Posts Tagged ‘genesys’

Genesys certifies CounterPath Bria softphone

Most Genesys consultants are already familiar with the X-Lite softphone, CounterPath’s desktop telephony application, because it’s a free download and still provides most of the features required to run tests cases. Today Genesys makes it official: CounterPath Bria softphone is certified for Genesys 8 SIP Server (Bria is like the next generation of X-Lite, except it’s not free).

I remember X-Lite not working after I’d upgraded to Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) on my Mac. Indeed it’s not supported and CounterPath recommends X-Lite 4.0 Beta, but it’s been in beta for a long while now, and I don’t think it’s coming out of beta anytime soon. My take is that CounterPath prefers users to upgrade to Bria 3.0 which is cross platform (Windows, Mac, and Linux).

In a way that’s great news because as Linux and Macs gain popularity in the enterprise contact centers, now these outfits have a compatible and Genesys-certified softphone to deploy without the need to use desktop Windows VMs, thereby saving money on these Windows licenses. Additionally, CounterPath also sells SDKs in C++, COM, and ActiveX flavors for those brave developers wanting to code their own softphone.

Check here for CounterPath’s official press release:

Vancouver, BC, Canada — July 13, 2010 – CounterPath Corporation (TSX-V: CCV; OTCBB: CPAH), an award-winning provider of desktop and mobile VoIP software solutions, today announced that the latest release of its Bria multimedia softphone is now available for integration with Genesys contact center desktop applications. An Alcatel-Lucent company (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU), Genesys has certified Bria for use with the Genesys 8 SIP Server, providing Genesys customers with a fast, cost-effective way to deploy VoIP and video calling services within their contact centers and to home-based agents.

To simplify Bria’s integration with Genesys contact center desktop applications, customer options include the following:

• The Genesys 8 SIP Endpoint SDK, based on CounterPath’s SDK technology, for members of the Genesys developer community members to build and integrate SIP endpoint connections for their custom desktop applications
• CounterPath’s Bria 3.0 multimedia softphone certified for use with the Genesys 8 SIP Server as a stand-alone softphone
• Genesys offering an integrated SIP Endpoint and SIP Endpoint Module, based on CounterPath technology, for a future release of its next generation desktop; Genesys 8 Interaction Workspace

Genesys 8 provides visibility into customer data and standard response information so contact and call center agents can quickly and effectively handle calls. With the addition of CounterPath’s Bria multimedia softphone, Genesys customers now have access to a highly secure, standards-based softphone that enables voice and high-definition (1280x720p) video calls between agents and supervisors.

Bria supports a variety of operating systems, including desktops and laptops running Linux, Mac and Windows, and operates on any wired or wireless IP network, including 3G/4G and Wi-Fi. This flexible design enables contact center operators to significantly reduce the cost of providing unified communications (UC) solutions to agents and employees, all without the need to install dedicated telephony hardware on each desk.

The integration of Bria also provides Genesys customers with:

• Seamless, Genesys-certified integration, enabling fast, cost-effective implementation in variety of contact center environments
• An intuitive interface that makes it easy for call center agents to perform common tasks such as placing and receiving VoIP and video calls, identifying at a glance which contacts are available and sending instant messages
• Support for third-party application control, which enables the contact center applications to manage the calling experience more efficiently
• A wide variety of configuration options to meet each contact center’s unique requirements

“Genesys’ certification of Bria is the latest example of CounterPath’s momentum in the contact and call center markets, which represents a major opportunity for our company,” said Robert Brown VP Marketing for CounterPath. “Bria gives Genesys customers a flexible, sophisticated and unified VoIP and video solution that is easy to implement and easy to use. The combination of CounterPath and Genesys is a win-win-win for both companies and Genesys users.”

For more information about Bria, visit http://www.counterpath.com/bria.html.

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About CounterPath

CounterPath Corporation is an award-winning provider of innovative desktop and mobile VoIP software products and solutions. The company’s product suite includes SIP-based softphones, server applications and Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) solutions that enable service providers, enterprises and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) to cost-effectively integrate voice, video, presence and Instant Messaging (IM) applications into their VoIP offerings and extend functionality across both fixed and mobile networks.

CounterPath’s customers include some of the world’s largest telecommunications service providers and network equipment providers including AT&T, Verizon, BT (British Telecommunications PLC), Deutsche Telekom, Cisco Systems, and Mitel.

Visit www.counterpath.com.

Disclaimer: Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contact:

CounterPath Media and Analyst Relations
Megan Hyde
540.239.8386
mhyde@comunicano.com

BearPaw Software digs a niche in Genesys ecosystem

As I had written earlier, a new sponsor showed up to this year’s Genesys G-Force Chicago and Amsterdam: BearPaw Software. It was noteworthy to me because although BearPaw’s been serving the Genesys ecosystem for years, this was the first time it’d signed on as a sponsor and even threw a kick-butt (from what I’d heard) welcome reception in Chicago. Also, in a previous engagement years ago I had the chance to meet its founder, Duane Abrams. I reached out to him last week for an interview and opportunity to catch up, and was very grateful that he took time out of his busy project schedule for a phone call.

