Original Article at http://www.libn.com/article.htm?articleID=37869
Tech bytes
Friday, February 9, 2007
Melville’s CosmoCom inks a new VoIP partnership
CosmoCom, a Melville firm that supplies software to run call centers, has announced a partnership with Newport Beach, Calif.-based BandTel, a leading provider of Session Initiation Protocol trunking services.
“We’re a system designed to work with Voice over Internet Protocol,” said Steve Kowarsky, CosmoCom co-founder and executive vice president. “They’re a phone company that is designed to bring VoIP. So it makes sense to work together. It’s a marriage made in heaven.”
Since its 1996 launch, CosmoCom has designed its call center software to be based on IP rather than old technology. The software is designed to keep center operators from having down time while keeping customer waits as short as possible, Kowarsky said. CosmoCom’s programs can accept e-mail, telephone calls and Interest chat requests, all through one system.
“When we made this decision to design basically a new generation call center, one of the main things we were thinking about is that it wouldn’t be just about telephone anymore,” Kowarsky said. “There are many different ways that your customers want to communicate.”
CosmoCom has seen strong growth in recent years, with year-to-year gains of 20 to 60 percent. Since its inception, the company has raised more than $65 million, and today the privately held firm’s revenues are “very comfortably into eight figures,” according to Kowarsky.
The Melville company’s customers include providers from around the world, including Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom and Telefonica, a major player in the Spanish-speaking world. CosmoCom has about 120 employees and offices in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Israel.
“When you launch a serious business,” Kowarsky said, “you have to think about being global from the beginning.”
Kowarsky added that his firm will be looking to serve large enterprises that have 10, 20 or 50 call centers, and are looking to consolidate them into one.
Data Path ready to make a bundle
Cable supplier Data Path Inc. of Hauppauge has designed and purchased a cable bundling machine that will allow its customers to save time and money when installing voice and data lines.
The bundler will wrap up to seven cables together with lacing cord so that a number of cables can be connected to a given location at once, rather than one at a time, reducing labor costs, according to Data Path chief Adam Cohen.
Previously, when Data Path’s customers wanted bundled cables, the firm would ship them off to Vermont to be wrapped. The new machine, which cost about $100,000, will eliminate that time-consuming process, Cohen said.
The bundler will also label the cables, he added.
“This enhances what we sell,” Cohen said. “We already sell the cable we’ll be bundling.”
Privately held Data Path has been in business since 1986. The firm expects to receive the bundler in mid-March, and begin using it within two weeks.
SearchHelp, Systemax in ‘Sentry at Home’ deal
Syosset-based SearchHelp Inc, which makes Web-based parental control software, has entered into an agreement with Systemax of Port Washington to place SearchHelp’s “Sentry at Home” software in computers manufactured and shipped by Systemax.
Customers who buy the computers or notebooks will get a free trial of the software. Systemax plans to ship roughly 10,000 of the preloaded computers each month.
“Sentry” allows parents to monitor their children’s online activities for anything inappropriate, such as suspicious messages or requests for personal information, or attempts to access pornography. Parents can monitor online activity both at home and remotely, receiving timely reports via e-mail or cell phone.
