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CosmoCom's CosmoChronicle Masthead

 May/June 2007

Customer Experience VideoTour Our UniverseCorporate VideoContact Us Live

 

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 IN THIS ISSUE...

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VIEW FROM THE CORNER OFFICE

 
) Reflections on CosmoCommunity 2007
 

TOP STORIES

 
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CosmoCom Upgrades Unified Customer Communications Platform

 
) KT Networks Launches IP Contact Center Based on CosmoCall Universe
) Telecom Visionary Jeff Pulver Keynote at CosmoCommunity 2007
  MORE DEVELOPMENTS  
) CosmoCom Technology Well Represented at SeCA
) CosmoCom Wins Indian Contact Center Solutions Award
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Spring Brings Numerous Honors for CosmoCom

 
) CosmoCom Appoints Wiebe Vink; Strengthens International Sales Team
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Peter Hellermann Joins CosmoCom Marketing Team

 
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Song Parodies from the CosmoCommunity 2007 NYC Cruise

 
  OTHER DEPARTMENTS  
  Bits & Pieces: Some VoIP Factoids  
  Who's Talking? Recent Ink  
  ) HQ Happenings  
  ) New Members of the CosmoCom Family  
  ) Tradeshow News: Coming Attractions  
  ) Subscription Information  
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TECH SUPPORT UPDATES

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CosmoCom has replaced SupportNet with a new improved support site, for customers and partners, called CosmoCom Online Technical Support. You can find the latest documentation, Hot Fix bundles, Microsoft updates that have passed QA for CosmoCall Universe deployment, discussion groups and more. In addition, you can now access your support tickets online. If you have not yet obtained your secure login information, please contact your CosmoCom representative or send support an email.

 
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  VIEW FROM THE CORNER OFFICE
 
 

REFLECTIONS ON COSMOCOMMUNITY 2007

Ari SoneshBy Ari Sonesh, CEO - I can summarize my feelings about CosmoCommunity 2007 in one word: "euphoria." I know that my excitement and sense of success is shared by all of our customers, partners and employees who participated in the event.

At CosmoCommunity 2007, CosmoCom's work-hard, play-hard culture was very much in evidence. We work hard at doing a world-class job, and we try to enjoy the whole process as we do. This is an internal culture, but we did our best to share this spirit with everyone who attended this event. Each day we started early with breakfast in the sponsor expo hall, followed by jam-packed mornings and afternoons full of high quality presentations and discussions. During the morning and afternoon breaks and the extended networking lunches, attendees had ample time to interact with sponsors and with each other over the exhibits. In parallel, our management team was busy all day long, meeting individually with customers and partners. I myself sat in back-to-back meetings throughout the event. This was really hard work, but it was extremely rewarding, especially in our discussions about the vast emerging market opportunities before us.

We also built plenty of fun into the schedule! Everyone enjoyed the wine tasting during the Tuesday welcome reception. The following evening we danced the Samba with the Carnivale costumed dancers and enjoyed the excellent Brazilian outdoor barbeque, complete with lobsters. The grand fun finale was a gourmet dinner cruise around Manhattan on Thursday evening. The magnitude of the impression that the views of Manhattan left on us, and especially our moments at the Statue of Liberty, cannot be described in words. The last hour of the cruise was a highlight of its own as we all gathered on the top deck, dancing and celebrating under a full moon with New York City all around us. And when I say dancing, I mean dancing! On the last day of CosmoCommunity, after the sessions concluded, we made sure that attendees had a chance to relax, unwind, and network one more time before heading back home, with several fun-filled activities including: golf, tennis, a pool party, and a visit to the Cradle of Aviation museum.

Everyone I talked with, without exception, raved about the event quality and overall value. Perhaps the greatest buzz was sparked by news about our upcoming CosmoGo client, which enables mobility applications. Many of the attendees immediately came up with applications for this concept that enables mobile employees who are part of the customer service process to be part of a well-managed call center environment. Another hot topic was Unified Customer Communication, where the entire workforce is a part of the customer care process. We sometimes call this "The company is the call center." Consolidation 2.0 was another very important theme. Consolidation 2.0, enabled by CosmoCom's technology, allows the enterprise to build one multi-tenant, multi-application platform and consolidate all its call centers on that platform.

