New Genesys Solution Transforms Customer Service via an Intelligent Customer Front Door

iCFD integrates business rules engine for call answering that creates a highly personalized response and great customer experience

San Francisco, - Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, an Alcatel-Lucent company (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today introduced a new set of solutions that employ a business rules engine to shift call answering away from frustrating IVR menus and "voice mail jail" to an intelligent blend of self-service and live-service. The new Genesys intelligent Customer Front Door™, or iCFD™, transforms the experience for customers entering the "telephone front door" of enterprises.

The iCFD is a unique combination of Genesys Dynamic Contact Center components and advanced self-service applications that:

• Discerns the identity and intent of a caller in the fewest steps
• Gathers relevant information from back-end data or workflow to understand the context of their call
• Determines how to treat callers based on established business rules
• Matches the most relevant and available resource, including self-service, proactive notification, automatic callback or live service to deliver the best customer experience

The iCFD breaks new ground in customer service call handling by applying business rules that draw upon multiple ways to interact with customers and resolve their requests, rather than forcing customers into an automated system that is singularly focused on cost containment, as with traditional IVRs.

For example:

• At a major North American utility company, callers that discussed a service request two days prior may be connected automatically to the same agent that handled the initial request when that agent is
• present and available.
• At a European airline, a customer calling 3 hours before departure time on a scheduled itinerary may be connected to flight status automatically, and be offered proactive notification of changes in fl
• ight status, and then be prompted in self-service to consider an upgrade purchase.
• At a global wireless provider, a caller responding to a sales promotion can be offered the opportunity to buy immediately rather than sifting through irrelevant choices.

"The days of offering the same call answering options to every caller are over," said Eric Tamblyn, Vice President of Product Marketing for Genesys. "The iCFD redefines the role of self service, away from mere cost savings and toward an improved customer experience. The iCFD is a key instrument for Genesys customers to enable Dynamic Contact Centers that are capable of adjusting to customer needs in multiple ways."

The iCFD solutions can combine self-service and speech technologies, a business rules engine that controls routing of customer interactions, and a customer interaction management platform that monitors and controls assisted service agents and key capabilities such as callback and proactive contact to deliver a complete customer experience. The iCFD business rules engine dynamically creates options for self-service and provides responses via self-service, proactive notification, automatic callback or by routing directly to an expert resource, thus delivering fast resolution and superior service. This combination improves the caller's experience, reduces customer frustration and can significantly reduce operating costs.

The iCFD is designed for enterprises or managed service providers who serve sophisticated customer environments with multiple customer types and contact numbers, and large swings in volume of inquiries. iCFD is enabled to operate in multiple languages with any speech recognition software, and can include business processes tailored to the unique needs of any customer service organization.

The iCFD is implemented through Genesys with its key partners who have developed specialized applications designed to meet enterprise needs. The iCFD solution can co-exist within multi-vendor environments and is extensible to multiple contact options (i.e. callback, proactive contact).

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, optimize 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 organization, from the contact center 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 or visit the industry blog at http://www.betterinteractions.com

About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) provides solutions that enable service providers, enterprise 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 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

Media Contact:
David Radoff, Genesys, +1 650.466.1078, dradoff@genesyslab.com.