Genesys, or Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., is an American

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

company that sells

customer experience Customer experience (CX) is a totality of cognitive, affective, sensory, and behavioral consumer responses during all stages of the consumption process including pre-purchase, consumption, and post-purchase stages. Pine and Gilmore described the ...

(CX) and

call center A call centre ( Commonwealth spelling) or call center (American spelling; see spelling differences) is a managed capability that can be centralised or remote that is used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of enquiries by telephone. ...

technology to mid-sized and large businesses. It sells both

cloud-based Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage (cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over multip ...

and

hybrid cloud Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage (cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over multip ...

software. The company was founded in 1990 and was acquired by investment firms

Permira Permira is a global investment firm. Founded in 1985, the firm advises funds with assets under management of €60+ billion. The Permira funds have made approximately 300 private equity investments in four key sectors: Technology, Consumer, Ser ...

Funds and

Technology Crossover Ventures TCMI, Inc. better known by the name TCV (Technology Crossover Ventures) is an American investment firm based in Menlo Park, California. The firm mainly invests in public and private growth-stage companies in the technology industry. Background ...

(TCV) in February 2012.

History

Genesys was founded by Gregory Shenkkman and Alec Miloslavsky in October 1990. The company's original

seed funding Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor invests capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term ''seed'' su ...

was $150,000 in loans from the founders' families. The company completed its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

(IPO) in June 1997 and was listed on the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

stock exchange A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for th ...

under the

ticker symbol A ticker symbol or stock symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. In short, ticker symbols are arrangements of symbols or characters (generally Latin letters ...

GCTI. In late 1999,

Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel–Lucent S.A. () was a French–American global telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. It was formed in 2006 by the merger of France-based Alcatel and U.S.-based Lucent, the latter being a su ...

(then Alcatel) acquired Genesys for $1.5 billion. In October 2007, Paul Segre succeeded Wes Hayden as Genesys's

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

(CEO). In February 2012, Permira and TCV acquired Genesys from Alcatel-Lucent for $1.5 billion. In July 2016, private equity investor

Hellman & Friedman Hellman & Friedman LLC (H&F) is an American private equity firm, founded in 1984 by Warren Hellman and Tully Friedman, that makes investments primarily through leveraged buyouts as well as growth capital investments. H&F has focused its efforts o ...

purchased a $900 million stake in Genesys from majority owners Permira and Technology Crossover Ventures, valuing the company at $3.8 billion. In May 2019, former Skype CEO

Tony Bates Anthony J. Bates (born 29 April 1967) is a British born business leader. Bates is the former CEO of Growth at Social Capital. Previously, he held a number of technology based business roles including the former president of GoPro, and the for ...

joined Genesys as the new CEO, with former CEO Segre moving to the position of chairman.

Acquisitions

The company has grown over the years through a series of acquisitions. In December 1997, Genesys acquired Forte Software, Inc. (later renamed Adante). In December 1998, Genesys acquired Plato Software Corporation. In June 1999, the company acquired Next Age Technologies, a

workforce management Workforce management (WFM) is an institutional process that maximizes performance levels and competency for an organization. The process includes all the activities needed to maintain a productive workforce, such as field service management, human ...

software developer. In May 2001, the company purchased IBM's CallPath

computer telephony integration Computer telephony integration, also called computer–telephone integration or CTI, is a common name for any technology that allows interactions on a telephone and a computer to be coordinated. The term is predominantly used to describe desktop- ...

(CTI) business. In 2002, Genesys parent Alcatel acquired Telera, a

Campbell, California Campbell is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Campbell's population is 43,959. Campbell is home to the Pruneyard Shopping Center, a sprawling open-air retail complex which was in ...

-based developer of

voice portal Voice portals are the voice equivalent of web portals, giving access to information through spoken commands and voice responses. Ideally a voice portal could be an access point for any type of information, services, or transactions found on the ...

and

interactive voice response Interactive voice response (IVR) is a technology that allows telephone users to interact with a computer-operated telephone system through the use of voice and DTMF tones input with a keypad. In telecommunications, IVR allows customers to interact ...