In conclusion I want to thank all of our sponsors for the event. In particular, I want to mention our Gold Sponsors: Microsoft, Orange Business Services, Neocase Software and Pulvermedia. Our sponsors' applications and services are complementary to CosmoCom's technology, creating a full product offering. I am continually impressed with the added value that our partners bring. I also would like to thank our Keynote Speaker, Jeff Pulver, who is a great friend of the company and the industry. Perhaps most of all, I want to say thank you to all the attendees for making this such a great event. You are the CosmoCommunity!

All I have left to say is, "See you all in CosmoCommunity 2008." Stay tuned for venue information. We are committed to making 2008 an even better (is it really possible?) event.

 
 
  TOP STORIES
 
 

COSMOCOM UPGRADES FLAGSHIP
UNIFIED CUSTOMER COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORM

CosmoCall Universe 5.1 Improves High Availability, Direct Inward Dialing, Centralized Agent Configuration, and Automatic Voice Quality Monitoring

During CosmoCommunity 2007, CosmoCom announced the availability of CosmoCall Universe (CCU) version 5.1. CCU 5.1 is an improvement release, containing major system enhancements based on customer experience and feedback. Some of the areas improved in CCU 5.1 are High Availability, Direct Inward Dialing (DID), Centralized Agent Configuration, and Automatic Voice Quality Monitoring.

"Experience is the best teacher," said Ari Sonesh, CosmoCom CEO and Chairman. "As CosmoCom's customer base grows, and as their experience with the system broadens and deepens, we are finding significant ways to enhance the functionality and usability of our platform. This release reflects our commitment to continuous improvement in our product for both service provider and enterprise customers."

Get more details in the full press release

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KOREA TELECOM NETWORKS LAUNCHES IP CONTACT CENTER
BASED ON COSMOCALL UNIVERSE

New Cosmo-One Contact Center Appliance Targets SME Market

On May 30, CosmoCom announced a strategic partnership with KT Networks, part of the Korea Telecom family of companies focused on network integration and telecom services. Under this partnership, KT Networks is launching a branded contact center product -- "Cosmo-One" -- a complete hardware and software contact center appliance for small and mid-size contact centers. Meeting all the needs of a modern contact center, "Cosmo-One" excels in ease of installation and implementation, ease of management and ease of support.

Read more about KT Networks and Cosmo-One

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TELECOM VISIONARY JEFF PULVER KEYNOTE AT COSMOCOMMUNITY 2007

For this year's CosmoCommunity event we didn't have to go to look far to find our keynote speaker. We were fortunate to have industry visionary  (and Melville, NY neighbor ) Jeff Pulver on board to deliver a provocative address to our international gathering of customers and partners. On Wednesday, May 30, 2007 industry pioneer Jeff Pulver shared his views about the state of the industry with the CosmoCommunity including where it has been and where he sees it heading. Because of the widespread global interest in Pulver's remarks, CosmoCom and Pulver decided to share the address beyond the walls of the private annual event via a live broadcast to all interested parties using the latest internet video streaming technology.

Jeff Pulver, Chairman and Founder of Pulver.com, is one of the true pioneers of the VoIP industry in which CosmoCom participates. His unique combination of trailblazing participation and up-close observation of the evolution of IP communication technology make his perspective on the state of the art and its future directions valuable to all industry players.

Thanks again to Jeff for his valuable contribution to this great event.

 
   MORE DEVELOPMENTS
 
 

COSMOCOM TECHNOLOGY WELL REPRESENTED AT SECA

CosmoCom was well represented among partners at SeCA 2007As in previous years, CosmoCom was well represented at the SeCA show in Paris in April. SeCA is France's most prestigious annual contact center show, and one of the top industry conferences in all of Europe. CosmoCom technology was showcased there in the booths of BT, Orange Business Services, PhoneControl, and Diabolocom.

BT and Orange Business Services each presented sessions on IP Contact Center, while back at their booths they were finding significant interest in their CosmoCom-based offerings. BT was showing off their NGCC hosted solution based on CosmoCall Universe (CCU), and, in another part of the hall, Orange Business Services was demonstrating their own CCU-based Contact Multicanal offering integrated with SAP.

Phone Control, which is focused on North African outsourcers enabled by their CCU platform, had its own veritable empire at SeCA, exhibiting their innovative solutions in their own booth, in 5 other booths, and in the Tunisian pavilion.

Finally, Diabolocom impressed the crowds with demonstrations of CosmoCom technology and IVVR.

All-in-all, CosmoCom was represented on almost 3000 square feet throughout the show, a commanding presence noticed by visitors and journalists alike. Congratulations to Iraj Rezaian and his team for coordinating with our fantastic, valued partners in the region to promote solutions based on CosmoCom technology.
 

