Success Story :
Government
Michigan Economic
Development Corp.,USA
Success Story > Government > Michigan
Economic Development Corporation
Michigan Economic Development Corporation
Lansing, Michigan
www.michigan.org
Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Government
Customer Interactions ... 1,350 per month
A
s the American economy shifts from a reliance on heavy
manufacturing to a future built on information technology,
biotechnology, green technology, and services, the state of
Michigan is taking steps to keep pace with the changing times. In
response to the slowing growth of the Detroit-based automotive
business, the state founded the Michigan Economic Development
Corporation (MEDC), which serves as a welcoming and helping
hand for businesses seeking to grow in or relocate to Michigan.
MEDC provides services ranging from site location assistance and
job training grants to help with permits and tax abatements. It is a
one-stop resource for businesses seeking to grow in Michigan.
From its beginning in 1999, MEDC was conceived as a nonbureaucratic entity with a board of directors composed of business
people, not civil servants. As the agency’s website promises, MEDC
is designed so that its “policies and procedures meet the needs of
the private sector.”
One of MEDC’s chief priorities was to deliver – and develop a
reputation for delivering – the key characteristic associated with
private sector success: excellent customer service. It was this goal,
and also a very business-like concern with expenses and the
bottom line, that brought MEDC to Genesys.
Challenges
MEDC regularly sponsors promotions and other marketing and
advertising campaigns to capture the attention of businesses and
tourists. Michigan’s official tourist agency,Travel Michigan, is housed
within the development corporation. Promotional campaigns
Page 2
generate 1,200 telephone calls, 150 e-mails and 10 chat sessions per
month.These inbound communications must be answered by MEDC’s
travel and business contact centers, each of which employs six agents.
“We wanted to make sure that we kept a record of our interactions,
that we routed them to the appropriately skilled agent, and also that
all the interactions were integrated into the database of our Siebel
software,” said Tilak Mohan, Director, Customer Relationship
Management, MEDC.
The obstacle to achieving these goals was MEDC’s contact center
application from Quintas, which was a division of Avaya. The Avaya
system could not integrate with the Siebel application, and MEDC
agents were forced to resort to a slow and error-prone series of steps
to bridge the gap between the applications.
“There were two things that were happening,” said Mohan. “One was
that the agent always had to start one application first, then the second
application. And then, as soon as the interaction was over, they had to
cut and paste information from the Quintas desktop into the Siebel
software, which is where we wanted all the interactions to be stored.”
The Avaya solution to this problem only presented MEDC with new
problems. When the Quintas application approached end-of-life,
Avaya recommended that MEDC upgrade to a new version. However,
the cost of the Avaya upgrade was too high, said Mohan.
“And Avaya did not really impress us from the service perspective.
Their outreach was not very good. And when we tried to get some
more information, they were not very responsive.”
MEDC decided it needed to undertake some due diligence before
settling on a new contact center application.
“With the Genesys Gplus Adapter for Siebel everything is seamless.
Genesys automatically moves every interaction directly into the Siebel
window and we are able to access the information without any problems
at all. And when a company needs a response immediately the Customer
Assistance Center agent is able - either through email, phone, or chat to create a service request and assign that activity immediately to the
appropriate business development manager or other MEDC staff person”
Tilak Mohan
Director, Customer Relationship Management, MEDC
Success Story > Government > Michigan
Economic Development Corporation
Page 3
Results
• Attracted innovative Tesla Motors to build a new engineering
and R&D center in Michigan by delivering comprehensive, fast,
and personalized service
• Boosted agent productivity and customer service quality
through the seamless integration of Genesys and Siebel CRM
• Transformed the contact center into an arm of the sales
department so agents can notify salespeople about potential
new business development opportunities
• Provided companies and tourists the flexibility of contacting
MEDC via telephone, e-mail, or Web chat
• Offered management reporting on data from all multi-channel
interactions
Solutions
At the same time that MEDC was weighing its options, Genesys
was presenting a product demonstration at a sister government
agency in Michigan. Mohan attended the demonstration, which
led to MEDC becoming the first Genesys customer to integrate
e-mail, Web chat, and voice with the Siebel Gplus Adapter.
“We basically came away pretty much wowed,” said Mohan. “We
thought that looked like a solution, because Genesys emphasized the
fact that the Gplus Adapter would be able to accommodate Siebel.”
