It had been 25 years since he walked up to the pitcher’s mound at his high school baseball field. But here he was again for an alumni game. The smell of fresh cut grass was familiar, yet so much had changed. He was a completely different person—mature, reliable and full of life. His young, unpredictable and immature-self was merely a distant memory. Adrenaline and anxiety paid a surprise visit as he gripped the ball tightly before throwing the first pitch. Everyone was watching. He wondered if he should even do this, if he still had his stuff, or if taking the mound again would end in embarrassment and disappointment.

Some GenesysTM PureConnectTM customers came to CX18 with similar concerns. They wondered if they should continue to take the mound with PureConnect; if it had the right stuff. It’s a mature, reliable and extensive offering, but they questioned if it’s still a platform for innovation. Is Genesys truly committed to the future of PureConnect? These are reasonable questions and concerns, considering the mixed messages that have surfaced over the past few years—through a period of significant change.

At CX18, Dr. Peter Graf, Chief Product Officer, outlined a strategy that made it crystal clear Genesys is indeed committed to the PureConnect platform and its faithful tribe. In fact, the speed of innovation will only increase—with new technology becoming easier to consume.

First, PureConnect is being enabled to use cloud microservices. This will offer new and differentiated capabilities. Second, applications previously only available on the PureEngage or PureCloud platforms are becoming available on PureConnect. Both tactics are part of a larger effort to homogenize technology across all three platforms. And this means functionality is built once and is easy for all customers to consume. Third, while a large part of Genesys development will focus on delivering new homogeneous technology, native platform enhancements will continue.

This blog series will explore, in detail, these three areas of PureConnect innovation: new microservices, shared applications and native enhancements. In the meantime, schedule a demo and meet with your account team to create your personalized roadmap.

Seeing PureConnect customer reactions to this news at CX18 was extremely satisfying. A growing sense of optimism filled the Gaylord Opryland Resort as the week continued. You could feel it at the PureConnect Customer Hangout, in the PureConnect breakout sessions, at DevCon, within the Partner Pavilion and during the keynote presentations. Even the meals seemed tastier.

A sense of inclusion was evident, as PureConnect customers learned the new and exciting capabilities being highlighted on mainstage—additional channels, predictive routing, customer journey analytics, chatbots and Blended AI—were for them too. In fact, one customer assembled their sales, marketing, support and IT leaders to begin planning so they could take advantage of these innovations as soon as possible. We hope to share their success story at CX19!

As you might have guessed, that nervous pitcher was me. After mustering up the courage, and battling through anxiety and fear, I threw out the first pitch—and went on to have a magical outing. All of my pitches were working. I struck out three high school players in a row, making one look silly with my sidearm slurve (a cross between a curveball and slider). And while the outward success was rewarding, it was a feeling of redemption, something made new again, that filled me with an overwhelming sense of joy.

Those invested in PureConnect (myself included) felt something similar at CX18. Anxieties about the future of the platform were replaced with a wonderful, surprising joy. We saw PureConnect in a new light and, like the customer who rallied his troops were excited about the possibilities ahead. These are indeed exciting times for PureConnect!

Go PureConnect tribe!