Customer engagement and contact centers are critical components of any business’s success. They serve as the primary means for organizations to interact with customers, resolve issues, and improve customer satisfaction. As businesses continue to expand and evolve, it’s essential to ensure that the contact center solution you’re using is scalable, efficient, and effective.
This article will focus on two popular contact center solutions: Genesys PureConnect and Genesys Cloud. While these two platforms share similarities, they also have important differences. In this article, we’ll discuss the features of each platform, why Genesys PureConnect is going away, and what it means for your business. We’ll also explore the advantages of moving to a cloud-based contact center solution like Genesys Cloud, as well as potential challenges to consider.
Genesys PureConnect
Genesys PureConnect is a customer engagement and contact center platform. It allows organizations to manage customer interactions across multiple channels, including voice, email, chat, and social media.
As you may or may not know, Genesys has shifted their focus to the cloud to help their customers respond faster to changes in their market. This means they have ceased development, selling and eventually supporting Genesys PureConnect.
The timeline below reflects the Genesys plan for the end of the sale, end of maintenance, and end of support for all PureConnect products.
- Product releases will be limited and stopped by the end of 2023
- The sale of PureConnect, including extra capacity finishes at the end of 2023
- PureConnect will no longer be supported by July 2025
If you have a subscription PureConnect Premise license, it will stop operating when the license keys expire. The PureConnect platform will be shut down, and your access to it will be de-activated on that system. If you have perpetual premise licenses, then the system can continue to be used, but you will not receive support or bug fixes after the end-of-life date of July 31, 2025.
Genesys has partnered with VDS to provide a migration path for customers to move to Genesys Cloud, which includes a variety of tools and resources to make the transition as seamless as possible.
Genesys Cloud
Genesys Cloud is an industry-leading cloud-based contact center solution developed by Genesys. It offers a wide range of features and capabilities, including advanced routing, self-service options, workforce optimization, and integrations with third-party systems.
Compared to Genesys PureConnect, Genesys Cloud offers several advantages. One of the key differences is the flexibility and scalability of the cloud-based platform, which allows organizations to easily adapt to changing business needs and customer demands. Additionally, Genesys Cloud offers a modern, user-friendly interface and enhanced reporting capabilities, among other features.
Upgrading from Genesys PureConnect to Genesys Cloud requires careful planning and consideration. The process involves migrating data and configurations from the legacy platform to the cloud-based solution. However, the benefits of upgrading can be significant, including improved flexibility, scalability, and access to the latest features and capabilities.
The cost of Genesys Cloud CX varies based on a variety of factors, including the number of users, the specific features required, and the level of support needed. It’s important to work with a Genesys partner to determine the best pricing plan for your organization’s needs.
Security and Reliability
Ensuring the security and reliability of a contact center solution is crucial for any business. Fortunately, Genesys Cloud CX offers a range of security features and high uptime to meet these needs.
Genesys Cloud CX is built in Amazon Web Services on a secure, scalable, and reliable cloud infrastructure that meets industry standards for security, including ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II. The platform also includes advanced security features such as role-based access controls, data encryption, and multi-factor authentication to ensure that sensitive data is protected.
In terms of uptime, Genesys Cloud CX has a strong track record of reliability. The platform has a guaranteed service level agreement (SLA) of 99.99% uptime, ensuring that organizations can rely on the solution to be available when they need it. In the unlikely event of an outage, Genesys offers robust disaster recovery capabilities to minimize downtime and ensure business continuity.
Overall, the security and reliability of Genesys Cloud CX make it an ideal choice for organizations looking for a secure, scalable, and reliable contact center solution.
Microservices Architecture
Older cloud applications typically use a monolithic architecture that can cause significant disruptions and service outages for multiple tenants when a component fails. Genesys Cloud’s microservices approach, on the other hand, uses simple and stateless objects to overcome these challenges and achieve virtually limitless scalability across multiple geographically diverse data centers. By dividing functionality into services that operate independently and leveraging Elastic Load Balancers (ELBs), Genesys Cloud can dynamically scale based on demand and continuously monitor service-level traffic.
For customers, this means virtually zero down time. While instances may occur where there is slightly reduced functionality for a particular service (ex. A delay in analytics, delay in reporting, delay in the ability to access recordings, etc.), because of the microservices architecture, reduced functionality with one services does not result in a total platform outage. This provides customers with total peace-of-mind and confidence in the Genesys Cloud solution.
