Introducing Genesys One

Brian K Bischoff, Vice President, Global Offer Management of Genesys, chats with Blair Pleasant about the new Genesys One offering, aimed at the broader enterprise market. Brian discusses the thinking behind the product, how it's different from more traditional Genesys offerings, and what's in it for both enterprise customers and channel partners.

Blair Pleasant: Hi, this is Blair Pleasant and I am speaking with Brian Bischoff of Genesys about the new Genesys One. So, Brian, let's start with an overview of Genesys One and what was the thinking behind the product?

Brian Bischoff: Well, the thinking behind the product is that Genesys has been very successful in serving large and sophisticated companies and this is what we're known for in the market. And we have a goal, as you may know, of saving the world from bad customer service. Our goal is to extend that. And so what we have looked at is how do we deliver a solution that delivers the fundamental powers of what larger clients have consumed to date - the sophisticated client - and how do we bring that to a broader enterprise market. And so the thinking behind that was how can we deliver this product, and the solution came out as Genesys One.

Blair: What can you tell us about Genesys One? Give us an overview of what the product does.

Brian: The product takes the capabilities that we have in the Genesys Suite and what we do is we package specific software modules that are meant for foundation IP contact centers. So those capabilities most used by clients today. And then what we have done is - we have done something somewhat unique in bundling what we call best practices with the solution that we deliver actually when it is installed.

Blair: Can you say what some of those best practices are?

Brian: Yeah, sure - very good question. As you know, we have been in the market for a number of years and have done hundreds if not now thousands of implementations. So we have looked across our professional services team and our partners, and we've packaged up a few specific things that can be delivered and will be delivered with the solution. Number one, if you will, a methodology that brings customers to a discussion on capabilities and what they need. Then what we do is we use a software wizard to rapidly install the product so that it can be up and running in a few hours versus a few days. Number two, what we've done is we have looked across most used and optimized call flows for contact centers, and we have actually physically built out, if you will, routing templates and scripts so that when the solution arrives, it can be turned on and the templates can be customized. And of course, to make it a thorough solution, we have the templates geared so that they automatically flow to real time and historical reporting.

What the customer gets at the end of the day is a foundation IP contact center with a specific rapid delivery and installation. And then we have, if you will, best practices packaged through pre-generated routing scripts and templates so that they can get up and running quickly.

Blair: I know that one of the big value props of this is the lower TCO. Can you talk about that a little?

Brian: The challenge, I think, for most of our supporters at the client is that they struggle each year with getting budget to meet what they will consider their customer experience goals. And they struggle, if you will, competing internally against other projects, whether that's web security, whether that's a new CRM system, it doesn't matter. They need to compete and have a TCO that is effective and delivers real returns to the corporation. So our focus with Genesys One was to ensure that we could take this foundation IP contact center and deliver it in a way that ensures a rapid delivery or what we will call the "time to success" so that they can be assured that the delivery will be done in a certain time. And then, number two, we focused on how to ensure that it is optimized and ready to go once installed. So once again, we talked about pre-packaged templates for the call flows and reporting.

Then lastly what we did was we took what we consider a product strength of Genesys and what we have exposed to the end user is what we will call parameterization or user-based control, so that an end user in the contact center or the business owner can make changes to the call flow - I do n't know, let's say, changing the prompts or changing hours of operation, without having to contact their IT guy or their partner so they can make real time changes. And this is something we see customers asking for, but in older days being scared to use a design tool to make that on the fly. So this "roles-based control" allows changes to be made on the fly by a business user or a contact center manager. So this is fundamentally how we address the TCO challenge here.

Blair: Customers have lots of options in the mid-market; why should they look at Genesys, which is known for larger, more complex systems?

Brian: Customers are always looking to have the most reliable and sophisticated solutions. But in the past when they have talked to their consultant or their partner, they may have led them to the discussion that Genesys is a brand that is recognized for only the largest and most sophisticated, and so it was out of their reach. The objective here, and what we believe we delivered and hope the marketplace agrees, is that what we have done is taken that foundation solution and made it available to a much broader set of enterprises so that they can have, if you will, the sophistication and the reliability in this foundation package. And then they can add additional incremental features or capabilities as they need. Those can be as they move to multi-channel, as they focus more on social, if they get into advanced speech, if they go into analytics. All of these are attainable as well by just adding additional software modules to the Genesys One offering.

Blair: Now this is also a different market for your partners. So what are you doing to prepare your channel partners to succeed in the mid-market or the broader enterprise market?

Brian: It is a fundamentally different market and we hope that a lot of the needs will be the same. So what we are doing with partners is we are rolling out a specific course on, of course, what the solution is. But, more importantly, we're looking with them at what is the selling that needs to happen? What are the actual business needs in clients this size? And how do they take a foundation contact solution like this, use their skills and what they're good at, and then deliver it in a meaningful way and an effective TCO or price point to the client?

And so we're engaged in a number of different training sessions, working with the partners and actually getting them to a journey and an end state which is that they can compete in more business opportunities and then, of course, win those opportunities.

Blair: So the partners aren't getting the same types of professional services revenues that they would typically get. How are you incentivizing the partners to sell Genesys One?

Brian: Part of the opportunity for the customer is to be able to get a solution at a lower TCO. And, as you've described, where a lot of that comes from is where partners would have traditionally done professional services around an installation and actually building out the reports and getting those done. And so the partner will actually make less money or have less hours associated with the actual install. So we hope that what will happen is two things: one is based on the lower TCO that they'll be able to be involved in many more opportunities, increasing the size of the pie. And then number two, the focus really is to allow them to work with clients to add additional capabilities as the model or the customer experience continuum for that customer continues. So they will work with the client around maybe adding additional channels focusing on analytics. And so really deeper contact center and customer experience items that the partner will work on, versus, basic implementation strategies and getting those done.

So in the end the partner actually will have availability to have more opportunities to win. And then, number two, will have the opportunity to work with what their skills are with the client on delivering a next generation contact center versus just focusing on the initial implementation and rollout.

Blair: And lastly, is this available and shipping or when can customers look forward to being able to find this out there in the market?

Brian: We have announced Genesys One here in November, and we will be shipping it in mid-December; so available for partners and available for clients before the end of the year here in 2012.

Blair: Great - thank you so much,Brian.

Brian: Thank you, Blair.