Update: Hilsen’s name has now been removed from the Genesys PR Contacts page.

Employees from different companies leave and join other companies all the time, so you’re asking why is Rob Hilsen‘s defection to RNT newsworthy, especially on a blog about contact centers and telecom…

First of all, Hilsen was with Genesys/Alcatel-Lucent for 4 1/2 years (according to his LinkedIn profile), until recently as PR Manager. I may be a n00b in the whole PR/AR realm, but I know a star when I see one by digging into his online profiles and tweets. Analysts have nothing but praise for Hilsen (and in turn, for the corporation he represented), and that comes from him doing his job well — engaging, intelligent, and accessible. I have no doubt that he was instrumental in shaping the positive public image the contact center industry has about Genesys and even Alcatel-Lucent.

Secondly, we all know that ALU had undergone some significant re-org fairly recently, and I cannot help but wonder if this had anything to do with Hilsen’s departure. His title is now Director of Analyst Relations, a promotion by joining the red hot Bozeman, Montana-based CRM company. RightNow Technologies has been making news and acquisitions recently, so it’s definitely expanding its desktop and cloud empire. But it is still fighting a tough battle against more well-known competitors like Salesforce.com, so beefing up its PR definitely makes sense in a multi-pronged attack to go along with aggressive sales and new products.

The third point to make is the delicate relationship between coopetitors Genesys and RNT, specifically on the social CRM offerings which I’d briefly covered before. RightNow dominates the web social CRM space, but Genesys definitely has an interest in desktops too as evident in its partnerships with InQuira and Lithium, direct competitors to RNT. Things will get interesting for Hilsen at his new job for sure…

By the way, Genesys’ website still lists his contact information so let’s see how long it’ll take for them to realize that Hilsen is no longer with them. Everybody on Twitter (and which corporate PR/marketing person isn’t on Twitter?) already knows about it:

Oh wait, not just on the Twitterverse, but the news spread in the blogosphere too!

Rob Hilsen (Twitter) has joined the RightNow Technologies analyst relations team as Director. Rob was the special guest on the March AR Coffee Talk discussion the AR leading-edge best practice of “Customer Innovation Awards” (click here for replay).Please join us in congratulating Rob and wishing him great success in his new position.

Congratulations and looking forward to seeing more of Hilsen’s tweets!