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VIEW FROM THE CORNER OFFICE
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REFLECTIONS ON COSMOCOMMUNITY 2007
By 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. |
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TOP
STORIES
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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

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

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.
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MORE DEVELOPMENTS |
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COSMOCOM TECHNOLOGY WELL REPRESENTED AT SECA
As
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.

COSMOCOM WINS INDIAN CONTACT CENTER SOLUTIONS 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."

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.

COSMOCOM APPOINTS WIEBE VINK;
STRENGTHENS INTERNATIONAL SALES TEAM
Sales Veteran Appointed Regional Director for Northern Europe,
Reflecting Regional Growth
In
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."

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. 
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. |
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OTHER DEPARTMENTS |
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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

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.

HQ HAPPENINGS
Cinco de Mayo Celebration!
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

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.

TRADESHOW NEWS: COMING ATTRACTIONS
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VoiceCon Fall
August 20--23, 2007
Moscone Center
San Francisco, CA, USA
http://www.voicecon.com/fall/
See CosmoCom in booth 730 |
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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 |
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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 |
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ACCE
September 10-12, 2007
San Diego Convention Center
San Diego, CA
www.ACCEicmi.com See CosmoCom in Booth
220 |
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RECORDED WEBINARS
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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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CosmoCom,
Inc.
121 Broad Hollow Rd.
Melville, NY 11747
+1 631 940-4200
http://www.cosmocom.com
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