Genesys Expands Global Reach of Voice Portal Software

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Inc., a subsidiary of Alcatel (NYSE: ALA, Paris: CGEP.PA), announced extended functionality of its Genesys Voice Portal, a voice application platform for delivering self-service applications. The latest release of Genesys Voice Portal includes support for international telephony interfaces and expanded language capabilities, including French, Spanish, German and Italian. The Voice Portal enhancements are designed to better meet the needs of companies around the world by enabling them to implement self-service applications that increase customer satisfaction and revenue while reducing operational costs. "As a service provider, we deliver help desk support to countries throughout Europe. The addition of international telephony interfaces and multi-language support in Genesys Voice Portal allows us to better meet the needs of our international customers," says Ralf Rottmann, IT-Manager Europe, twenty4help. Today, customers are demanding more robust self-service functionality and access to information around-the-clock. Genesys Voice Portal enables companies to deliver instantaneous, anytime access to Web-based information using natural voice commands. Expanded language support for French, Italian, German and Spanish further enables global capabilities for voice self-service - a major development for multinational companies throughout Europe, South America, Asia Pacific and Australia. Now companies with multi-language Websites can leverage the new language support for XML applications to offer the same Web-based information via any phone, enabling better voice access capabilities for customers around the world. New international telephony interfaces to the Genesys Voice Portal platform enable compatibility with the various signaling protocols worldwide to facilitate faster international deployment and widespread use. Additional Speech Recognition Support Genesys Voice Portal now also offers integration with the OpenSpeech(tm) Recognizer software from SpeechWorks International, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPWX), the global leader in speech technologies and services. OpenSpeech Recognizer is an open, standards-based recognition engine optimized for VoiceXML, delivering scalability, performance, and accuracy in speech application development. Building on Genesys Voice Portal's VoiceXML foundation, newly added integration with the OpenSpeech Recognizer provides an open, VoiceXML compliant solution that offers tremendously flexible voice-based self-service solutions for contact centers, with a built-in pathway for escalation to agent-assisted transactions. "Genesys Voice Portal offers organizations around the world a flexible and cost-effective solution to expand their customer self-service solutions," said Steve Chambers, chief marketing officer at SpeechWorks. "We are pleased to work with Genesys to deliver standards-based speech solutions that integrate seamlessly with an organization's enterprise-wide self-service strategy." Open Standards Deliver Better Value Genesys estimates the total cost of ownership of Genesys Voice Portal to be up to 40% less than traditional interactive voice response (IVR) systems. Leveraging open standards and eliminating the need for staff trained on proprietary systems, Voice Portal delivers significant savings in: operations and administration; application development and integration; hardware and software; and maintenance. A standard implementation of 200 ports in a 200-agent contact center can expect return-on-investment in as little as eight months. The Voice Portal upgrade comes at a time when the worldwide VoiceXML market is growing at an estimated $40-60 million each year. It is expected to reach $600 million by 2005 (Datamonitor, June 2002). "With increased globalization and competition, companies are finding superior customer service to be a key differentiator," said Prem Uppaluru, executive vice president, Genesys. "Through this enhanced offering, Genesys Voice Portal helps companies reach more customers and offer more consistent customer service with little or no additional infrastructure investment."