On November 15, Genesys formally launched a new packaging of its customer interaction platform (Genesys 8), bringing its efforts to “save the world from bad customer service” to companies with fewer than 300 seats in their contact centers. Now Genesys has a trifecta of offerings that include its core Genesys 8 Suite for large businesses; recently announced Genesys Cloud Connect SaaS offering (available in January) and now Genesys One (announced November 15th, with general availability scheduled for December 1).

Genesys One is a scaled-down version of Genesys 8 designed to make it faster, easier and more affordable for mid-sized companies to get a highly-functional, SIP-based contact center up and running. It also provides an off-the-shelf platform for selected go-to-market partners or resellers to offer in this increasingly competitive segment of the contact center marketplace. In this respect, it is directly competitive with Cisco’s Unified Contact Center Express (UCCE), which also vies for the attention of value-added resellers and distributors looking for off-the-shelf, easy-to-deploy solutions.

Key to the Genesys One strategy is a “foundational” version of Genesys 8 that supports core prompting, routing, agent and supervisor desktops and reporting/analytic functions. The second component of the package is a “rapid installation” tool and set of practices designed to get the platform up-and-running in less than 30 days at a totally predictable, fixed price. Included in the package is a set of templates for prompts and routing that benefit from over 3,000 installations of Genesys software around the world.

Genesys One is designed to run on a single server supporting up to 300 seats. It is also designed to allow enterprise customers to add more functionality – such as GVP (Genesys Voice Platform), Infomart (for analytics) or CRM interfaces – if and when they deem it necessary or desirable. This mid-market, partner-friendly offering has been much awaited by go-to-market partners and is a timely addition to the Genesys 8 offering.

The mid-market is the new battleground for growth among contact center software and infrastructure providers. Vendors have a love/hate relationship with this segment. On the positive side there are thousands of prospects with well-understood requirements. On the negative side, they tend to be price-sensitive while, at the same time, often needing high levels of support. The Genesys One package, by design, takes on 70% of the known needs of the mid-market and provides for initial customization by trained go-to-market partners.

SIP-based deployments are gaining momentum and that’s another positive for Genesys One. In the coming months, it will be interesting to see whether mid-sized businesses want premises-based solutions (like Genesys One and UCCE) or whether they opt for one of many cloud-based candidates as a way to avoid the expense of acquiring new hardware and software for contact center operations. Regardless of their chosen approach, by January, Genesys will have a product or service to suit the mid-sized business’s requirements.

Categories: Articles

Tags: Genesys, customer care, Contact Center, customer experience