Microsoft and Alcatel officially announce formal alliance

The formal alliance between Alcatel and Microsoft was officially announced today. A joint integrated system to provide a CRM and Contact Centre solution across EMEA, the Asian Pacific Rim, and Latin America. Alcatel’s OmniTouch Contact Centre Premium Edition will be integrated with Microsoft’s new CRM management system, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0.

The firms will combine efforts on business development, marketing strategy, partner events, employee training, market events and final certification. The target market of the alliance is enterprise customers with contact centers of up to 150 agents.

Existing agreements involving Microsoft and Genesys, Alcatel subsidiary and G-plus Adapter supplier to Microsoft, will serve as foundation for the agreement announced today. Press material promises that tight integration will be beneficial to customers, as a single platform that optimizes applications and business processes, simplifies configuration and installation, and quickens implementation. Microsoft CRM 3.0 provides CRM tools for action from first contact to post-sale, in sales, marketing, and customer service.

The Alcatel Omni Touch Contact Centre Premium Edition is designed for contact centre staff, complete with the user-friendly interface known as the Visual CC. “With Microsoft’s premier technologies and Alcatel’s leadership in telephone and contact centre solutions, both companies are positioned to deliver solutions that help our joint customers lower their total cost of ownership, achieve faster time to value, and increase agent productivity, and realize greater return on investment,” was the comment from Microsoft general manager ISV Robert Bernard.