Genesys Cloud and Salesforce: integration options and migration paths

For more than a decade, most contact centre platforms have reached into Salesforce through Open CTI, the Salesforce API that lets a third-party softphone run inside the Salesforce interface. Salesforce has now published its end of life. Open CTI is in maintenance mode, with no new features, and is scheduled for retirement on 28 February 2028, after which Salesforce says Open CTI implementations will no longer function. It is already unavailable to newly created Agentforce Service orgs, and Salesforce names Salesforce Voice as the recommended replacement.

Genesys moved first. On 23 March 2026 it deprecated Genesys Cloud for Salesforce, its long-standing Open CTI integration. The package is in maintenance mode, future updates will contain only minor changes to keep it working, and it retires alongside Open CTI. Genesys gives customers two paths: migrate to CX Cloud from Genesys and Salesforce, or let agents work in the Genesys Cloud workspace without telephony embedded in Salesforce. It rates the impact as medium and recommends planning now.

For organisations still on PureConnect or Genesys Engage, the Salesforce deadline sits on top of a platform deadline. That combination is why this guide treats integration and migration together: the right answer is rarely to move the contact centre first and the Salesforce integration later.

Once Open CTI is gone, the choice is between bringing Genesys Cloud into Salesforce through CX Cloud, or keeping agents in the Genesys Cloud workspace and connecting the two platforms at the data level. Several building blocks are independent of Open CTI and work with either approach, notably the Salesforce data actions integration, which lets Architect flows and agent scripts read and update Salesforce records.

The right answer depends on where agents spend their day. Teams that live in Salesforce cases, opportunities or patient records are usually best served by CX Cloud. Teams whose work is mainly in the contact centre, consulting Salesforce occasionally, may be better served by the Genesys Cloud workspace with data actions providing caller lookup, screen information and record updates.

CX Cloud from Genesys and Salesforce was announced in September 2023 and extended in 2024 beyond Service Cloud to Sales Cloud, Health Cloud and Financial Services Cloud, with availability in 20 Genesys Cloud AWS regions. It brings the voice, digital and CRM data from Genesys Cloud into Salesforce Voice, formerly Service Cloud Voice, using Salesforce's partner telephony model. Genesys provides the routing, telephony, digital channels and workforce engagement; Salesforce provides the agent workspace.

Agents work in Salesforce, using Omni-Channel and the Genesys Cloud CX utility widget, with Genesys Agent Copilot included. Digital interactions arrive without needing the native Salesforce Messaging object: email, web messaging, SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram direct messages, X direct messages and open messaging are all supported. CX Cloud is delivered as a set of packages, so an organisation can adopt the capabilities it needs, and Genesys keeps each package updated on its own cadence.

• Core Services: the foundation, including status mapping between Genesys Cloud and Omni-Channel
• Voice: partner telephony for Salesforce Voice, with Genesys Cloud handling calls
• Digital and AI: Genesys digital channels and Agent Copilot inside Salesforce
• WEM: Genesys workforce engagement capabilities for Salesforce-based agents
• External Routing: Salesforce emails and Enhanced Chat routed by Genesys Cloud
• Outbound Campaign Management: Genesys outbound campaigns driven from Salesforce

The most important prerequisite sits on the Salesforce side. Genesys states that voice, digital and external routing features need a Salesforce Service Cloud Voice licence, now called Salesforce Voice. Salesforce documents partner telephony as available only in Lightning Experience, on Performance, Enterprise, Unlimited and Developer editions, as an add-on licence for Sales Cloud, Service Cloud and Government Cloud. An organisation still using Salesforce Classic must therefore move the relevant users to Lightning Experience before CX Cloud can serve them, and an organisation on Professional or Essentials editions has an edition decision to make first.

On the Genesys side, CX Cloud needs Genesys Cloud CX 1 or later per user, add-on licences for the Salesforce integration, and the CX Cloud integration permissions. The older Open CTI package was more forgiving: it supported both Classic and Lightning Experience, and Genesys did not document a Salesforce edition requirement for it. That flexibility is exactly what disappears in 2028, so the readiness work belongs at the start of the programme, not the end.

The move changes who you pay and for what. Today, an organisation using Genesys Cloud for Salesforce typically pays Genesys for its Genesys Cloud CX licences and for the AppExchange package, which is a paid, tiered product. With CX Cloud, the Genesys Cloud CX licences remain, the Open CTI package falls away, a CX Cloud add-on is licensed from Genesys, and a Salesforce Voice licence is needed from Salesforce for each user who handles voice, digital or externally routed work in Salesforce. Some organisations also face a Salesforce edition change, or a Lightning migration with its own cost.

