Genesys Offers to Replace Legacy IVRs

NEW YORK - Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., an Alcatel company (NYSE: ALA, Paris: CGEP), will showcase its industry standard self-service platform at SpeechTEK in New York August 7-10. Accelerating the shift away from proprietary IVRs (interactive voice response systems), Genesys is offering to replace legacy IVRs with a next-generation open self-service platform.

Genesys, which acquired VoiceGenie earlier this year, has emerged as the "clear voice portal leader" according to a recent report by Steve Cramoysan and Drew Kraus of Gartner. And Elizabeth Herrell of Forrester Research said, "As the market moves from legacy IVR into VoiceXML standard solutions, Genesys will vie for global leadership."

Replacing outdated legacy IVR technology is a top priority for many organizations. Many manufacturers have discontinued their older IVRs and will not support them beyond the next year or two. IVR maintenance costs are as much as twice the rate of next-generation software systems, and require specialized technicians to add new applications, driving up costs and causing delays in time-to-market for new applications. 

Older IVRs are also the top-ranked source of customer frustration, according to a Genesys survey of more than 650 contact centers and 1,500 customers from 20 countries. The biggest issue for consumers is the inflexibility of complex touch tone IVR menus. The Genesys survey found 65 percent of customers prefer speech to touchtone and 62 percent of companies deploying speech technology found an increase in customer satisfaction. The report also found consumers required IVRs to be integrated with live service, and 83 percent of consumers considered speech-enabled IVRs a satisfactory alternative to live self-service.

Newer platforms such as Genesys typically reduce maintenance operating costs by as much as 40 percent, and have an ROI payback of as little as 12 months compared to older, outdated IVRs. For companies that wish to transition away from their IVRs, Genesys will develop a detailed cost analysis at SpeechTEK that incorporates all critical metrics, such as expected customer opt-in rates for self-service, improved customer satisfaction, reduced long-term maintenance and development costs, and hardware savings.

In addition to its booth activities at SpeechTEK, several key Genesys executives are scheduled to speak on topics that cover improving customer loyalty, analytics, speech and others, including:

Stacey White, chief financial officer
Monday, August 7, 9:45 a.m. (following Paul English's keynote presentation)

Lizanne Kaiser, PhD., senior principal consultant, and Phil Shinn, principal professional services consultant
"VUI Design Workshop: Top 10 VUI dialog design challenges"
Monday, August 7, 11:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Phil Shinn
"Deploying Speech Applications: Life Cycle and Development Methodologies"
Tuesday, August 8 - 11:00 a.m.

Lizanne Kaiser, Ph.D.
"Voice Coaching Tutorial - Your Chance to Get Behind the Mic"
Tuesday, August 8 - 2:00 p.m.

Kurt Magdanz, business development director
"Improving Customer Loyalty: Analyzing Your Customer Interactions"
Tuesday, August 8 - 2:00 p.m.

Rob Marchand, senior director, product management
"Deploying Speech Applications: VoIP and Speech"
Tuesday, August 8 - 2:00 p.m.

Steve Rutledge, vice president, product marketing
"Improving Customer Loyalty: Building an Effective Self-Service Strategy"
Wednesday, August 9 - 11:00 a.m.

Lizanne Kaiser, Ph.D.
"VUI: Designing for Cultural Differences," moderator
Wednesday, August 9 - 3:45 p.m.

Mark Scott, vice president, development
"CCXML"
Thursday, August 10 - 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Genesys and its partners will demonstrate speech solutions in booth #317 at SpeechTEK, which takes place August 7-10 in New York at the Marriott Marquis Hotel.

About Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc.
Genesys, an Alcatel company, is 100 percent focused on software for contact centers. 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

Media Contact:
David Radoff, Genesys, 650.466.1078, dradoff@genesyslab.com