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Feb 1, 2012 -- Alcatel-Lucent has closed the sale of its customer service software and contact centre business Genesys. The new company needs to regroup and start working on improving areas such as analytics, Gartner analyst Steve Blood said.

Permira Funds and Technology Crossover Ventures bought Genesys, and approximately 1,800 employees worldwide will be transferred to a new company. "It was the right thing to do; Alcatel-Lucent needed the money and Genesys needed to be separate," said Blood.

With the backing of its new owners, Genesys will strengthen its products in growing areas such as cloud computing, workforce optimisation, process workflow, social networking and analytics, according to Permira.

Analytics has become more important to businesses and Blood said he wouldn't be surprised if Genesys acquires a company to improve its portfolio. "Enterprises want to know more about how the company is running and what customers are calling about," said Blood.

But the first thing Genesys needs to do is to regroup, and bring everyone together following a reorganisation that saw employees scatter across different parts of Alcatel-Lucent, according to Blood. "Had it gone on longer, I think more people would have become fed up from working in the slow-moving carrier environment and left," said Blood.

Genesys has lost some good talent, but the damage wasn't huge, according to Blood.

Genesys also needs to put together long term product plans.

"If you ask what its products will look like in three years, the plans are a little light on content because they are not sure," said Blood.

Over the next few months the company will be able to formalize more detailed plans. Still, any investment Genesys wants to make needs to be approved by the new owners, which could be a tricky process.

Last week, Blood met with one of the investors and was reasonably impressed. "They don't have that much experience in contact centres and customer services, but I think there is enough knowledge there to be able to support what Genesys needs to do," said Blood.

Genesys' claim to fame will be that it is one of only a few vendors that actually focuses on customer services and contact centers, according to Blood.

A competitor like Interactive Intelligence, which is releasing its fourth quarter numbers later on Wednesday, is also focused and has grown rapidly, he said. "I am sure Genesys thinks it can do the same when let loose," said Blood.

Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: http://www.computerworlduk.com

About Alcatel-Lucent:
Alcatel-Lucent is a global telecommunications corporation, headquartered in Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data and video services. The company focuses on fixed, mobile, and converged broadband networking hardware, IP technologies, software, and services. It leverages the technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation and R&D houses in the communications industry. Alcatel-Lucent has operations in more than 130 countries.

About Genesys:
Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company, is a company that focuses 100 per cent on software to manage customer interactions over the phone, Web and in e-mail. The Genesys software suite connects customers with resources - self-service or assisted-service - to fulfill customer requests and to optimise customer care goals. Genesys software directs more than 100 million customer interactions every day for 4,000 companies and government agencies in 80 countries.