Genesys and IBM Expand Partnership in China

Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, an Alcatel-Lucent company (EURONEXT PARIS: ALU) (NYSE: ALU), and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a significant expansion of their global Strategic Alliance for Contact Center Solutions to co-develop, implement and sell a new collaborative solution in China. This marks the first time both companies are offering a solution targeting the growing call center market in this region, while also continuing their global work together.

Contact centers have become increasingly strategic assets for businesses worldwide, as customer service continues to play a major role in establishing competitive differentiation and building long-term customer loyalty. Contact center application revenue in China grew 15.6% in 2006 vs. 2005, and is projected to annually grow 18.2% in 2007 and 20.9% in 2008.*

The new IBM Contact Center in a Box solution enables businesses to easily deploy a simplified contact center solution, in 90 days or less. This solution is a scalable option intended to meet the needs of small, mid-sized and enterprise-level businesses as needed. Working together, IBM and Genesys will deliver full functionality in one solution, providing critical customer service functions such as customer enquiry and complaints, product promotion, sales, appointment management, and activity management.

Based on a survey of over 300 small, mid-sized and enterprise customers, IBM market research has shown that clients in the China region are looking for contact center solutions that are easy to upgrade and maintain, have a lower overall implementation cost and are stable and reliable. The new IBM Contact Center in a Box solution brings together all of these components, along with system security, scalability, and a low total cost of ownership.

This solution is powered with IBM open architecture, running on IBM Blade servers, DB2, WebSphere and Tivoli software. Genesys technology provides the advanced call routing with Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) support, computer telephony integration and self-service capabilities, directing the incoming customer call to the proper agent or resource. Siebel Call Center Applications from Oracle offer the sales and after sales support to this bundled solution, helping companies analyze and provide support based on the data collected on the call and stored in the database.

"Throughout our 8-year history together, IBM and Genesys have delivered innovative contact center and self-service solutions to the global marketplace with more than 13,000 agent seats deployed together worldwide," said Michael McBrien, senior vice president, Asia Pacific, Genesys. "We're now tapping into IBM's sales and marketing expertise to expand our presence in the Greater China market."

Genesys and IBM share 300 joint customers worldwide. By expanding this partnership, the two companies will focus on further growing business in the Greater China region in core verticals such as banking, insurance, telecommunications and government. IBM's commanding presence in this geography will contribute significantly to the growth and sale of Genesys' solutions to new customers, as well as creating value for their existing customers in the region.

As part of the alliance, IBM and Genesys will focus on several key initiatives in Greater China, including:

• 
  IBM to provide increased sales and technical coverage for Genesys' solutions in Greater China;
• IBM will provide consultants and technical experts on Genesys technology solutions for localized customer support;
• IBM and Genesys will co-develop industry-specific solutions to provide localized products for China, including use of the IBM China Research Lab;
• Utilization of the IBM Innovation Center in Beijing to build and test solutions and provide sales support and solution demonstrations for the local market.

"IBM continues to remain committed to the success of its partners," said Mark Hanny, vice president of strategic partnerships, IBM. "The new contact center solution presents an enormous opportunity for both companies to deliver support to their current customers worldwide, and capture new customers in this growing segment of the Greater China market."

*Asia Pacific Contact Centre Applications Market CY 2006, Frost & Sullivan, May 2007