SAN FRANCISCO and SAN MATEO, Calif., February 20, 2001 - Alcatel (NYSE: ALA) and Siebel Systems, (Nasdaq: SEBL), the world's leading provider of eBusiness applications software, today announced an alliance to jointly integrate and market eBusiness solutions for mid-market and heterogeneous enterprise contact centers. The alliance adds new product integration to a long-standing partnership between Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Inc., an independent wholly-owned subsidiary of Alcatel, and Siebel Systems, to ease customer-centric eBusiness installations in large corporations. The alliance establishes a new market offering of integrated voice and Internet contact center solutions targeted at medium-sized corporations worldwide.

Alcatel, Genesys and Siebel Systems Provide Integrated Solution for Mid-Market

As part of the agreement, Alcatel, Genesys and Siebel Systems will develop integrated voice and Internet contact center solutions for mid-market contact centers, which the companies define as companies with under $250 million, or equivalent, in annual revenues, or below 1000 employees. Both packages will integrate Genesys' Network Routing and Enterprise Routing with Siebel Call Center and Alcatel's leading OmniPCX 4400 IP-based PBX. The Internet package will bundle universal queue, email routing, Web collaboration and chat capabilities from Genesys, with Siebel eMail Response and advanced automation. These out-of-box, mid-market solutions will help organizations simplify deployments by limiting configuration possibilities and eliminating cost intensive customization. To further ease deployment, both solutions will be made available with hardware - initially with third party servers and an Alcatel OmniPCX 4400 IP-based PBX, and will co-exist with the existing voice enterprise. The mid-market offering is planned to be generally available in Fall 2001.

"Today's announcement is great news for customers looking for fully integrated, tested and certified contact center applications with converging voice and data capabilities," said Steve Garnett, Vice President of Alliances, Siebel Systems. "The combination of Genesys' voice and data applications with Siebel eBusiness Applications and Alcatel's market leading network platforms, offers organizations a cost-effective and targeted solution for providing advanced customer service."

"We see a large vacancy in contact center applications designed for the mid-market," said Philippe Coffre, Chief Technical Officer, Alcatel e-Business Distribution. "By developing a product that is easy to deploy and bundled on the OmniPCX 4400, Siebel Systems, Genesys and Alcatel are addressing all the needs of mid-market companies, allowing them to build a cost effective, easy to manage, converged contact center."

Genesys and Siebel Systems Provide Tighter Integration for Heterogeneous Enterprise Contact Centers

As part of the partnership, Genesys and Siebel Systems will also collaborate to develop an integrated solution for enterprise contact centers. This integration will leverage a productized adapter that connects Genesys' leading contact center solutions to Siebel eBusiness Applications, enabling seamless integration between Genesys and Siebel Systems applications. Specifically, the adapter will connect Genesys' Enterprise Routing, Network Routing, Workforce Management, Outbound Contact, Universal Workflow and Internet Contact with Siebel Call Center, including the Siebel Universal Desktop and Siebel eService. Traditionally, customers wanting to implement complementary eBusiness applications from multiple vendors needed to have customized integration, at the expense of valuable time and resources. With the Genesys and Siebel Systems adapter, customers can purchase a product that is easy to install and will connect their business systems with contact center applications quickly and with minimal cost. This integration will give businesses the ability to have a fully converged, integrated contact center with complete universal queuing capabilities for hybrid PBX/ACD environments. The enterprise integration solution is planned for general availability in Summer 2001.

"Unlike other offerings for today's complex contact centers, Genesys offers an open, software-based solution that is capable of supporting extremely large, decentralized and heterogeneous infrastructures," said Kevin Kew, Vice President, Worldwide Channel Marketing, Genesys. "The Genesys solution integrated with Siebel eBusiness Applications, gives businesses a more informative, real-time view of customers, empowering them to understand and respond to evolving customer needs in a timely fashion, regardless of interaction type."

About Siebel Systems
Siebel Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SEBL) is the world's leading provider of eBusiness applications software. Siebel Systems provides an integrated family of eBusiness application software enabling multichannel sales, marketing and customer service systems to be deployed over the Web, call centers, field, reseller channels, retail and dealer networks. Siebel Systems' sales and service facilities are located in more than 37 countries. For more information, please visit Siebel Systems' Web site at www.Siebel.com.

About Alcatel Alcatel builds next generation networks, delivering integrated end-to-end voice and data networking solutions to established and new carriers, as well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. With 120,000 employees and sales of EURO 23 billion in 1999, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. www.alcatel.com

About Genesys Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, an independent wholly owned subsidiary of Alcatel (NYSE:ALA) (Paris:CGEP.PA), is the leading provider of universal queue contact center solutions for complete customer relationship management. Genesys offers an integrated suite of open, infrastructure-independent applications that manage interactions across all media types, networks and applications. Headquartered in San Francisco, Genesys has served Global 2000 enterprises and major telecommunications carriers and service providers for more than for 10 years. Today Genesys has offices around the world and maintains a global network of partners, including IBM Global Services, Alcatel, Siebel Systems and Siemens. Visit http://www.genesyslab.com or call 1-888-GENESYS (in the United States) for more information.

Media Contact:
Cate Stewart
415/355-5390
cstewart@genesyslab.com

Siebel Systems Public Relations
650/477-5455
pressreleases@siebel.com

David Rodewald
33 (0)1 5566 3972
dave.rodewald@ind.alcatel.com