(IVR) systems, and merged the company into Genesys. In April 2006, Genesys acquired VoiceGenie Technologies, a developer of voice self-service software based on

VoiceXML VoiceXML (VXML) is a digital document standard for specifying interactive media and voice dialogs between humans and computers. It is used for developing audio and voice response applications, such as banking systems and automated customer service ...

. In December 2007, Genesys announced it acquired Informiam, a developer of

performance management Performance management (PM) is the process of ensuring that a set of activities and outputs meets an organization's goals in an effective and efficient manner. Performance management can focus on the performance of a whole organization, a d ...

software for customer service operations. In January 2009, Genesys announced the acquisition of Conseros, a developer of high-volume work item management software and SDE Software Development Engineering, a creator of hosting management software for contact centers. In May 2013, the company acquired Angel.com, a provider of cloud-based contact center solutions, from parent company MicroStrategy, for $110 million. In March 2014, the company acquired Solariat, a developer of software to measure and manage social media engagements for customers. In May 2014, the company acquired OVM Solutions, a developer of cloud-based customer communications software. In 2016, the company acquired the Genesys division of EIT, its regional partner in Korea. In December, Genesys acquired

Interactive Intelligence Interactive Intelligence was a telecommunications software and cloud computing development company that provided unified business communications solutions for call centers, Voice over IP companies, and business process automation. In December 2 ...

, a developer of customer experience software for the cloud, for $1.4B In February 2017, Genesys acquired Silver Lining, an employee performance management company that developed applications to support and analyze employee performance and learning automation. In February 2018, Genesys acquired AltoCloud, a customer journey analytics provider. In March 2020, the company acquired nGUVU, a partner purchased to add gamification to its workforce engagement management suite. In March, 2021, the company announced the acquisition the Bold360 suite of digital engagement software from

LogMeIn GoTo, formerly LogMeIn Inc., is a flexible-work provider of software as a service (SaaS) and cloud-based remote work tools for collaboration and IT management, with products including GoTo Connect, GoTo Resolve, Rescue, Central, and more, built ...

Products

The company develops call center software for businesses. The software is available over the cloud, or as on-premises software. The company's products include the following: *Genesys Multicloud CX, formerly Genesys Engage and PureEngage, Genesys' multicloud call center software available on all three major public cloud platforms - AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, deployed either in a public or private cloud setting. *Genesys Cloud CX, formerly PureCloud, microservices-based software built on Amazon Web Services *PureConnect, formerly Customer Interaction Center or CIC (developed by Interactive Intelligence), software for customer experience management at contact centers *Genesys DX, predictive digital customer engagement software which combines customer experience software (CX) with artificial intelligence (AI)

Operations

Genesys is headquartered in Menlo Park,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, and has offices in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

Sponsorships

Genesys is the primary sponsor of

IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of ...

driver

James Hinchcliffe James Douglas Meredith Hinchcliffe (born December 5, 1986) is a Canadian race car driver and commentator best known for competing in the IndyCar Series. Hinchcliffe won six races for Andretti Autosport and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. In 2015, ...

in the #29

Andretti Autosport Andretti Autosport is an auto racing team that competes in the IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, Indy Pro 2000, and Formula E. The team also has a 37.5% ownership stake in the Australian Supercars Championship touring car team, Walkinshaw Andretti ...

Honda. The company also has sponsorships with the

Texas Motor Speedway Texas Motor Speedway is a speedway located in the northernmost portion of the U.S. city of Fort Worth, Texas – the portion located in Denton County, Texas. The reconfigured track measures with banked 20° in turns 1 and 2 and banked 24° ...

for the Genesys 300 and

Genesys 600 The race last ran as XPEL 375 is an NTT IndyCar Series event held at Texas Motor Speedway near Fort Worth, Texas since 1997. The races have had a variety of different entitlement sponsors and distances over the years and therefore has had many di ...

races.

References