Where in the World Is Victor Sandiego?

[cavagnaro]

Anybody knows???

[Fra]

who??

[cavagnaro]

lol seems that the game wasn't famous for you
Victor, Vic, our beloved Vic...remember?

[victor]

Hey, sorry!

In Japan they had Golden Week, which means that I was travelling - to New York this time. It was a very fun trip! I promise even to put some pictures for everyone to look at and marvel at the handsome guy standing in front of an Empire State building, dwarfing it with his muscles!!!

I am back actually and working like crazy. To be frank, I am starting to lose interest in Genesys, because I feel that it is losing the innovation and capabilities necessary for me to grow beyond what we are now.

I really think that Genesys has missed a boat with SIP.

We have installed over 6000 seats worth of Genesys SIP, and to be frank, it is a pretty good product. Unfortunately, the fact that Genesys needs to use VoIP GW such as Cisco or even ALU is a major disadvantage, since Genesys SIers are not very versed in Genesys SIP and tend to try to implement most of the functionality using the underlying hardware used by Genesys SIP - HP, Cisco, etc. It does make sense since they can use their existing skillset and experience with minimum investment and low risk. Why take a chance with something new, when something similar can be done with the hardware they already know?

Needless to say, large SIers do not develop applications by themselves and rely on third-party developers to provide them with everything from customized reporting to IVR prompts and given that Genesys is very bad at engaging developer community, most of the developers feel more comfortable developing product on Cisco or Avaya platform. It is cheaper, requires less paperwork and both company and online community support is much easier to engage.

As for the adventurous programmers like me and Cav, it simply lacks the allure when compared with Asterisks. Why try to learn and build something on top of what you can never contribute to? Plus be charged every time you want to implement it? When I develop something, I want to retain what I develop and not worry about whether or not it is something that might be against EULA.

Maybe, it is just my mood today, and for all I know, maybe I will be all excited about Genesys in a future, but for now, I just feel that Genesys is something I will do when someone will pay me for it. I will not refuse a Genesys project if someone is going to offer it to me, of course, but I doubt that I will invest the same amount of time or energy into it simply because I think Genesys SIP is great.

From engineering point of view, Genesys is really awesome. The same goes from programming point of view as well. 
Unfortunately, if you want to increase your chances with a nice blonde in a bar, you do not talk about how cool Red Dwarf is, but instead you carry on a conversation about American Idol or Britain Got Talent... And this is the problem with Genesys. It is a Red Dwarf of Telephony. Cool, but will never get you laid.

[tony]

True Vic.... [i]Genesys [/i] SIP is "early days".  As we know, it takes Genesys (ALU?) a number of releases before they get the mix right and their marketing is pushing [i]Genesys [/i] SIP heavily.  I can well imagine that they are like a duck on water at the moment - looks smooth on top but, underneath, there is a lot of work going on to produce a fully-fledged/branded product.  If their previous form is anything to go by (Infomart, (Telera) GVP/VGP, etc.) it will take a little while before the product becomes a stable Genesys Solution in it's own right.  But, even now, there are fully-formed SIP products that could be integrated with less fuss and bother...

I'm cateogrizing the majority of Genesys Products/Solutions differently, now;  there are competitive products and new products in their overall offerings.  The majority are competitive (ICR, MCR, SIP, WfM, IVR, etc.) whilst some build on their core products, eeking out it's potential in new ways (iWD, iCFD, etc.).  There again, none of it is especially exciting...

I also see 2 camps for Genesys; the "Partners" (Si's, SP's, etc.) and the "Customers" (telco's, contact centres, etc.).  The Partners will take anything new from Genesys and push it forwards, irrespective of it's developed status.  Whereas Customers are much more cautious and would apply due dilligence (RFI.RFP/RFQ) before purchasing a new Genesys product.  To put it simply - if the technology ain't mature enough, it won't cut the mustard...

At the end of the day, it is how the Genesys product line stacks up against the competition - not just the fact that it has the Genesys (ALU) brand on it.  Their marketing engine appears to be heavily reliant on innovations and new product lines, rather than getting better at selling their core competitive products and this is where the problem lies... Keeping the brand fresh by introducing new product lines is all very well but the "bits and pieces" nature of their emerging competative offerings needs to be nailed down and integrated, for it to be classed with other more mature models.

