VIDEO IN CALL CENTERS

Call Centers Need to Invest in Technology That Makes Them Future Proof

By Ari Sonesh - Recently I wrote about disruptive technologies, and mentioned IP and the Internet as being disruptive technology that enables new applications and new ways to do business. I also mentioned video as one of the new applications of the technology. The question is: will video be the next big thing in Call Centers? In my opinion, the answer is a clear YES. In this article I will explain why I'm convinced that video in the call center will happen, beginning now. 

Naysayers would assert that there is no value in video -- it's not practical, call centers will have to hire for appearance, design special lighting, and so on. I don't agree. The value of video is that it personalizes contact with a customer. It's all about the smile. We relate much better to a person whose body language, and especially whose smile, we can see. We teach customer service reps to put a smile in their voice. With video, customers will get the real thing, see the real smile. The reps don't need to be beautiful or handsome. They need to be nice, and nice people smile. A smile is reassuring and trust-creating. To buy, we have to trust -- both the organization and the person. Is the extra expense in equipment and lighting worthwhile? It is a very small price to pay for the benefits of the competitive advantage, customer loyalty and increased sales it will bring.

Call Centers help to create a company or product brand. In their recent book Brand Sense : Build Powerful Brands through Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight, and Sound, Philip Kotler and Martin Lindstrom claim that brands are like courtship. Just as people do in personal relationships, the best companies use all five sensual dimensions to woo the customer. Up to now, Call Centers used only one of the five senses - sound; now they can add sight. 

I envisioned and Cosmocom prototyped Video Call Centers in 1996. We used my home Sony video camera and a capture card. It was a great demo for prospective investors. Video Telephony is one of the media included in our two groundbreaking patents.

If that is so, why haven't Video Call Centers become popular yet? Several things had to happen first. Just as facsimile didn't take off until there were enough terminals, video call centers require enough video-enabled telephones. This is happening right now. The new generation of mobile phones is video enabled. Most people renew their mobile phones at least every year or two. So, in the very near future, there will be tens and hundreds of millions of video mobile phones. Moreover, the video revolution is not confined to mobile phones. I just came back from a business trip to Japan. The pocket in the back seat of my taxi contained a brochure for an NTT home or business video phone (picture above). And it's not only Japan. For example, France Telecom and Orange are now actively promoting video phones.

Another key-enabler that needed to happen is the availability of the bandwidth required by video. Now our homes and businesses have broadband connections. There are now about 150 million broadband subscribers in the world, and IMS research expects 400 million by 2009. Furthermore, the 3G mobile networks being rolled out by most carriers are designed around IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) architecture and the 3G-324M protocol for real-time conversational video telephony.

Actually, this technology change brings up another driver behind video - the marketing push. Carriers need applications to fill up the all this available bandwidth, and conversational video telephony is being marketed for that reason.

There are already several CosmoCom customers utilizing video for specialized applications. Shoplive uses it to demonstrate products. CSD uses it to serve the hearing-impaired community, allowing them to use the sign language to communicate with interpreters, who relay the communication via voice to hearing people using standard phones.

CosmoCom is well positioned to take advantage of the video trend. Video is native to the CosmoCall Universe architecture. We support video out-of-the-box. It took us only 10 minutes to connect to one carrier's 3G network to demonstrate video telephony in call center. Does everybody need to supports video in his center now? No, but call centers need to invest in technology that is future-proof. CosmoCom technology is designed with the flexibility to address future needs like video.

Get ready for a video-everywhere future, long foreseen, but finally coming, very soon.

COSMOCOM SPONSORS INDIA SHOW WITH VSNL

On February 21 - 23, Terrrapin organized in New Delhi the Customer Contact World Asia 2005 conference and show. CosmoCom was one of the sponsors of the conference.

Meir Yaniv, CosmoCom's Sr. V.P. for Market Development was invited to chair the morning plenary session on Tuesday, February the 22nd. At the session, Meir presented the subject - "CCOD - the user view" and CosmoCom partner VSNL (part of Tata group) followed up with a presentation of their new offering RACC (Rent A Call Center) based upon CosmoCom technology. Both presentations were well received, stimulating many questions from the audience. As the chair of the session, Meir had the difficult task of ending the flow of questions in order to keep the schedule on time.

At the show, CosmoCom shared a booth with VSNL, one of the premier Indian Telecom Service Providers. VSNL ran live demonstrations of the capabilities of CosmoCall Universe, including integration with CRMnext, which is currently available in 9 countries throughout the world. The news about the introduction of RACC, the strong reputation of VSNL, and the remarkable product functionality, combined to attract many visitors to the booth, who were even more impressed to learn that the demo system was created in just a few days, including the integration with CRMnext.

The success of the conference and the show proved that CosmoCom's timing in entering the Indian market, and its strategy of partnering with a service provider of VSNL's stature, are correct.

 COSMOCOM END-USER PRESENTS IN ON-DEMAND CONTACT CENTER SESSION

You may recall from last month's issue of CosmoChronicle that CosmoCom was an exhibitor at the first, IP Online virtual show that took place in cyberspace in mid-February. CosmoCom also played a role in two of the live online sessions.

One of these sessions was named "On Demand Contact Centers in an IP Environment." The session, moderated by Vanguard's Jason Alley, began with a comprehensive introduction to the concept of on-demand contact centers and featured presentations by several end-users of this exciting technology. Among them was Jim Veilleux, President of VoiceLog, which is one of the customers of EagleACD, an On Demand provider that uses CosmoCom's platform to host its offering.

Jim spoke about his experiences as an end-user of ODCC and addressed such issues as: business drivers that led him to the model, his provider selection process, business continuity, and the benefits that VoiceLog has realized since moving to an on-demand contact center.

