A VIEW FROM THE CORNER OFFICE

IP-Centrex and Contact Center On-Demand (CCOD) Unite...

By Ari Sonesh, CEO -  VOIP has made its way into the corporate marketplace, and, in fact, is now poised for the long anticipated phase of hyper growth.

In addressing general business communication needs, corporations usually either buy their own IP-PBX infrastructure or they buy it as an IP-Centrex service offered by service providers (e.g. Telcos). The IP-Centrex service provides, at a minimum, inbound and outbound telephone connectivity and IP-PBX features.

If a business has more advanced communication needs, such as Contact Center, then IP Centrex, with its limitations, comes up short.. IP-Centrex doesn't have the ability to provide the routing capabilities and the management tools that a Call Center requires. The environment of Call Centers is very specialized, and without dedication and focus on such an environment, generalists such as IP-PBX and IP-Centrex vendors cannot deliver the necessary functionality. Customers need to buy the technology either as a dedicated premises solution or as a CCOD (Contact Center On Demand) solution from a Service Provider (usually the same service provider that also delivers IP-Centrex).

But having to make such choices is only a temporary situation. IP-Centrex offerings and CCOD need to be, and must be, integrated and offered as a unified solution...and a unified solution is the only sensible solution to the needs of the Enterprise. The integrated unified offering will be capable of utilizing the same end point (either a soft or hard IP phone) for both needs, providing seamless transfer between general employees and dedicated call center employees. Better yet, the integrated unified solution will enable all employees to participate in the business critical customer service process, all within the monitoring abilities of the customer service managers, a vital component of ensuring the highest quality customer experience.

IP-Centrex with CCOD will offer 3 levels of service:

1. low cost basic extension, with standard PBX functionality
2. a more expensive advanced extension with customer service capabilities, but on a part-time basis.
3. Full call center extension for full-time call center agents.

The Enterprise will not be the only one benefiting from the integration of the services. Service providers will greatly benefit by streamlining their offerings, messages and value proposition by reducing the cost of selling, and by being able to transfer savings to their customers, thereby creating a fast growing revenue stream.

We will be discussing this topic in detail at the CosmoCommunity event, and will provide status updates on the integration of CosmoCom's best of breed CCOD offering and our IP-Centrex partners. Come to CosmoCommunity to hear more about this and many other interesting and exciting topics! But the time is getting close...so don't delay your registration...there are only a few weeks left ! Register today at  http://www.cosmocommunity.com

COSMOCOM VP NAMED TO "EXECUTIVES TO WATCH" LIST

Leron Polani Recognized for Creating New Business Partner Program

CMP Media's VARBusiness magazine recently named Leron Polani, CosmoCom's Vice President of usiness and Corporate Development, to its exclusive list of "Executives to Watch," which is part of its annual "Top 100 Channel Executives" listing. Polani was recognized in the annual VARBusiness Partner Programs Guide online earlier this month by editors who cover strategy and technology trends for solution providers and technology integrators.

Polani manages CosmoCom's alliance and partner relationships, in addition to overseeing its legal and corporate affairs as general counsel. He designed CosmoCom's EcoCosm Business Partner Program for the company's worldwide network of value added resellers and service providers to give them the tools, training and support they need to grow their business and their bottom line. The goals of the program are to help and support Business Partners in their go-to-market strategy, and to reward Partners with proven commitment and demonstrated success with CosmoCom technology in their territories. For more information on CosmoCom's EcoCosm Business Partner Program, please visit http://www.cosmocom.com/Company/ecoCosm.htm .

Read the release at http://www.cosmocom.com/PressReleases/PressReleases2006/pr04112006.htm

COSMOCOM ISRAEL OFFICE GROWS TO SERVE YOU BETTER

CosmoCom has always been committed to developing the best IP contact center technology in the market and to providing valuable support to our growing customer base worldwide. As part of that ongoing commitment CosmoCom introduced its Israel office in 2003 as a home for sales and operations in the region as well as to an extended development group.

Since then we have seen tremendous growth in the office as it has taken a central role in our customer support strategy. You've probably notice many new additions to the CosmoCom family in Israel in recent issues of CosmoChronicle. The office has long been an important part of our customer support efforts but it recently became home to the CosmoCom TAC (Technical Assistance Center) that was recently formed within the Technical Operations organization to improve technical customer support. The TAC is used as the first contact for any customer submissions, and make sure that for each problem reported the customer will get fast response, a ticket number to follow up and first technical assistance to resolve the problem.

