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It encompasses a range of new technologies developed by Genesys to integrate VoIP capabilities within all stages of the conferencing process, including:

-- An end-to-end IP-based audio platform

-- PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) calls converted to IP through media gateways, and vice versa, in accordance with a customer's existing infrastructure

-- IP-based Web conferencing in Genesys Meeting Center which is completely integrated with the audio platform through IP

-- IP-based support servers, including billing, reporting and monitoring, now also fully integrated with the IP voice infrastructure

The development is a response to Genesys' Fortune 500 customers and telecom partners looking to consolidate their voice delivery around IP. However, VoIP will ultimately be behind all Genesys Meeting Center services to customers regardless of their existing infrastructure, whether it is based on IP or PSTN. In the case of PSTN, voice traffic will be converted to IP from PSTN at the media gateway, providing a homogenous, seamless, integrated conferencing service.

Voice over IP on the back end

Jim Huzell, Chief Operating Officer of Genesys Conferencing, explained that VoIP on the back end represents a crucial development in anticipation of increased conference call volumes and a demand for converged services, particularly from large enterprises and the telecommunications sector.

"We will be in a position to begin migrating multimedia conferencing services onto our IP backbone during the course of the next few quarters, based on user demand. Last year, we provided over 1.3 billion conferencing minutes globally which could now be processed entirely through VoIP capabilities. From a scalability perspective, however, in terms of number of meetings, the capacity of our Voice over IP-based backbone is, theoretically, infinite."

Transport agnostic - IP or PSTN

This approach contrasts with "mainstream" VoIP conference offerings that require a VoIP environment at the customer site and, according to Huzell, take little account of the reality within most corporate networks.

"We are announcing what we believe will be a unique, scalable carrier-grade Voice over IP infrastructure, designed to deliver feature-rich, integrated multimedia conferencing services to corporations, regardless of their existing infrastructure. With this investment Genesys Conferencing is announcing a clear, risk-free migration path. If and when companies choose to move toward Voice over IP, we will be capable of offering an absolutely seamless migration for our customers in a changing environment. We will supply exactly the same services throughout an organization, whether it is equipped with a PSTN infrastructure, Voice over IP or a combination of both," said Huzell. "To our knowledge, Genesys is currently the only conferencing provider with these capabilities."

He went on to describe industry predictions of wholesale adoption of VoIP within the corporate sector as optimistic, adding that PSTN would remain fundamental at customer sites for the foreseeable future.

"The majority of our customers continue to rely on PSTN for voice, and we will continue to support them with our existing PSTN infrastructure or to convert the traffic from PSTN to IP at the transport stage, depending on customer needs. In this way, Genesys will provide customers with a choice between IP and PSTN. As enterprises migrate to a VoIP environment across different locations, Genesys conferencing services will evolve accordingly, providing an identical, integrated service across each site," explained Huzell.

Benefits to customers

As Genesys Conferencing customers migrate to VoIP networking at the corporate LAN level, they will receive longer-term strategic benefits of convergence, including:

-- Features and integration with other applications. VoIP will permit better integration with other desktop and enterprise applications such as enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, collaboration tools and portals.

-- Support for more end points. VoIP allows interoperability with a wide range of devices, such as smartphones, PDAs and PCs.

-- Additional messaging services. Using presence technology, conferencing applications will be integrated with other messaging systems, making it easier to plan meetings or collaborate ad hoc.

-- Customization. Voice prompts and commands can be highly customized according to customer preferences.

-- Scalability. In terms of the number of separate, simultaneous meetings, the capacity of Genesys Conferencing's IP infrastructure is virtually unlimited.

Genesys Meeting Center

Huzell added that, since the launch of the world's first automated audio conference service 15 years ago, Genesys Conferencing has continued to provide cutting-edge technology solutions for the conferencing industry.

"Our customers benefit from this heritage with our Genesys Meeting Center technology, Multimedia Minute pricing(1), absence of complicated software installations and sensible strategy for migration to IP-based technology. This positioning represents a marked contrast to the mainstream VoIP model requiring enterprises to upgrade their own infrastructure before reaping the benefits of IP."

Genesys Meeting Center offers Web, voice and desktop video conferencing in one integrated service that is available on demand. Simple point-and-click commands allow moderators to deliver PowerPoint presentations, share and edit any document or application in real time and record meetings for playback later. Under the Genesys Conferencing Multimedia Minute pricing model, an industry first, clients are charged one flat per-minute rate for any combination of Web, voice and desktop video conferencing, making it simple and affordable for users to enhance any meeting with online collaboration.