Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, an Alcatel-Lucent company (ALU), and IBM (IBM) announced a significant expansion of their global strategic alliance for contact center solutions to co-develop, implement and sell a new collaborative solution in China.

This marks the first time both companies are offering a solution targeting the growing call center market in this region, while also continuing their global work together. Contact centers have become increasingly strategic assets for businesses worldwide, as customer service continues to play a major role in establishing competitive differentiation and building long-term customer loyalty. Contact center application revenue in China grew 15.6% in 2006 versus 2005, and is projected to annually grow 18.2% in 2007 and 20.9% in 2008.

The new IBM Contact Center in a box solution enables businesses to easily deploy a simplified contact center solution, in 90 days or less. This solution is a scalable option intended to meet the needs of small, mid-sized and enterprise-level businesses as needed. Working together, IBM and Genesys will deliver full functionality in one solution, providing critical customer service functions such as customer enquiry and complaints, product promotion, sales, appointment management, and activity management.

Based on a survey of over 300 small, mid-sized and enterprise customers, IBM market research says it has shown that clients in the China region are looking for contact center solutions that are easy to upgrade and maintain, have a lower overall implementation cost and are stable and reliable. The new IBM Contact Center in a Box solution brings together all of these components, along with system security, scalability, and a low total cost of ownership.