Flexibility Will Be Key to Business Continuity, Genesys xPerience Speakers Stress

COVID-19 reinforced the need for flexibility to maintain business continuity and to drive innovation, John Hernandez, executive vice president and general manager of Genesys multicloud solutions, said at the Genesys Xperience 21 virtual conference Thursday.

The need for flexibility is why Genesys continues to refine Genesys Multicloud CX (previously named Genesys Engage), Hernandez said. "We are committed to innovating on this platform. In the before times, experimentation for some of the most sophisticated companies might have seemed risky. But today, agile business models emphasize speed to market and increased fail-fast culture to drive innovation."

Statistics show that such a strategy works best, Hernandez added. Twenty-five percent of total IT spending is going into innovation. CX is a top priority because a majority of businesses see it as a true differentiator.

"Many of you are also investing in co-development with partners," Hernandez added. "Collaboration and connectivity are key requirements, especially for complex infrastructures and technology stacks. The reality is your CX ecosystem is unique to you. That's where we drive the power of a multi-cloud platform that enables you to pursue your goal for continuing innovation, using the investments you've already made in technologies over many years, a solution that is flexible to fit for your future, a platform that gives you a path to the cloud, your way."

The majority of IT leaders are looking to adopt cloud strategies, whether public or private, which is at the heart of Genesys Multicloud CX, Hernandez said. "We spent the last year building a truly modernized architecture with one code base that works across any cloud. And we can deploy these containers to any cloud or data center, anywhere, anytime. It is set up to your own unique standards and needs and design for future portability to continue to drive the journey of innovation that you are on today."

"Genesys released 1,200 features for the platform in the last year, helping drive more than 70 percent year-over-year growth in cloud and subscription bookings for Genesys Multicloud CX, Hernandez added.

Genesys Choice Unveiled

More non-traditional start-ups, like HelloFresh and StitchFix, have entered markets and shaken-up the status quo, said Abi Chandra, Genesys' cloud technology evangelist, in a session introducing Genesys Choice, a flexible consumption model that provides access to all voice, artificial intelligence, workforce engagement/optimization, and digital capabilities, with a single annual subscription.

Companies can quickly scale up or down and turn functionalities on or off to adjust for seasonal trends, shifting consumer preferences, product cycles, and other business trends.

"There are a lot of changes that our customers are seeing at the current time, with the move from on-premises to the cloud, the move to more work-from-home, agents, and the move from voice to digital" said Clif Perry, Genesys' vice president of offer management and pricing. "Because they have a rapidly changing environment, they need to be super flexible, but they also want to make sure at the same time they're able to control their destiny."

There are two key options to Genesis Choice, Perry said:

• The freedom to consume whatever you want, "really attacking that flexibility request from our customers"; or
• An annual commitment model, under which customers commit to a certain level of spending with Genesys, enabling them to use different Genesys capabilities for a fixed price.

"The customer has much more control over what they are consuming," Perry said. "The freedom to choose means now you have access to all of it, and when you need to start using something, you can simply do that. That freedom exists across the entire portfolio."

By allowing a single agreement across the enterprise, customers can consolidate purchasing power, Perry said. Those who commit to a higher spending level receive a higher discount. They can also add other Genesys products and services later with discounts that build depending on earlier purchases.

Genesys Choice also offers users a portal from which they can see all of the products and services they are using.

Staffing Choices

The idea of choice isn't important just for customers. It's also important for contact center companies and their employees, said Rebecca Wettemann, CEO and principal of Valoir, in a session on engaging a hybrid workforce.

Companies went fully remote as the pandemic started, and now many have gone to a hybrid work model, a model that is likely to stay for some time.

"Seventy percent of workers would prefer to work from home after the pandemic," up from 40 percent a year ago, Wettemann said. "Clearly workers are getting comfortable in their work-from-home environments."

Wettemann added: "We found a lot of other things are changing with the workforce as well. One in 10 workers moved in the past year. But we found that only four in 10 workers give their employers an A grade for engaging remote workers, and only one and three would give them an A grade for supporting morale."

Other speakers said that one of the biggest challenges in having staff work remotely was that some didn';t initially have the technical resources (laptop, connection speeds, etc.) at home to provide customers with the same level of service as in an officet. Another issue was that communications to contact center services spiked early in the pandemic as consumers adjusted to life under the new conditions. Forecasting contact volume and staffing levels were other challenges that contact centers faced during the pandemic, and will continue, reinforcing yet again the need for businesses to be flexible going forward.

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