New Genesys Platform Supports VoIP and Video

Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories today announced the first voice self-service platform with built-in support for video customer service, and key standards for enhanced network services that enable a wide range of new applications, from speech-enabled voicemail to IP-based services using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

At the center of the change is the release of VoiceGenie 7.1, the latest version of Genesys' voice self-service platform. Genesys has added new features to embrace voice over IP through the SIP standard. VoiceGenie 7.1 also leverages the latest versions of three key standards—VoiceXML 2.1, CCXML 1.0 and MRCP 1.0—that enable applications to be quickly modified, reused and redeployed across virtually any device with lower maintenance costs.

VoiceGenie 7.1 also features extensive support for video play-and-record applications, such as video voicemail, video conferencing, video-enabled music and game applications, and video call recording, on 3G mobile phones and other devices.

 "There are interesting things you can do at the contact center as well," says Rob Marchand, senior director of product management at Genesys. "For example, a live agent can push a video out to a potential customer to get him to see how a product works or push instructional videos out to help simplify a technical installation."

A Quality Advisor feature also allows contact center managers to monitor the system for every call that hits it, Marchand says, "allowing people to be more proactive with how they manage it."

The release of VoiceGenie 7.1 follows months of customer pilots that began last fall. It is the first major release under the VoiceGenie name since Genesys acquired the brand in early 2006. Genesys will eventually roll the VoiceGenie platform into its own GVP platform, which is likely to start in 2008. "We'll be taking the best of both platforms and merging them together," Marchand says. "You'll also see broader video support and support for a broad range of operating systems to help customers migrate their existing applications to the new platforms."

The changes in VoiceGenie 7.1 also reflect a changing tide at Genesys, says Brian Bischoff, its vice president of worldwide voice portal sales. "Genesys has traditionally been focused on the call center, but we're getting into other areas and tying them all together," he says. "We're now beginning to leverage the assets of VoiceGenie.