Thinking about the core SIP product - First off, I can't get that excited about solutions which are pretty much Middleware(!)  Thinking as an end customer, I also don't much care how the Interactions are delivered - as long as the quality, stability and availability is not affected.  The whistles and bells of VoIP underlying the architeture are an IT issue - not a buiness one.  As you say Vic, the offerings from Genesys are "sufficient" for business use - but not in any way enticing or exciting and notoriously difficult to integrate.

On the school report card Genesys gets a C+ for trying - but they really should focus on being number one in what they do well, rather than attempting to compete on all levels in the CTI/CRM arena.  Taking it a step at a time and producing one good product after another, instaed of re-inventing and rejuvinating their product line-up woudl help.  As would producing and fine tuning one offering at a time and not all of them at the same time...!

I'm looking forwards to what direction Genesys will move into next.  Their customer strategy is to enable "us" to converge technologies and interactions seamlessly - I wonder if they can do the same for their Product Suite..?

TT

[victor]

Hi, Tony,

thank you for a well-thought out reply!

I think that you have summarized it very well: it is hard to get excited about middleware. This is why I think it is essential that we start looking into business application level solution. Genesys has tried to dip its toes into it quite a few times, so far with dismal results. Let's hope that with time, one of their attempts will be as successful as T-Server in 1992!

Vic

[tony]

(realizing that this is hidden way down in a thread away from the mainstream...)

If you see Genesys as Middleware - it works and does what it says on the tin - and that's all that matters.

But - if you see Genesys as a Solution or a Front-End tool, then you begin to appreciate just how complex the components are and how versatile they can be.

I think the first viewpoint is Genesys as seen by a business manager and the second is the viewpoint seen by an IT manager - and there really is nothing wrong with that.

The big thing about Genesys is it's potential - what the middleware and front end Solutions can do for a company and how it enhances a business.  There are (hundreds) of case studies out there and they all indicate that Genesys is a well-rounded suite of products - efficient and versatile.

I think the "problem" is that a business without Genesys finds it very very difficult to visualize all of the benefits of running it's business with Genesys as the interactions backbone.  That is a very difficult hill to climb and it's something of an art to get the balance between the simplicity of the front-end - whislt explaining the complexities and versatility of the back end processes.

I'd really really like to see some "best in class" demos of all of the latest and greatest from Genesys - not just for myself but as an open platform for anyone to review.  I'm pretty sure it's achievable, with G8 being web-based and all.  The power of allowing both IT and business managers to get "hands on" with the product suite would allow them time to see for themselves the benefits of the Solutions - in direct relation to what they want to see.

This approach would be almost the opposite of Genesys demonstrating products and solutions through presentations and strucutred demos - by letting potential customers get their hands dirty and try it out for themselves, over an extended period of time...

But - what do I know..? lol

TT

[gustav]

Genesys is very market driven, it won't invest heavily on new technology because its 'cool' or 'wizzy'.  In my opinion the bread and butter for Genesys is still TDM deploymemts using the same TServer interface to traditional switches as always.  In the future I'm confident Genesys will embrace SIP, and the development community as a more main stream alternative, but unfortunately for us its a slow process.  There is still a lot of money on the table behind the 'cutting edge wave', as a product shop Genesys will continue to pump that well until things begin to dry. 

The question we all would like to know, is what the vision and roapmap is?  When and were will Genesys take its technology and value proposition.  I totally agree with Vic that the contrains of Genesys development make it much sexier than other solutions, however, as a market leader there is lots of money to be made by surfing their wave.

[tony]

It's all about development, really, isn't it?  Genesys provide the toolkit - and sometimes they have a stab at a solution themselves but, essentially, it's what you make it.

They did have a go at a fully-feldged "solution in a box" but I'm pretty sure that faded away since it was aimed at smaller contact centres and there just wasn't enough revenue.

There are a lot of "what if's" around what Genesys could/should do next and I really think they should have a go at a series of plug-in solutions.  With a bare minimum of (wizard) set-up, you *could* get an interactions suite to suit any technology, any platform, any channels and switch on/off options as you need them... that would work for me!

TT