The new staff and increased support and development responsibilities prompted a need to expand the office space to accommodate. As a result, the office has undergone a complete overhaul resulting in a space that accommodates the continued growth in the office and is inviting for staff, partners and prospects alike.

REPORT FROM CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT ASIA SHOW

CosmoCom and Datacraft Exhibit in Malaysia

On March 21-23, CosmoCom participated in the Customer Management Asia Congress, in Malaysia. To begin with, CosmoCom and partner Datacraft, demonstrated CosmoCall Universe to eager crowds on the show floor at booth 45. There was quite a lot of interest from visitors to the booth over the three days.

In addition, Rayman Wong, our Regional Sales Director for APAC, based in Hong-Kong spoke on the subject "Redefining the paradigm of the contact center landscape". His presentation focused on what today's businesses expect from modern contact centers and focused on three main requirements:

• the knowledge model – contacts should be handled by the people with the knowledge
• the virtual model – full flexibility in where the people handling the contacts are located
• the on-demand model – costs should be directly related to usage (activity)

At the last moment, Rayman was also asked to chair the "Contact Center Excellence: Turning your cost center into a profit center" session, which he gracefully agreed to. In addition to introducing the speakers and their subjects, Rayman also had the not-so-easy task of keeping the audience attentive in this end-of-the-day session. According to the reaction from the attendees and the organizers, Rayman did a great job. One of his tools was CosmoCom's video clip introducing our IVVR (Interactive Voice and Video Response) capabilities which created a lot of excitement with the audience and generated many questions.  

LAST CALL FOR COSMOCOMMUNITY 2006

Don't Miss the Boat

CosmoCommunity 2006 will be here in just a few more weeks. If you've been meaning to register, there is no time like the present. Availability of rooms at the conference venue, the Hyatt Wind Watch, is dwindling. We'd hate to see you miss out.

Visit the CosmoCommunity website at http://www.cosmocommunity.com to view the agenda and register today. There will be informative sessions, exciting speakers like Lior Arussy and Don Van Doren and a chance to be part of the future of contact center technology.  You'll hear about everything from general trends in the industry  to detailed dives into CosmoCall Universe to users talking candidly about their experiences.

You'll also have ample time to network with peers and meet representatives from our sponsors including: Microsoft, Nekotec Telecom, Broadsoft, NeoCase Software, Audiocodes, Intertec, Riverstar Software, VoiceGenie and VoxPilot

MENTORING TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES

Ari Sonesh and LISTnet Create Mentoring Program

CosmoCom's CEO, Ari Sonesh, along with his fellow members of LISTnet (Long Island Software & Technology Network) have begun an interesting and challenging project - the LISTnet Mentoring Program.

The mission of LISTnet's mentorship program is to encourage entrepreneurship in order to drive economic growth of the software and high technology industry on Long Island. This will be achieved by providing early stage companies with access to practical guidance that comes from real-world experience. The program is expected to contribute to LISTnet's overall mission by yielding:

• More early stage software and high technology companies
• A higher success rate amongst companies receiving mentoring
• Greater visibility for Long Island as a high tech corridor

The mentoring program will provide assistance through group presentations/discussions, one-on-one mentoring, and the guidance of the Advisory Board. A team of cross-disciplined professionals will serve on the Advisory Board, meeting with the entrepreneur one per quarter for a period of one year, after which progress will be reviewed.

We congratulate Ari on his sense of community awareness and thank the LISTnet members for donating their time to the Mentoring Program. This program will surely be a great benefit not only to the individual entrepreneurs receiving the counsel and guidance, but ultimately, through their successful future business ventures, to the entire Long Island economic region.

SHAPING THE FUTURE GENERATION

CosmoCom Helps Third Graders Think About Career Choices

On April 19th, CosmoCom's Headquarters again played host to the third grade class of Paumanok Elementary School for the annual Work to School program. For the past several years, we've enjoyed interacting with some very bright and eloquent young people who have expressed to their teacher an interest in some day joining the corporate work world.

As in previous years, Leron Polani, our VP of Business and Corporate Development, along with Jennifer Kidd, CosmoCom's Human Resources Manager, kicked off the event with a preliminary visit to the school. Here the students had an opportunity to learn about the business world in general, as well as the functions of CosmoCom's various departments. Following Leron's and Jennifer's visit, the students were given a questionnaire to complete, resume-style, to give us an idea of their particular business interests.

