APAC Partner Conference Stresses Strength in Numbers

Addressing customer experience requirements isn’t a simple endeavor, especially with mounting pressure to deliver innovation while still making it easy for customers to consume each new transformation. To do this, we team with a vast and growing ecosystem of partners who augment and expand on the Genesys platforms using our APIs. Genesys has a simple goal: power the world’s best customer experiences. And together with our partners, we meet this goal.

Genesys employees and our value-added resellers, services partners, system integrators, ISVs and technology partners from all over the region enforced this theme at the 2019 APAC Partner Conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on March 6-8, 2019. Here’s a recap of the conference.

The conference kicked off with Partner User Group discussions on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. “Genesys customers know the technology is there, like artificial intelligence or machine learning, but how do we show operational benefit?” said Sophie Giesen, Manager of Strategic Business Consultant at Genesys, during the talks. “Ensure that we can have a conversation to offer the right use cases to achieve their desired business outcomes,” she said.  

During the third edition of the APAC Partner Advisory Board (PAB), the group shared market insights on the opportunities we could address as a team. The partners were forthcoming with their feedback on Genesys and how we could build a stronger synergy. Discussions centered around strategic imperatives, such as how to help customers migrate from legacy platforms to the PureCloud® platform and ways to continuously improve on our opex-based offers to customers. The PAB reinforced our focus on growth and cloud in Asia Pacific—and showed that our partners would play an even bigger role in our go-to-market strategy.

During the first-ever ISV and Technology Partner Forum, ISV and Technology Alliance program leaders Jim Kraeutler and Walla Oriqat shared the benefits of the enterprise marketplace. The session explored ways to maximize success in go-to-market through the Genesys AppFoundry program from existing technology partners. Three AppFoundry partners—Occam Networks, AudioCodes and AdvaTel—detailed how the program helped expand their business and grow revenue. Gregg Lander, Director of Sales for Occam Networks, shared how they had researched every competitive partner program—from the largest vendors in the customer experience to the smaller newcomers that the Genesys AppFoundry program was unparalleled in its scope and ability to support and enable partners’ success.

Jim Kraeutler also explored the three key global trends that drive our strategy: digital, AI and cloud. He was joined on stage for a fireside chat by Celeste Grade, Strategic Technology Partner Manager at Google Cloud. Grade shared the vision of how, when paired with Genesys technology, Google Contact Center AI can assist agents, refresh IVRs to the next generation of voicebots and offer the most flexible, high-performance conversational AI platform on market.

Celebrating Success at the Partner of the Year Awards
On Day 2 of the conference, the awards dinner honored the most successful partners for each subregion and named the Partner of the Year  ̶  APAC. Congratulations to all winners.

Partner of the Year 2018  ̶  APAC: Telstra Corporation

Disruptor Partner of the Year 2018  ̶  Asia Pacific: The Customer Experience Lab

PureCloud Platform  ̶  Iconic Win – Partner of the Year 2018  – APAC: QPC

PureCloud Platform  ̶  Application Innovation  ̶  Partner of the Year 2018 – APAC: Itochu Techno-Solutions Corporation

Partner of the Year 2018  ̶  Australia and New Zealand: Spark New Zealand

Partner of the Year 2018  ̶  Greater China: eSoon China LimitedTop of Form

Partner of the Year 2018  ̶  India: SmartConnect Technologies Pvt. Ltd

Partner of the Year 2018 – Japan: Itochu Techno-Solutions Corporation

Partner of the Year 2018 – Korea: Hansol Inticube Inc.

Partner of the Year 2018 – South East Asia: CMC Saigon System Integration Co., LtdBottom of Form

Innovative Partner of the Year 2018  ̶  Asia Pacific: Shanghai Egoo Networks Co., Ltd.

Coming Together to Balance for Better

At a breakfast session in celebration of International Women’s Day, Sophie Giesen, reflected on how far women have come the last few years through the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. But, she stressed, the work isn’t over—the entire industry must come together to #Balanceforbetter.

“Focus needs to be on women in leadership, women in specialized fields and building a gender-balanced workplace,” said Robyn O’Reilly, CEO of Pyrios, during her speech. Robyn was joined by Celeste Grade and various leaders at Genesys for discussions about their commitments to elevate women, “We invite young women as early as high school to see how technology works, and I think that’s critical to setting their expectations for the future,” said Grade.

As part of our efforts for International Women’s Day, Genesys supported Thailand’s Pavena Hongsakul Foundation for Children and Women. Conference guests and attendees donated items such as clothing, shoes, accessories, bags and other necessities to the foundation. And we invite our ecosystem to further support Genesys Women In Tech in the initiative to make a difference.

Making Our Vision a Reality
“It’s easy to have a vision. But in order to execute on that vision effectively, you need experience, know-how and the right technology,” said Gwilym Funnel, Managing Director Genesys, in closing statements at the conference. “Together, Genesys and our ecosystem of valued partners have what it takes to make our vision a reality.”

In the true spirit of cooperation, this event couldn’t have been possible without the continued support of our partner sponsors. Thank you to Gold sponsors: Customer Experience Lab and Occam Networks; Silver sponsors: Plantronics and AudioCodes; Bronze sponsors: Jabra, Sennheiser and Zinfi; and Associated partners: Google Cloud and SmartConnect Technologies.

Want to experience a Genesys event?

Learn more about emerging technologies, talk with peers, explore the future of customer experience at Xperience19 in Denver, Colorado on June 10 – 13, 2019. Register now through March 31st and save $400

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