One thing you’ll notice about the company is that it primarily focuses on software. Most companies in the Genesys ecosystem feed off professional service gigs which traditionally provide greater margins (or used to, when the economy was in better shape). These are the systems integration (SI) departments from the top carriers (AT&T, Verizon, etc.) and top consulting firms (IBM, Accenture, etc.), to the next tier shops (Aria Solutions, Touchpoint, etc.), to the third-tiers (Mediu, eLoyalty. etc.), then to some boutique outfits. Oftentimes a Genesys implementation team would consist of resources from these various companies, whereby the contracted company would subcontract work to augment the team, and sometimes even the subcontractor would subcontract some work.

Messy, I know. According to Duane, it is tough for a small company like BearPaw to compete with the top dogs for SI work because most of the time the contract is awarded to the vendor which helped (re)sell the Genesys software. Instead, he decided there was a market for additional software to complement Genesys’ products to “enhance the Genesys core and fill gaps in Genesys.” That is the main differentiator of BearPaw.

The company has developers in Europe and the U.S. to make Duane’s product visions come true, such as its flagship CallFlow Analyzer and ReVision offerings.

CallFlow Analyzer aims to provide analytical insights into a customer’s operations by mapping the paths of calls from cradle to grave. The business can then look at these diagrams to determine which call segment is costing the most money or producing the least caller satisfaction, and make adjustments accordingly. Perhaps tweaking an IVR menu, or modifying the wording of a menu option, or optimizing a database transaction along the way. In essence the tool allows the business to easily baseline and benchmark the impact of contact center programming, and may even be used as a call flow debugging utility. There is also a plan to add a simulation feature to the product which may come out sometime in 2011 in a beta version.

ReVision would be a product that any Genesys consultant could get excited about. Billed as “version control for Genesys,” ReVision will definitely help with all those common configuration tweaks necessary on nearly all Genesys implementations.

And what of the much publicized hosted architecture and the new exciting Genesys 8?

The truth is, Duane hasn’t seen many hosted implementations of Genesys either, in the U.S. or across the pond. In 2009 Genesys touted the partnership with AT&T which provided hosted Genesys services for InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), but since that announcement it appears no other major customer has jumped onto that bandwagon. Duane thinks that for most corporations who can afford Genesys they likely already invested in one or more data centers, so selling them a hosted solution along with a more complicated deployment and support plan because of it doesn’t make much economic sense.

Genesys 8, considered to be a very important and major update, has generated a lot of buzz in the Genesys ecosystem. The thing that’s holding customers back, according to Duane, is Genesys’ lack of a clear migration path. Topped with Genesys’ history of “dot oh” troubles, most customers are in a holding pattern in terms of upgrading. Parent company Alcatel-Lucent, posting a significant first quarter loss, may need Genesys to aggressively push for upgrades in order to help with the bottom line. After all, Genesys is a software company and makes most of its money from licensing and upgrades.

So after years of low-profile success, BearPaw Software is ready to step into the spotlight to become the premier Genesys ISV. Its high-profile sponsorship of G-Force was the first step, and according to Duane, he’s also ready to commit more resources in the future, perhaps a deeper involvement with the annual Genesys Developers Summit. And I’m sure that’s welcome news for those in the Genesys ecosystem.

Lots of red during Alcatel-Lucent 1Q2010

Not a good time to be an ALU shareholder as the company reported a loss for the first quarter of 2010. The stock price struggles to break $3/share. Revenues declined for most of its business segments:

Quarterly revenues decreased 9.8% year over year and decreased 18.1% sequentially to €3.247 billion. By operating segments, Networks saw a double-digit decline in revenue, partly attributable to a shortage of components in supply chain. This has been particularly true in wireless access and terrestrial optics. Applications revenue declined 6.3% year over year with enterprise solutions & Genesys relatively stable. Services segment was more resilient with a 3.1% year-over-year decrease supported by managed services and multivendor maintenance.

Even Genesys isn’t faring that well? “Relatively stable” as in “revenues will continue to decline as the same rate”? And a “3.1% year-over-year decrease” is considered resiliency? There doesn’t even seem to be a hint of sunshine in this quarterly report. What about getting customers to upgrade to the fancy new version, Genesys 8? What happened to the momentum of G-Force Chicago and G-Force Amsterdam? And the high profile partnerships with Lithium social media and InQuira knowledge management solutions?

I have a feeling that this year we’re going to find out whether the Genesys acquisition and the subsequent restructuring and reorganization were effective.

