SAP and Genesys Align For Greater User Support

Genesys Telecommunications Inc., a division of Alcatel, and SAP AG recently announced they are aligning their internal organizations so that either company can serve as a single point of contact on technical support calls for combined solutions. As part of the partnership, any user of both the mySAP CRM solution and Genesys Gplus call center software can call a joint call center to receive technical support on either application. Both companies say that shared technical training will be instituted to facilitate faster issue resolution and more efficient customer service. "Genesys contact center solutions are designed to make customer service fast, accurate, and cost-effective," says Scott Chaykin, vice president of worldwide technical services for Genesys. "[This] announcement extends this philosophy to our own customer base, giving them the same flexibility their end-customers enjoy through joint Genesys and SAP solutions." Says Dr. Uwe Hommel, senior vice president of SAP Active Global Support: "Our cooperation with Genesys represents another step in implementing our SAP Solution Management strategy, destined to allow our customers to run their e-business solution efficiently, reliably, and at the lowest cost possible. The ability to address an e-business solution in its entirety--and consequently to be open to skilled partners--are core principles that allow us to maximize the value for our customers." Joanie Rufo, a research director with AMR Research, says the move can result in major efficiencies as end users can go directly to the source when seeking support. "The big question, however, is how the customers will pay for the extra support. Is it part of the original contract? Or will additional charges be added? Also, the question remains of how the companies plan on capturing and sharing the call center information if both Genesys and SAP's support centers are contact points for either system," Rufo says. Pete Wermter, a spokesman for Genesys, says that customers will incur no additional costs, and that all customer call information is shared between both tech support centers. "The idea here is to bring both call centers even closer together," Wermter says.