On-Demand Scaling:
Genesys Cloud utilizes an auto scaling group (ASG) with Elastic Load Balancers (ELBs) for on-demand scaling of most of its services. Services have specific policies to monitor load distribution, and the group automatically adds or removes resources based on these policies once a threshold is exceeded. This ensures that when there is a high demand for a service, the associated microservices scale out automatically without impacting other functionalities or tenants.
AWS Regions
Genesys Cloud utilizes an auto scaling group (ASG) with Elastic Load Balancers (ELBs) for on-demand scaling of most of its services. Services have specific policies to monitor load distribution, and the group automatically adds or removes resources based on these policies once a threshold is exceeded. This ensures that when there is a high demand for a service, the associated microservices scale out automatically without impacting other functionalities or tenants.
Continual updates
Genesys Cloud’s architecture allows for continuous code updates, and new server images are created for new microservice versions instead of patching systems in place. The independence of microservices and automated testing allows for bug fixes and new features without impacting existing services or customers. The load balancing and “red-black deployments” ensure that customers are not affected by updates, and old servers are removed as new servers come online and are deemed healthy. This process ensures that the systems tested in pre-production are functionally identical to those in production.
Benefits of Cloud Contact Centers
Cloud contact centers, such as Genesys Cloud CX, offer a range of benefits for businesses looking to improve their customer engagement capabilities. Some of the key benefits include:
Flexibility and Scalability: Cloud contact centers are highly flexible and can easily adapt to changing business needs and customer demands. This means that organizations can quickly add or remove resources as needed, without the need for significant IT infrastructure investments.
Increased Accessibility: Cloud contact centers can be accessed from anywhere, at any time, by agents and supervisors, as long as they have an internet connection. This means that organizations can easily support remote and distributed workforces, providing more flexibility for their employees.
Cost Savings: Cloud contact centers can often provide cost savings compared to on-premise solutions. By leveraging a cloud-based solution, businesses can reduce capital expenditures and IT infrastructure costs, while also paying only for the resources they need.
Improved Customer Experience: With a cloud contact center, businesses can offer a more seamless and personalized customer experience. Advanced routing and self-service options, along with integrations with third-party systems, can help to reduce wait times and provide customers with the information they need quickly and efficiently.
Overall, the benefits of cloud contact centers make them an ideal choice for organizations looking to improve their customer engagement capabilities and stay competitive in today’s fast-paced business environment.
Challenges of Moving to a Cloud Contact Center
While cloud contact centers offer a range of benefits, there are also some challenges that organizations may face when moving to this type of solution. Some of the key challenges include:
Data Privacy and Compliance: One of the biggest challenges with moving to a cloud contact center is ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA. Organizations need to ensure that customer data is protected, and that the solution they choose meets all relevant regulatory requirements.
Integration with Existing Systems: Another challenge when moving to a cloud contact center is ensuring that the solution integrates seamlessly with existing systems and workflows. This can require significant customization and development work and may require expertise in areas such as APIs and data mapping.
Employee Training and Adoption: Finally, organizations need to ensure that employees are properly trained and are able to adopt the new system quickly and efficiently. This can require significant investment in training and change management and may require the involvement of internal champions and change agents to drive adoption.
Overall, while the benefits of cloud contact centers are clear, organizations need to carefully consider the challenges and risks associated with moving to this type of solution and ensure that they have a solid plan in place to address these challenges.
Why Should I Change Now?
The future of innovation resides in the cloud. Many Genesys customers have seen robust improvements in delivering a superior customer experience as they transitioned to the Genesys Cloud solution. Today, cloud software helps to accelerate the value of your contact center. It enables your customer service to add value, not cost; it also provides greater resilience and security standards than on-premises.
Conclusion
In summary, as customer engagement becomes increasingly important, choosing the right contact center solution for your organization is critical. As Genesys PureConnect reaches the end of its life, Genesys Cloud offers a powerful alternative that delivers a range of benefits, including flexibility, scalability, cost savings, and improved customer experience.
To successfully navigate your transition to a Cloud Contact Center, organizations need to carefully consider their needs, goals, and requirements, and develop a solid plan for implementing a cloud contact center solution that meets their unique needs.
Overall, by selecting the right solution, organizations can ensure that they are able to deliver exceptional customer experiences, improve productivity and efficiency, and drive growth and profitability in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.