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• Alcatel-Lucent shares plunge after Q1 net loss (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Genesys G-Force: Frontier Airlines MIA, replaced by guitar-breaker United Airlines

So G-Force Chicago has ended. Here’s update for April 15 from one of my sources:

“Generate Endless Possibilities” is the theme at this year’s G-Force Chicago. The first full day started like most of G-Forces, with music and dancers and throwing out foam frisbees into the audience. Eric Entzeroth (Sr. VP Genesys) kicked off the event with the company’s welcome message and introduced Paul Segre (President AS Group, Genesys). Paul was his usual Michael Scott (à la The Office) self. He went over the theme of “Generate Endless Possibilities” and how the focus this year was on “innovation in the customer experience.” So, Genesys 8 was officially launched and the big push was to integrate iWD (intelligent Workload Distribution) and moving customers and their contact centers to add email, chat, mobile apps (virtual hold and callback) and social media into the Universal Agent queue. It was pretty cool when they talked about how agents can monitor blogs and chats and be able to “proactively” (buzzword) answer questions before the customer can call in (or email) the company.

The next few speakers also spoke about Genesys 8 and how social and mobile media will be an important to the contact center space in the years to come. The morning sessions ended with Valerie LaBarba (VP of Farmers Insurance) giving a presentation about how they are moving their contact centers into the multimedia space and will soon upgrade to Genesys 8 (I don’t think she’s been around for Genesys 7.0 or Genesys 6.0). It was a nice presentation and they are doing some cool stuff with Genesys.

The breakout sessions were typical. Same ol’, Same ol’!!! The last general session of the day was a presentation from United Airlines. They were last minute fill-in for Frontier Airlines. But, you can tell that the VP of IT really tried, but he had 30 slides and a video all about United and their IT initiative and nothing about Genesys. The last two slides he threw in were token Genesys mentions.

The day ended with a G-Force party at the House of Blues. It was OK, I think too many people for that size venue. It was difficult to walk around and talk with people. The music was loud and people were pushed up next to each other. So, if I were to grade the party I would give it a C+.

But, overall I think Day 1 went very well. I’m very please to see the new enhancements coming in Genesys 8 (with Composer, iWD, and iCFD). Let’s pray that the new enhancements of Genesys 8 was built on the solid 7.6 framework!!!

I’m not so sure why Genesys picked lesser-known Frontier Airlines as a customer keynote. It’s not a top-tier airline and had a history of financial troubles (went through bankruptcy in 2008). Curious also as to why Gerry Coady of Frontier Airlines canceled at the last minute. Also surprised at United Airlines being asked to fill in for Frontier. Both of these airlines have had negative publicity in recent years — and if Genesys’ focus is social media and customer service this year, Frontier and UA were poor choices. The only logical explanation is that Genesys sales dictated the selection for the customer keynote and its sales resources are probably working hard to win some deals in the air travel sector. Unfortunately things didn’t work out as planned…

By the way, I think we’ve found new fans!

Genesys G-Force: New sponsor BearPaw Software rolls out the red carpet

My sources have arrived at G-Force and ready to provide you with the latest and greatest from Genesys! First report from a source:

This year’s G-Force is at the historic Chicago Hilton hotel. The welcome reception started around 5:30pm and was sponsored by BearPaw Software. They really did a good job and it was a nice start to the next two full days of festivities. (Thanks Duane!!!)

This is noteworthy as I believe it’s the first time BearPaw Software is a sponsor? According to G-Force’s website, it is this year’s “Special Sponsor.” If anyone can find out what it means to be a “special sponsor” please contact me! BearPaw actually has a suite of contact center products tied into Genesys — something rare among third-party shops that feed off the Genesys ecosystem (most just offer augmented PS services). Definitely keep an eye on this company…

The turnout is better then last year with 700+ customers, sponsors, and employees attending. Everyone seems to be excited about this years G-Force, or maybe they are excited because their Genesys representative is taking them out for a big steak dinner. We will see!!

Increased attendance is great news, perhaps a sign of economic recovery in these uncertain times? However, I’d attribute parts of it to the location, Chicago, being in the middle of the country. Last year’s was in Orlando — way east and way south — which discouraged many west coast people from going, especially during the downturn as well. Oh yes, Chicago has better steakhouses, too! Bonus for hungry customers.

So far, the big questions from attendees are around Genesys IP/SIP and Genesys release 8. Is it reliable? Is it going to be like the other Genesys major releases (6.0, 7.0)? Will customers be  pushing for Genesys 8.5 before years end? Inquiring minds want to know!!!

Well, hopefully all of our questions will be answered tomorrow. We will continue to update our insideCTI readers on what’s happening at G-Force 2010. So, please check back.

Ah, Genesys 8.0. Consultants shudder at the thought of a “dot oh.” I have seen some demos of G8 and was impressed. But then, that’s what demos are supposed to do. It’s the on-site consultants who keep Genesys honest as they’re the ones in the field implementing the thing. As part of the marketing effort, I think Genesys 8 ought to be branded “GR8″ (“Genesys Release 8″) to calm fears and stay hip!