The Genesys software suite, combined with the Siebel Gplus
Adapter, answered all of MEDC’s needs.The agency implemented
the Genesys Customer Interaction Management (CIM) Platform
to capture, process, route, and report on all interactions, regardless
of type. Then the modular approach of the Genesys application
suite allowed MEDC to add all the additional functionality it
needed: Genesys Inbound Voice for telephone calls, Genesys
E-Mail for e-mail interactions, and Genesys Web Media for Web
chat sessions initiated on the MEDC web site.
Today, MEDC enjoys a single agent desktop that integrates inbound
voice, e-mail, and chat interactions. All of these multi-channel
communications appear under a Genesys toolbar located inside the
Siebel software, thanks to the Gplus Adapter for Siebel.
In addition, this complete solution did not come with the drawbacks
that characterized Avaya, said Mohan. “The cost of the upgrade was
not that high, and Genesys was very responsive.”
Results
A key objective of MEDC is to impress the business community
with its efficiency and service, so that companies view it as one of
the benefits of doing business in Michigan. Genesys allows MEDC
to accomplish that objective.
In January 2007, the governor of Michigan announced that Tesla
Motors, Inc., developer of an electric car that was one of Time
magazine’s “Best Inventions of 2006,” would invest nearly $48
million to build a new R&D and engineering center in Rochester
Hills, Michigan. The official press release credited the business win
to service offered by MEDC, which “convinced Tesla Motors to
select Rochester Hills” over competing sites.
The Tesla win is an example of how important it was for MEDC
to increase agent efficiency, reduce customer response times, and
improve the ability to dispatch MEDC representatives to businesses
that need hands-on assistance. Today, when MEDC receives
inquiries from companies or prospective tourists, Genesys routes all
interactions – voice, e-mail, or chat -- to the appropriate contact
center and the appropriate agents within each center. Integration
with Siebel negates the need for agents to cut-and-paste information between application screens and lets agents focus on boosting
Michigan’s business development.
“With the Genesys Gplus Adapter for Siebel, everything is seamless,”
said Mohan. “Genesys automatically moves every interaction
directly into the Siebel window and we are able to access the
information without any problems. And when a company needs a
Success Story > Government > Michigan
Economic Development Corporation
Page 4
Solutions
• Genesys Customer Interaction Management Platform captures,
processes, routes, and reports on all interactions
• Genesys Inbound Voice manages all incoming calls and delivers
callers to the right agent
• Genesys E-mail allows agents to respond to customer e-mail
inquiries with the same personalized service as traditional
voice interactions
• Genesys Web allows agents to respond to customer chat requests
• Genesys Gplus Adapter for Siebel is a prepackaged
integration that combines the Genesys real-time interaction
suite with Siebel eBusiness applications
response immediately the call center agent is able – either through
e-mail, phone, or chat – to create a service request and assign that
activity immediately to a salesperson.”
Perhaps the greatest benefit of the new Genesys-Siebel integration is
the way the contact center has become an arm of the sales function.
Now, when a company needs a fast response from MEDC, the call
center agent is able to record that information, create a service
request, and immediately assign the activity to the person responsible
for the account.The assignment shows up in the salesperson’s To-Do
list, and the sales rep is then able to contact the customer.
The success of the Genesys application was underlined in July 2007,
when MEDC introduced the Defense Contract Coordination
Center (DCCC), a new program that helps state businesses win
Genesys Worldwide
Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company, is the world’s leading
provider of contact center and customer service management
software — with more than 4,000 customers in 80 countries.
Genesys software directs more than 100 million interactions
every day, dynamically connecting customers with the right
resources — self-service or assisted-service — to fulfill
customer requests, optimize customer care goals and efficiently
use agent resources. Genesys helps organizations drive contact
center efficiency, stop customer frustration and accelerate
business innovation.
For more information: visit us on the Web: www.genesyslab.com,
or call +1 888 GENESYS (1-650-466-1100).
2847 v.1-08/08-U.S.
defense contracts. Adding the new service highlighted Genesys’
own commitment to customer service.
“When we added the DCCC we had some issues and Genesys was
able to help us immediately,” said Mohan.
MEDC is also using the Genesys CIM platform’s built-in reporting
capabilities. The agency generates monthly reports that track how
many calls, e-mails, and chats it receives. It also analyzes the
productivity of individual agents.
But the main benefit of Genesys is how it supports MEDC’s core
mission.“We try to respond to requests within 24 hours, and with
Genesys we can live up to that commitment,” said Mohan.“Companies
are extremely happy with the response that we give them. Our
technology allows us to really take care of our customers.”
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