a call back by a Stream representative at a time that is convenient for the customer.

Greg Martin said the millions of dollars invested by Stream Energy in the Genesys platform, along with the speech recognition and virtual hold capabilities, represents just the start of a long-term commitment to providing cutting-edge communications for its customers. Plans for 2008 include implementing "skills-based" routing that will send callers directly to Stream Energy personnel who are specialists in the areas for which the customer requests assistance.

The company is also extending its interactive system to the Stream Energy website, where customers will be able to find answers to their questions and can even participate in live chat sessions about electrical service.

"Contact centres are increasingly focused on metrics such as 'First Contact Resolution' and technologies that increase personalisation and choice to help improve overall customer satisfaction," said Drew Kraus, Research Vice President, Gartner, Inc. "An interesting result of this is that customers not only compare their experiences with companies within a certain vertical market, but strong performance from a company in one business sector in turn raises expectations for all the companies that a customer deals with."

"Stream Energy is making its largest capital investment in this system," Greg Martin said. "That's how important it is for us to be able to serve our customers."

<sub>About Stream Energy
Since being licensed as a Retail Electric Provider by the Public Utilities Commission in early 2005, privately held Stream Energy has grown rapidly into one of the largest participants in the Texas deregulated electricity market, with roughly 300,000 residential customers. Stream Energy's success is attributable to a full-service approach to customer relationships, supported by a customer-advantageous pricing model and the company's network marketing subsidiary, Ignite. Additional information is available on the Stream Energy website at www.streamenergy.net.

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 organizations 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 to be transferred to Thales]. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent at www.alcatel-lucent.com</sub>

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