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COSMOCOM WINS INDIAN CONTACT CENTER SOLUTIONS AWARD

CosmoCom's Kiran Maini Accepts Indian Contact Center Award

CosmoCom's Kiran Maini (left) accepting the award

On May 18th, Kiran Maini of CosmoCom attended a ceremony in Guragaon, India to represent CosmoCom as a winner in the 1st Indian Contact Center Solutions Awards. The awards were presented by BPONews, and the gathering consisted of senior BPO, Telecom and Software professionals. CosmoCom beat its competition to take home the award for Best Solution Hosted Platform.

As Ronald Rubens, CosmoCom's Vice President of EMEA said: "The BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) market in India is growing at a double digit rate. More and more back office and call center activities are being outsourced to India, including collections and even dental appointment reminders for patients in the United States. I am excited that CosmoCom has been recognized as a leader in this space, and that our product won the award as the best platform for Hosted Contact Centers."

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SPRING BRINGS NUMEROUS HONORS FOR COSMOCOM

Did you know that CosmoCom has been honored with more than 70 awards in the past decade? Our technology and people are frequently recognized as being among the best in the industry. The preceding article notes our recent selection as  Best Product for Hosted Contact Center in the BPONews, First Indian Contact Center Solutions awards above. However, that was not the only honor that CosmoCom received this Spring.

Our most recent win was as a recipient of TMC's 2007 IP Contact Center Pioneer Award which will be featured in the July issue of Customer Inter@ction Solutions magazine.

We also had the honor of receiving another  LISA (Long Island Software Award) from LISTnet at their May 1, gala ceremony at the Garden City Hotel in Garden City, New York.

Justy before that, the editors of  ICMI's Call Center Magazine selected CosmoCom as a Product of the Year winner for our video call center technology. Of this the editors said, "We applaud their commitment to the next generation of customer interaction modes." The article announcing the winners can be found at http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/cmp/callcenter0407/index.php?startpage=36

View a partial listing of the awards we've won.

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COSMOCOM APPOINTS WIEBE VINK;
STRENGTHENS INTERNATIONAL SALES TEAM

Sales Veteran Appointed Regional Director for Northern Europe, Reflecting Regional Growth

Wiebe VinkIn early May, CosmoCom announced that it has strengthened its international sales team with the appointment of Wiebe Vink as Regional Director for Northern Europe. The CosmoCom Northern European region comprises the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.

Vink is a well-regarded business leader with more than twelve years of experience in the European contact center industry, including sales and management positions for the region with industry leaders such as Avaya, Quintus, Genesys, Unisys, and Ericsson. As Genesys's Managing Director for Northern Europe, he led his region to dramatic growth and evolved a very successful channel selling strategy

"With increasing global interest in CosmoCom's unified customer communications platform, we are attracting outstanding talent to facilitate our growth," said Ronald Rubens, CosmoCom's Vice President for the EMEA region. "Wiebe Vink will be leading one of our hottest regions, and we look forward to our mutual success."

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PETER HELLERMANN JOINS COSMOCOM MARKETING TEAM

CosmoCom is happy to announce that Peter Hellermann has joined CosmoCom as a Director of Marketing. Peter will work closely with the CosmoCom marketing team to support the rapidly expanding CosmoCommunity channel and technology partners, and worldwide sales team.

Peter has a technical undergraduate degree from State University of New York at Stony Brook, and an MBA in Marketing Finance from Hofstra University. He wrote his Master's thesis on the deregulation of the U.S. Telecommunications industry in the early 1980s, just as Judge Green was about to rule on the break up of the AT&T monopoly.

Peter has over 15 years of international marketing, product management and sales experience in high technology systems and products, and has worked with VARS and Systems Integrators across EMEA, the Americas and Asia-Pacific. As a senior Product Manager at Symbol technologies, Peter managed industrial bar code scanners and hand held mobile computing product lines that are integral to almost every supply chain and ERP system. He also worked in the transportation sector, where had business and marketing responsibilities for a highly automated customer service center system serving the needs of the electronic tolling industry.

Peter works in the NY headquarters of CosmoCom.

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SONG PARODIES FROM THE COSMOCOMMUNITY 2007 NYC CRUISE

On Thursday, May 31, 2007 we had our gala gourmet cruise around New York City. The moonlit event was a huge hit. For the early part of the cruise guests were treated to the smooth sounds of a live NYC jazz band. In addition to the standards, we had them perform a few call center related jazz song parodies written by our own Steve Kowarsky. Click here to find his original lyrics for your entertainment.

