16/04-09   -   Press releases

Genesys’ reputation as trusted advisor leads to shortlist recommendation in Datamonitor’s IVR Decision Matrix

* Datamonitor recommends enterprises consider Genesys when selecting an IVR platform

Camberley, UK, 16th April, 2009 – It is becoming a well known fact that more and more of today’s companies are looking to improve their customer engagement capabilities with interactive voice response (IVRs) that are not only technologically advanced but offer seamless integration into a company’s larger customer relationship system. In consideration of this evolving trend, leading market analyst firm Datamonitor, in its independently published report, “Decision Matrix – Selecting an IVR Vendor in the Enterprise", picked Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., an Alcatel-Lucent company (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) and its Genesys Voice Portal (GVP), as one of only two vendors whose products and services it recommends on its shortlist.

Datamonitor’s IVR Decision Matrix provides guidance for enterprises looking to deploy IVR solutions. It provides a comprehensive and transparent view of the capabilities of nine premise-based IVR platform vendors in the IVR market and presents advice on which should be explored, considered or placed on an enterprise’s shortlist for IVR platform selection. The shortlist category represents vendors with an established market position and an IVR product that is widely accepted as best-of-breed or part of a larger suite solution.

In evaluating the competitive dynamics in the IVR sphere, each vendor, including Genesys, was assessed in three categories:

* Technology Assessment: the acquisition of VoiceGenie, its support for SIP and H.323 standards, as well as additional monitoring and reporting capabilities, cemented high scores for Genesys in the technology assessment
* Market Impact: the large number of IVR customers and consistent double digit growth over the past five years in the GVP business resulted in high market impact scores
* End-user Sentiment: Genesys received the highest score in end-user sentiment by demonstrating it is a well known and trusted provider of IVR platforms

“Genesys has high scores across the board in our IVR Decision Matrix due to consistent growth in its GVP business and its great reputation with a large installed base of IVR customers," says Aphrodite Brinsmead, analyst for customer interaction technologies at Datamonitor and lead author of the report. “We were impressed with the next-generation applications Genesys is emphasising. The release of its intelligent Customer Front Door (iCFD) framework is indicative of the vendor’s forward thinking philosophy and commitment to extending IVR functionality."

“Our iCFD solution gives us great self-service features we use to improve our customer service levels, drive operational efficiencies, and increase revenue," said Gerry Cools, Sales Strategy & Development Manager for Belgacom, the principal supplier of integrated telecommunications services in Belgium. “We wanted to reduce the number of incoming operator-handled calls without reducing quality customer service and without forcing customers into an automated system only focused on cost containment. By using our iCFD to anticipate customer needs we managed to increase customer satisfaction by ten per cent, increase revenue generating capacity by three per cent, and reduce the number of incoming operator handled calls by 1.1 million between 2007 and 2008."

The “Decision Matrix – Selecting an IVR Vendor in the Enterprise" report is available compliments of Genesys at the following link: http://www.genesyslab.com/news/analysts/090115_Selecting%20an%20IVR%20vendor%20AB%20FINAL.doc

About Datamonitor
Datamonitor is the world’s leading provider of online data, analytic and forecasting platforms for key vertical sectors. It helps its clients, 5,000 of the world’s leading companies profit from better, more timely decisions. Through its proprietary databases and wealth of expertise, clients are provided with unbiased expert analysis and in-depth forecasts for seven industry sectors: Automotive & Logistics, Consumer Markets, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, Retail and Technology. Datamonitor maintains its headquarters in London and has regional offices in Frankfurt, New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Sydney. See www.datamonitor.com for further details.

About Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc.
Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company, is the only company that focuses 100% 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 http://www.genesyslab.com.

About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, providing solutions that deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organisation in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 17.8 billion in 2007 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com.