CRM News: Call Centers: CosmoCom Delivers Call Center in a Box

For the past few years, CosmoCom focused almost exclusively on the high-end market with product lines aimed at service providers and large enterprise call centers. Now with Cosmo-One outfitted for 10 to 75 seats, the company is going back to its roots, Yankee Group program manager Ken Landoline told CRM Buyer.

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Call center software developer CosmoCom normally has an appetite for enterprise-scale customers. Now, it is employing a new business model with a product introduced in South Korea aimed at small and mid-sized businesses.

CosmoCom teamed with KT Networks -- a company within the Korea Telecom family focused on network integration and telecom service -- to introduce Cosmo-One, an IP-based contact center for smaller companies.

If CosmoCom teams up with similarly positioned distributors, the software maker will roll out the product in other regions as well, Steve Kowarsky, executive vice president told CRM Buyer.

One Code Base, One Server

Cosmo-One is a hardware and software contact center appliance that uses the same code base as CosmoCall Universe but modified for SMBs, Kowarsky said.

"We worked with a major channel -- Korea Telecom -- to simplify the installation and configuration and keep everything on a single server," he added.

Korea Telecom will white label the product under a partnership agreement with CosmoCom.

"What we hope is that the Korea Telecom deal will become an example to other potential channels," said Kowarsky.

The partners do not have to be telcos, he suggested. Other possibilities could be telecom equipment providers that want to enter the multimedia IP contact center space.

Low-End Demand

"SMBs are getting to a level of sophistication where they are looking for more advanced contact center functionality," Landoline noted.

There is similar demand in Korea, where call centers with fewer than 50 seats represent nearly one-third of Korea's market, according to KT Networks' research.

"The environment of call center operations in Korea is rapidly changing into a type of integrated IP-based contact center," said Kim Yo-dong, president of KT Networks. "Cosmo-One is in tune with this trend."