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RightNow Technologies (Nasdaq: RNOW) and Genesys will combine their customer 
service application suites to deliver a joint offering available the end of May.
The end result will be prebuilt, integrated computer telephony integration (CTI) functionality in the RightNow suite and, as an added bonus for the company, access to the Genesys customer base.
The combined solution brings together the Internet and the contact center. Companies will be able to use the full Genesys 7.5 customer interaction management suite -- which includes voice self-service, routing and desktop integration -- with RightNow's products. RightNow and Genesys will sell the solution jointly.
State Your Name - Again
"The bar is being raised in customer service, and customers want a seamless experience across the Internet and the contact center," stated Wes Hayden, president and CEO of Genesys.
The combined functionality has been built around an adapter for Genesys 7.5, which simplifies integration and allows agents to transfer calls and data to other agents directly from the RightNow Service desktop. Agents can call out from the RightNow Service desktop by clicking on a customer contact phone number.
The integration also supports analytical reporting of agent performance, such as agent activity, availability and call-duration data.
Sophisticated Levels of Functionality
One of the drivers behind this integration was RightNow's growing traction in the large contact center space. Customers were asking for increasingly sophisticated levels of functionality, RightNow CEO Greg Gianforte told CRM Buyer.
RightNow has been steadily building its CTI bona fides over the past year. It acquired Convergent Voice, a voice automation vendor, last year, for example.
More recently, it introduced two new voice applications -- Voice contact management and Voice caller ID -- that provide contact center agents with a customer's identifying information throughout the support-call process, so he or she doesn't have to repeat the information when the call is transferred to a new agent. However, this level of integration may not be enough for some customers, Yankee Group analyst Sheryl Kingstone told CRM Buyer.
"What companies want is prebuilt, integrated CTI functionality. That is the beauty of this relationship -- it can actually deliver something that the market wants," she said.
Too many corporate partnerships or relationships, Kingstone added, are so-called "Barney relationships" in which the companies announce their good intentions in public and then go their separate ways.
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