 
 
   OTHER DEPARTMENTS
 

 BITS & PIECES: SOME VOIP FACTOIDS

Arcep report illustrates VoIP's growing popularity
A report published by the French telecoms regulator Arcep says the total number of VoIP-based calls doubled in 2006 and accounted for 25% of total fixed line calls in France over the year.

Majority of American Workers Prefer Alternate Work Schedule
The results of a survey, conducted by Kelton Research between April 13 and April 18 on behalf of Microsoft's Windows Vista mobility team, showed that 77 percent of American office workers interviewed would like the opportunity to shift their work hours or to work remotely, and that two thirds believe that a flexible, mobile arrangement would give them a more positive attitude toward their work.

Fixed Broadband Subscribers Top 290 Million
According to DITTBERNER's recently released report "1Q07 Global broadband Subscriber Survey", global broadband subscribers increased 5.9% in 1Q07 to reach 290.1 Million, of which 195 Million were DSL, 65 Million were cable Modem, 22 Million were FTTB and 7 Million were FTTH. Of the top ten countries, China, France and Germany grew the fastest, adding a combined 6.5 Million of the 16 Million new subscribers added in the first quarter. China grew at a record pace and is on track to add 16 Million new subscribers in 2007. For more information on the report visit www.Dittberner.com

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WHO'S TALKING? RECENT INK

On-Demand Workforce Through On-Demand Technology ?
On June 1, Call Center Magazine featured a story called "Cultivate An On-Demand Workforce Through On-Demand Technology" , by Joe Fleischer. The article takes a good look at how "virtual call center" technology is forcing cultural shifts in the call center workplace and what the key elements of hosted contact center are. Joe refers to a number of companies in the article and shares several insights from industry leader CosmoCom, including this quote from CosmoCom EVP, Steve Kowarsky, "Routing is absolutely mandatory since without it there is no contact center. Regardless of type, the whole point is to get the contact to the right person. A hosted environment frees that routing from physical boundaries so the call can literally be routed anywhere."

VoIP pioneers always look ahead -- not that it's easy
LIBN (Long Island Business News)  recently published a piece in their Tech Bytes section after talking with VoIP visionaries Jeff Pulver of Pulver.com and CosmoCom CEO Ari Sonesh prior to Jeff's keynote address at CosmoCommunity 2007. Hear what they had to say at http://www.libn.com/article.htm?articleID=38981

CosmoCom Delivers Call Center in a Box
Following the recent KT Networks CosmoOne press release (above), CRMBuyer writer Erika Morphy spoke with Steve Kowarsky about the new offering in the Korean market and what that means. View the article.

A  great article came out in Campus Technology magazine in their Think '360' section called "The Virtual, Consolidated Contact Center" that looks at the why, how and success of Alta Colleges in implementing a virtual contact center based on CosmoCom technology. Campus Technology is a prominent periodical for the higher education vertical - an area that we've been seeing increasing interest and success from.

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HQ HAPPENINGS

Cinco de Mayo Celebration!

CosmoCom's Tom Chang readies the pinata for the CosmoCom "ninos"

Tom Chang readies the piņata for the CosmoCom "niņos"

The HQ staff celebrated the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo a day early -- Quatro de Mayo? -- with our annual lawn party and food fest. On Friday evening, May 4th, the weather was beautiful and mild, and the first Springtime HQ event was, as usual, very well attended!

Each year we enjoy some traditional Mexican fare (quesadillas, nachos, burritos), along with a margarita station, and the festivities invariably include mariachi/disco music, this year courtesy of DJ Tom Chang. Of course, the candy-filled piņata took a beating from the niņos, who always love scrambling around after their fallen treasures.

Of special interest this year was The Great CosmoChiliChallenge! Several employees cooked up a storm and brought in their favorite chili creations. Each entry was anonymous, and was assigned a unique code name for the judging contest...we had "Buzzard's Breath" and "Weapon of A** Destruction" competing against other favorites "Midnight Express", "Margarita Chili con Chorizo", and "Sunburst Chili." Everyone sampled, everyone cast their ballot, and the winning recipe, a fiery rendition known as "Don't Go Cryin' to Your Momma" was rewarded with a prize basket filled with Mexican themed goodies. The triumphant chef, "Momma" Kathy Salt, shares her long guarded secret recipe here. A word of caution: not for the faint of heart...it's HOT!!