Then the following week, the big day arrived! A busload of sharply dressed "applicants" streamed through our Lobby and were ushered into the main Conference Room for a product demo session, which was a resounding hit! The kids eagerly awaited their turns to play Caller and Agent and were wowed as their own voices and video images filled the room!

Following the demo, the children were brought in small groups to be "interviewed" by the managers within the department of their specific interest...Marketing, Sales, QA, HR...and even the Office of the CEO! Judging by their astute questions and rapidfire answers, the workforce of the future will surely have quality candidates!

A special pizza lunch in the CosmoCafe rounded out the day, and after a picture session and some hearty handshakes, our young guests left us...a bit wiser, and a little weary...till the next group of third graders visits in 2007.

WHO'S TALKING? RECENT INK

The April 2006 issue of VON Magazine contains an great  feature article called Enterprise IP Migration Strategies. The article by Richard Grigonis takes a close look at the reality that IP communications is here now, and how vendors and integrators are offering flexible solutions to help enterprises take advantage of that reality. The article is full of quotes and insights that our own EVP Steve Kowarsky shared with Rich including a good section on "Services vs. Premises".

Read the article on the VON Magazine site.

On April 24th, Newsday's A.J. Carter wrote about CEO Ari Sonesh's foray into mentoring prospective local entrepreneurs. Along with fellow members of LISTnet (Long Island Software and Technology Network), Ari has recently embarked upon this very hands-on project, Initially taking a group of four under his wing, Ari said "each of them is different...not all these guys are going to make it, but the idea as a mentor is to give them a chance". Read more about the LISTnet Mentoring Program above.

NEW MEMBERS OF THE COSMOCOM FAMILY

CosmoCom HQ

Parik Suri joined CosmoCom's HQ office as a Systems Engineer in the US Technical Operations Group. Parik hails from New Delhi, India originally and holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Queens College

Alexandru Damien is working in Headquarters as Architecture/VoIP Engineer. With 10+ years of progressive and diversified background predominantly in the telecom industry, Alexandru also holds a Bachelor Of Science in Electrical Engineering from ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE DE MONTREAL – Montreal, Canada

CosmoCom Hong Kong

Eddy Lo joined CosmoCom in early April as a System Engineer in the Hong Kong office. Eddy comes to us with over 12 years of work experience with CCNA, MCSE and ITIL, and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Information Technology from the National University of Ireland.

CosmoCom Israel

Idan Segev and Rafael Lavi have both recently joined CosmoCom as a Systems Engineers.

CosmoCom Singapore

Joseph Neo has joined CosmoCom Singapore as Regional Sales Manager for South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Prior to joining Cosmocom, Joseph Neo was with Microsoft Asia – and Datacraft Asia. He graduated from Singapore Nanyang Technological Institute with an engineering degree, majoring in Data Communications

CosmoCom Japan

Kaori Tomizuka has joined CosmoCom as Office Manager in Japan where she brings her extensive administrative, accounting and organizational skills.
 

TRADESHOW NEWS: COMING ATTRACTIONS

	CosmoCommunity 2006 May 16th - 18th, 2006 Hyatt Wind Watch Hotel and Resort Hauppauge, NY, USA   CosmoCom's premiere partner and user event. Learn more and register.
	7th Annual Call Center Week June 12 - 16, 2006 Venetian Resort Las Vegas, NV, USA http://www.iqpc.com/cgi-bin/templates/singlecell.html?topic=233&event=9811
	ACCE (Annual Call Center Exhibition) September 11 - 13, 2006  Washington State Convention and Trade Center Seattle, WA, USA http://www.accecmp.com See CosmoCom in Booth 516
	VON Fall September 11 - 14, 2006  Boston Convention Center Boston, MA, USA http://www.von.com/ See CosmoCom in Booth 1637
	RECORDED WEBINARS
	View recordings of our Webinar events including "Hosted Contact Center for Outsourcers", "Contact Center On-Demand" and "Telecom Customer Care"

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	SUPPORTNET UPDATES
	CosmoCom continues to improve CosmoCall Universe. The latest support updates are now available on SupportNet including, new Hot Fix bundles and Microsoft updates have passed QA for CosmoCall Universe deployment. SupportNet is CosmoCom's online support extranet for customers and partners. If you have not yet obtained your secure login information, please contact your CosmoCom representative or send an email to supportnet@cosmocom.com.

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