Three planning points follow. First, count users carefully: only the people who handle interactions in Salesforce need the Salesforce Voice licence, and supervisors or back-office users may not. Second, align contract dates, because Salesforce's partner telephony edition requires an annual contract, and Genesys and Salesforce renewals rarely coincide. Third, budget for transcription where you need it: Salesforce notes that voice-to-text transcription for partner telephony is licensed from the telephony partner. The table below shows the vendors' own published list prices; CX Cloud itself has no published price, so ask Genesys or your reseller for a quotation.

Published by each vendor and checked on 12 October 2026. These are list prices, before any discount, tax or contract terms, and they change; the sources at the end of this page are authoritative. QVCCS does not sell licences.

PureConnect customers integrated Salesforce through PureConnect for Salesforce, a managed package on AppExchange. Its last release, in April 2025, was validated against Salesforce's Spring '25 release. PureConnect itself reached end of support on 31 July 2025, after last orders on 1 January 2024, so organisations still running it are now on an unsupported platform with an integration that relies on Open CTI.

The practical advice is to move once. Landing first on Genesys Cloud for Salesforce, which is deprecated, would mean a second migration within months. A PureConnect organisation should plan its move to Genesys Cloud CX and to CX Cloud from Genesys and Salesforce as one programme, mapping PureConnect's screen pops, click-to-dial, call logging and dialler behaviour directly to their CX Cloud and data action equivalents, and treating Lightning readiness and Salesforce Voice licensing as early workstreams.

Genesys Engage customers typically connect Salesforce through the Gplus Adapter for Salesforce, which runs on Genesys Web Services and the Salesforce Open CTI API, with an option to show the full Workspace Web Edition inside the Salesforce console. Genesys announced its end of life on 30 September 2026, with end of support on 31 December 2027.

That date matters because it comes a full year before Engage itself. Genesys has announced 31 December 2028 as the end of maintenance and support for all Engage on-premises products, after which subscription licences stop working, with full-year renewals ending on 31 December 2027. An Engage organisation that plans its Genesys Cloud migration for late 2028 will therefore run its Salesforce integration unsupported for a year, and close to Open CTI's own retirement. Bringing the Salesforce workstream forward, or moving the whole contact centre in 2027, avoids that exposure.

For organisations already on Genesys Cloud, Genesys puts a typical migration from the Open CTI integration to CX Cloud at two to four months, and the two can run side by side, so teams can move in phases rather than in one cut-over. The work is less about installation than about behaviour: every screen pop rule, click-to-dial pattern, activity logging mapping, wrap-up and status habit that agents rely on today needs a CX Cloud equivalent, or an agreed gap.

Activity logging deserves particular care. Genesys Cloud for Salesforce saves interaction logs to activity history and maps certain Task fields by default, and many organisations have built reports, automation and compliance processes on those records. Those dependencies need to be found and carried across before the old package is removed.

1. Inventory what the current integration does: screen pops, click-to-dial, logging, scripts, Omni-Channel sync and routed work
2. Confirm Lightning Experience, Salesforce edition and Salesforce Voice licensing for every user group
3. Map each behaviour to CX Cloud packages, data actions or the Genesys Cloud workspace
4. Find reports, flows and processes that depend on Task records written by the old package
5. Configure CX Cloud packages and status mapping in a sandbox, then test with real agents
6. Move teams in phases while both integrations run side by side
7. Remove the Open CTI package and its call centre definitions once the last team has moved

QVCCS starts with the decision, not the software. In discovery we document how each team uses Salesforce and the current integration, confirm Lightning and licensing readiness, and record the options analysis between CX Cloud, the Genesys Cloud workspace and data actions in an architecture decision record. The design maps every agent behaviour to its target, sets out the Omni-Channel status mapping and logging design, and identifies the Salesforce reports and automations that must keep working.

Build and test follow our engineering standards: CX Cloud configuration, data actions, Architect flows and scripts are built to a build book and peer reviewed, then proven in a Salesforce sandbox before phased cut-over with hypercare. For PureConnect and Engage organisations we plan the platform and Salesforce moves as one programme, so the contact centre arrives on Genesys Cloud CX already integrated the way it will stay.