For a limited time you can view a recording of this fascinating session. 

CALL CENTERS IN THE CLOUD?

CallCenter Magazine Article Explores the Virtues of Hosted Contact Center

"Forget the 'call center in a box.' It's time to start thinking about the call center in a cloud. The cloud, that is, of the network itself," begins Keith Dawson in his February CallCenter Magazine feature article called "Call Centers in the Cloud."

In the popular CommWeb publication Mr. Dawson examines the hosted contact center model as an attractive alternative to traditional premise-based contact center offerings. He explores the advantages of the hosted model from an end user perspective and goes on to talk about the sectors in which the concept is taking hold, most notably among outsourcers who are coming to recognize the impact that offering hosted call center services can have on their business.

The article prominently features some of the industry thought leadership of CosmoCom's own EVP, Steve Kowarsky as well as some insight from CosmoCom service provider EagleACD. You can read the article in the CallCenter Magazine website at http://www.callcentermagazine.com/shared/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=59301117. 

 COSMOCOM WINS CONTACTCENTERWORLD.COM AWARD

Users Choose CosmoCall Universe as Best Multi-channel Solution in EMEA

CosmoCom has won the contact center industry's top award for Best Multi-Channel Contact Center Solution in the 2005 ContactCenterWorld.com Members' Choice Awards. CosmoCom won the awards for Best Multi-Channel Solution in EMEA. These awards are unique as users vote for the winners and there are no judging panels.

Commenting on the awards, Raj Wadhwani, Founder & Editor In Chief added, for the 3rd year the industry honors the best of the best. This year competition was extremely high amongst the 83 entrants and over 3500 members voted. Unlike any other award program that has gone before, ours recognizes a company's achievement in whatever regions of the world they operate in. For CosmoCom this will be a great award - the quality of the votes from their customers was exceptional and this is why they won the award. It goes without saying that we feel every company who entered deserves credit for putting themselves in a program where customers vote - a challenge that many other vendors in the industry would not entertain!."

CosmoCom CEO Ari Sonesh commented, "CosmoCom has won many industry awards and we are proud of all of them. However, the unique value of the Member's Choice Award is that it is based on the judgment of customers and end-users. These are the judgments we value most highly. Therefore, the Member's Choice Award is a very special one for us."

 COSMOCOM REORGANIZES TECHNICAL SERVICE ORGANIZATION

Hires Natan Stein to Head its Technical Services for EMEA and APAC

CosmoCom recently reorganized its technical services organization to support the fast growth that we and our customers have been experiencing and to guarantee excellent service, something that we are well known for, as attested by our customers. 

Technical Services, also know as Engineering, has moved under the direction of CTO Steve Dellutri. The reorganization move improves the efficiency and synergy between the support team and the development team which is also headed by Mr. Dellutri. Steve will be directly supported in the Americas by CosmoCom veteran, Frank Matthes. In addition CosmoCom has hired Natan Stein as AVP of International Technical Services where he will be leading the technical service functions for EMEA and APAC. He will be working out of our Israel office, where the time zone is better for supporting these regions.

CEO Ari Sonesh sees the move as a way to, "Reaffirm our commitment to providing best possible service to our customers." This sentiment is backed up by Steve Dellutri who adds, "My charter is to make sure that our commitment to quality support grows in lockstep with the expansion of our business."

 AN END TO THE TELECOM INDUSTRY SLUMP

Global Revenues to Grow to USD 1.5 Trillion in 2010

According to a new study by Insight Research, worldwide telecommunications services revenue is expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 5.9 percent from 2005 to 2010, which reflects the level of sustainable growth enjoyed by the telecom segment prior to the technology bubble of the late 1990s.

While the past few years were brutal for the telecommunications industry, The 2005 Telecom Industry Review: An Anthology of Market Facts and Forecasts predicts that worldwide telecommunications industry services revenue will grow from $1.1 trillion in 2005 to $1.5 trillion in 2010, bringing a definitive end to the industry slump of the past few years. The study notes that telecommunications revenue will be uneven, with North America showing the lowest growth rate, and Asia-Pacific the highest. The study highlights fast growing industry segments such as VoIP, WiFi and streaming media, technological innovations in fiber optics, DWDM and WDM.

NEW MEMBERS OF THE COSMOCOM FAMILY

CosmoCom Headquarters

Roman Lewis, AVP Sales, Central & Western US
Roman comes to CosmoCom with great contact center experience, most recently with RightNow Technologies, and prior to that 6 years with Aspect in Sales Engineering and Account Executive roles. Earlier in his career Roman was with Octel Communications, and with Commonwealth Edison in Chicago. Roman will work from his virtual office in Chicago.

Anthony Malley, Inside Sales Representative
Anthony joins CosmoCom as a supporting member of our growing sales team in the Americas. Anthony has more than a decade of sales support and customer service experience with technology companies.

CosmoCom Netherlands

Johanna Jacobs, Executive Assistant 
Johanna takes on the role of Executive Assistant for the new EMEA headquarters in the Netherlands. She brings with her nearly two decades of office management and administrative experience.

TRADESHOW NEWS: RECORDED WEBINARS

	RECORDED WEBINARS
	Hosted Contact Centers Driving New Revenues for Outsourced Providers   Took place November 10, 2004 Find out more and view recording
	Meeting the Telecom Customer Care Challenge  Reducing Costs and Enhancing Service with the  IP-Based Virtual Call Center  Took place June 17, 2004 Find out more and view recording
	Why Contact Center On-Demand? The Bright Future of a New Service Delivery Model  Took Place April 14, 2004 Find out more and view recording