Market Perspectives

We are happy to share some insights about Genesys, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

In all of our Value Indexes, we utilize a structured research methodology that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal and vendor selection process for agent management. We evaluated Genesys and 17 other vendors in seven categories, five relevant to the product (Adaptability, Capability, Manageability, Reliability and Usability) and two related to the vendor (Total Cost of Ownership/Return on Investment and Vendor Validation). To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each category to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on our experience and on data derived from our benchmark research on agent management.

Genesys offers contact center interaction routing platforms, along with software applications for managing agents and operations. It has transitioned to primarily offering cloud tools since acquiring Interactive Intelligence in 2016. Genesys was categorized as an Exemplary Vendor, ranking fifth overall in this Value Index evaluation. It ranked third in Product Experience, where it was designated as a Value Index Leader in Manageability, and ranked fourth in Usability and fifth in Capability. It ranked third in Customer Experience and is a Value Index Leader in Validation. Its overall performance was impacted by its sixth place ranking in Adaptability, which represents 15% of the weighting in the overall Value Index.

Genesys could perform better in Adaptability — where it ranked sixth — specifically in the area of customization, if it were to strengthen the depth of flexibility in configuring applications and tools to different roles. Genesys could also examine its depth of integration support for business applications and analytics systems. This assessment was based on Genesys’ products for agent management that were available as of November 1, 2021. Genesys has added several updates and enhanced some features in subsequent releases through December 2021.

The Value Index methodology is designed to provide potential buyers with a balanced look at vendors and products, rooted in an understanding of business drivers and needs. Buyers should consider reviewing their own processes to discern whether they are using a broad enough framework in their own request for information/request for proposal explorations, one that includes the qualities in all seven of Ventana Research’s evaluation categories that are designed to provide the best possible product and customer experience. The decisions that go into deploying a recent agent management toolkit cross multiple departmental and functional boundaries. The tools themselves are becoming more complex and connected to other parts of the technology stack. That suggests a need for buyers to examine more than just the features and functionality vendors put forward.

On the vendor side of the equation, we are seeing evidence that the provision of agent management systems can be a strong differentiator for vendors that articulate the use cases for extended agent management in terms of benefits. The challenge is to draw clear lines between the core tools used for basic contact center operations and the extended tools that have more nuanced value propositions lying outside the center itself.

This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of agent management software in the industry. Technology buyers can learn more about how to use our Value Index by clicking here and included vendors that wish to learn more can click here. Read the report here.