The News:
Global experience orchestration provider Genesys has introduced Genesys Cloud EX, a solution focused on supporting employees within and beyond the contact center with AI-driven workforce forecasting and scheduling, gamification and performance management, coaching, and employee development. This introduction gives customers the option of delivering the same workforce engagement management (WEM) capabilities available on Genesys Cloud CX as a standalone offer or as a complement to its existing infrastructure. See the complete press release from Genesys here
Genesys Broadens its Experience Reach with the Launch of Genesys Cloud EX
Analyst Take:
The launch of the Genesys Cloud EX solution as a single, AI-powered platform extends the company’s offerings beyond the contact center to more deeply focus on the employee experience of agents. Workforce forecasting and scheduling, gamification and performance management, coaching, and employee development are all components that directly and indirectly impact an employee’s day-to-day and long-term relationship with their employer.
Genesys has been providing agent-supporting technologies for quite some time, and has been helping to push the conversation about contact center employee experience forward, so it is not surprising to see a more formalized packaging of many of the capabilities of the company’s WEM features that are available on Genesys Cloud CX.
However, this announcement is more than just a repackaging of capabilities. It creates an all-in-one solution for EX that encompasses workforce management (WFM), gamification and performance management, as well as quality assurance and compliance. Additionally, there are some new capabilities, such as being able to add external interactions into the Genesys WEM solution without it needing to be routed or handled within Genesys Cloud CX. Genesys EX Cloud quality management and compliance capabilities will be rolling out throughout the year.
Legacy Challenges
There are a lot of macro trends causing challenges for all businesses, but are particularly painful for contact centers, such as remote and hybrid working models, the wide breadth of generations currently in the workforce and their varying expectations, talent shortages, and the rise of the gig economy. Contact center agent turnover remains high at 32-40% and employee recruitment remains a struggle.
I reached out to Genesys to get more information on the impetus behind this launch and the company pointed to the lacking abilities of legacy systems many companies still have in place. Leaders are starting to play a higher emphasis on ensuring a positive employee experience, yet have legacy on-premises systems that limit how their employees are supported. Legacy workforce management systems, such as spreadsheets and on-premises hardware, were designed for use in office-based environments and are not malleable enough to support the flexible scheduling required in a remote and hybrid contact center scenario. Additionally, legacy quality management processes are limited in the sampling of the entire set of interactions, hindering companies’ ability to scale.
The Move to the Cloud
One of the main benefits of the new Genesys Cloud EX option is that it offers customers a way to start their cloud journey by focusing on WEM first, instead of the contact center. It can be used standalone, as a steppingstone to adopting the full Genesys Cloud CX suite, or as part of their existing contact center structure. This introduction also allows Engage Premise customers to leverage the more advanced WEM capabilities available in Genesys Cloud CX.
Integration is eased by offering pre-built connectors from the Genesys Engage solution to Avaya and Amazon Connect. More integrations are forthcoming.
Moving CX to the cloud is a heavy lift for some companies, and Genesys Cloud EX offers a way for companies to perhaps have a gentler glide path on their journey to full cloud adoption.
For contact centers, the macro pain points related to labor hit harder, and there is a growing awareness that steps need to be taken to support agents in a more holistic and ongoing manner. It is important to acknowledge that employee experience is not one-size-fits-all, both for the company implementing it and for the employees themselves. Many companies are still in earlier stages of maturity when it comes to adoption of various parts of the EX technology ecosystem, and some companies will be tackling their experience strategy with select tools and strategies. Having options to meet companies’ varying levels of experience maturity is important in moving the experience market forward.
Author Information
As a detail-oriented researcher, Sherril is expert at discovering, gathering and compiling industry and market data to create clear, actionable market and competitive intelligence. With deep experience in market analysis and segmentation she is a consummate collaborator with strong communication skills adept at supporting and forming relationships with cross-functional teams in all levels of organizations.
She brings more than 20 years of experience in technology research and marketing; prior to her current role, she was a Research Analyst at Omdia, authoring market and ecosystem reports on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and User Interface technologies. Sherril was previously Manager of Market Research at Intrado Life and Safety, providing competitive analysis and intelligence, business development support, and analyst relations.
Sherril holds a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from University of Colorado, Boulder and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Rutgers University.
