Verizon and Genesys Offer Customer Contact Center Applications to Large Business, Government Customers Worldwide

NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO - Verizon and Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., have joined forces to help businesses worldwide improve the effectiveness of their customer contact centers and transform those centers into profit-making operations.

Verizon and Genesys, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alcatel (NYSE:ALA, Paris:CGEP.PA), will work together to market applications that enable large businesses and governments to integrate and manage all customer inquiries made by telephone, e-mail and the World Wide Web, including Internet chat sessions. The companies will offer services to customers with operations in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific Rim.

"By working together worldwide and leveraging the expertise that our companies have in developing integrated contact centers, Verizon and Genesys can help customers implement interactive software across their entire voice and data network infrastructure," said Edward F. McGuinness, senior vice president, marketing, Verizon Enterprise Solutions Group. "This will help our customers improve service response times, increase efficiency and productivity and maximize investment in their existing call centers."

The companies will deliver a combination of professional services from Verizon and contact center applications from Genesys. Verizon's professional services for contact centers include project design and consultation, application development and customization, integration and implementation, as well as production support and maintenance.

Genesys contact center applications enable businesses to integrate all customer media channels into a common framework that provides a unified interface during every customer interaction. The Genesys applications help customers with business planning activities by collecting and managing information gathered during customer interactions.

"Verizon's experience in integrating enterprise-class customer contact centers will add further value to Genesys' industry-leading software for customer contact centers," said Karl Holzthum, vice president, worldwide channels and alliances, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories. "Our companies have collaborated for seven years in the United States and we look forward to working together to provide customers around the world access to the expertise of both companies."

According to IDC, a leading provider of market intelligence, the worldwide customer contact center market has experienced significant growth over the past few years and is expected to exceed $90 billion in 2006 - growing over 20 percent per year. The IDC report, issued in March, contains market forecasts for contact center services, including consulting and outsourcing.

Customer contact center services are offered through Verizon Enterprise Solutions Group, the business unit dedicated to providing communications products and services to large multinational corporations, as well as government and education customers in the United States. The Verizon unit offers voice and data transport and customer premises equipment, as well as managed network services and comprehensive professional and network integration services.

Since 1995, Verizon and Genesys have collaborated to provide customer contact center and interaction management services to large business and government customers. To date, the companies have implemented integrated contact center capabilities for approximately 107,000 customer service representatives.

Verizon Enterprise Solutions Group

Verizon Enterprise Solutions Group manages the design, operation and maintenance of end-to-end total network integrated solutions for large business and government customers across the United States. With over 14,500 employees in 46 states, Verizon Enterprise Solutions Group offers a complete range of basic and advanced communications products and services to meet the voice, video, data and IP-related needs of its customers. For more information on products and services available through Verizon Enterprise Solutions Group, visit www.verizon.com/enterprisesolutions.

Verizon Communications

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) is one of the world's leading providers of communications services. Verizon companies are the largest providers of wireline and wireless communications in the United States, with 133.8 million access line equivalents and approximately 29.6 million wireless customers. Verizon is also the largest directory publisher in the world. With more than $67 billion in annual revenues and nearly 248,000 employees, Verizon's global presence extends to more than 40 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. For more information on Verizon, visit www.verizon.com.

Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc.

Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alcatel (NYSE: ALA, Paris: CGEP.PA), is the leading provider of customer contact center solutions for Collaborative CRM, a critical component of a complete CRM business strategy. Genesys' integrated suite of open, infrastructure-independent solutions manages customer interactions across all media types, networks, and applications. Genesys enables personalized, cost-effective customer service and delivers a foundation for enterprise-wide business processes that generate long-term, profitable customer relationships. Headquartered in San Francisco, Genesys has offices worldwide and maintains a global network of strategic partners, including Accenture, Alcatel, IBM and IBM Global Services, PeopleSoft, SAP, and Siebel Systems. Visit www.genesyslab.com for more information.

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Media contact:
Kevin W. Irland, Verizon, 202-392-0482
Jim Smith, Verizon, 973-649-8850
Dana Dye, Genesys, 415-437-1078
Nina Minney, Genesys , 415-905-4027