So as the sun set on another successful Cinco de Mayo celebration, HQ's hearty partygoers are already looking ahead to future celebrations

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NEW MEMBERS OF THE COSMOCOM FAMILY

CosmoCom Asia

Late breaking news! Andie Rees has just joined CosmoCom as Regional VP for Asia-Pacific. Andie brings a great deal of APAC and other international experience in and around the contact center industry with Onyx, Aspect, and other leaders. He brings more than 20 years of management experience in telecommunications and software to his new role as one of CosmoCom's three Regional chiefs. Watch for a more detailed announcement about Andie shortly.

CosmoCom Israel

Michael Berler, has joined CosmoCom as QA Team Leader in Israel. At his last position in BMC Michael worked with and managed a global team of QA engineers, working on both manual and automated software testing. He has a B.sc and teaching degree in Computer Science from the Technion, Machon Technologi Le' Israel, and also holds a Software Quality Engineer Certification -- CSQE from A.L.D college.

Boas Osnis, joins CosmoCom as QA Manager in Israel with more than 8 years of experience in Quality Assurance. In his prior position in Tadiran Telecom, Boaz served as integration and QA manager in charge of building a complete test suite for a new IP PBX solution. He is experienced in Voice Quality testing, automatic testing and building Quality Assurance procedures. He holds a B.sc in Statistics and Operations Research from Tel Aviv University.

Ziv Gabovitch, has joined CosmoCom as Development Team Leader in the Israel R&D department. Ziv has over 10 years of experience in mission critical platforms, starting his career at the Israel Air Force graduating from the prestigious MAMRAM computer school and later completing his BA in computer science from Bar Ilan University. His previous positions include group manager specializing in databases and data warehousing for the Air Force and R&D team leader for Symantec.

CosmoCom France

Benjamin Moules, is the latest addition to the Pre Sales Team in France, looking after the pre sales activities in SEMENA region. Prior to joining CosmoCom, Benjamin worked as an Engineer in Algoria (CTI software Company), where he was managing a network of over 30 customer from the technical integration, training and after sales services. Benjamin has also worked for Microsoft where he gained valuable experience in Microsoft technologies.

CosmoCom Netherlands

Wiebe Vink, has joined CosmoCom as Regional Director Northern Europe (comprised of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland). He has been involved in sales and sales management for over 20 years. Read more about Wiebe above.

CosmoCom Americas

Peter Hellermann joins CosmoCom as a Director of Marketing in NY. Read more about Peter above.

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TRADESHOW NEWS: COMING ATTRACTIONS

VoiceCon Fall San Francisco VoiceCon Fall
August 20--23, 2007
Moscone Center
San Francisco, CA, USA
http://www.voicecon.com/fall/

See CosmoCom in booth 730


RightNow Summit2007
August 27-30, 2007
The Broadmoor Hotel
Colorado Springs, CO, USA
http://www.rightnow.com/summit/

CosmoCom is Proud to be a Silver Sponsor of the RightNow Summit


Call Center 2.0
September 10-12, 2007
Los Angeles Convention Center
Los Angeles, CA, USA
http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/conference/call-center/

See CosmoCom in Booth CC 331


ACCE ACCE
September 10-12, 2007
San Diego Convention Center
San Diego, CA
www.ACCEicmi.com

See CosmoCom in Booth 220


 

RECORDED WEBINARS

View recordings of our Webinar events including "Consolidation 2.0", "Hosted Contact Center for Outsourcers", "Contact Center On-Demand" and "Telecom Customer Care"

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TECH SUPPORT UPDATES

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CosmoCom has replaced SupportNet with a new improved support site, for customers and partners, called CosmoCom Online Technical Support. You can find the latest documentation, Hot Fix bundles, Microsoft updates that have passed QA for CosmoCall Universe deployment, discussion groups and more. In addition, you can now access your support tickets online. If you have not yet obtained your secure login information, please contact your CosmoCom representative or send support an email.

 
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If you are a call center industry consultant, join the CosmoCom Consultant Liaison Program for access to our consultant extranet, a dedicated newsletter for the consultant community and more...

 
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CosmoCom, Inc.
121 Broad Hollow Rd.
Melville, NY 11747
+1 631 940-4200
http://www.cosmocom.com
Kathy Salt    Kevin Simms
Editor-in-Chief: Kathy Salt
Production, Graphics and Design: Kevin Simms
 

Copyright © 2007 CosmoCom, Inc. All Rights Reserved.