ENABLING HEALTH PLANS TO FULFILL CONSUMER HEALTH INSURANCE NEEDS

Agile Contact Center Platform + Microsoft Dynamics CRM Empower BPO for Health Plans

CosmoCom recently announced that progressive healthcare insurance business process outsourcer (BPO), ColibriumDirect, is using CosmoCom cloud-based virtual call center technology in conjunction with Microsoft's Health Plan Sales Solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM to help major health plans to provide US consumers with faster, more cost-effective access to private health insurance.

"With CosmoCom's cloud-based agent desktop technology and Microsoft's Health Plan Sales Solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Colibrium can now offer health plans a flexible way to quickly and easily move their marketing and sales processes online, reduce member acquisition costs, and proactively manage and monitor their sales, member service and retention processes," said Dennis Schmuland, worldwide managing director, health insurance industry, Microsoft Health and Life Sciences.

"I have been building call centers for over ten years. The technology piece is usually the biggest challenge, and in particular the dialer systems...," shared Brian Will, CEO of ColibriumDirect, "However, the implementation of CosmoCom's technology  was the smoothest I've ever experienced and the support we've gotten has been unparalleled."

Learn more, including why Colibrium selected CosmoCom technology over the competition.

LOOKING AHEAD BY LOOKING BACK

Thoughts on the Year Past and the Year Ahead

By Dr. Ben Eisner, President of CosmoCom - Happy New Year! I hope 2011 is off to as good a start for you as it is for CosmoCom. I want to take this opportunity to share with you a few reflections on the past year as well as why I'm so excited for the year ahead.

From a macro point of view, there were strong signs that - toward the second half of 2010 - the global economy started to recover from the economic downturn of the preceding years. This was evident in the performance of our direct sales force as well as our channel partners and service providers. We finished the year on another strong and profitable note, entering 2011 with an even stronger pipeline and many strategic initiatives that are sure to accelerate our success.

And as far as the market is concerned, we are excited about this "new" buzz in our industry - the Cloud. This is what CosmoCom has been preaching for years. This is what we know better than anyone else, as we were not just talking about the Cloud/Hosting applications for a very long time, but we actually were - and are - delivering and defining, for the rest of the industry, this new re-found frontier - called “Cloud-Computing”.

One only has to look to our service provider partners around the world to see that interest in the public cloud is indeed growing. Across the board our partners saw accelerated demand from their respective markets and were more than happy to accommodate with their cloud-based contact center offerings powered by CosmoCom. Furthermore, we continue to add more service providers to our growing list, including some large, unnamed providers that have white-labeled our technology, but sometimes anonymity is the side-effect of having such a flexible platform.

The flexibility of CosmoCall Universe is part of what has allowed us to excel in the private cloud space as well. We saw many innovative applications of our virtual contact center technology across all business types but especially in the healthcare, outsourcer and telecom internal customer care verticals with many more in the pipeline.

When I speak of the cloud, don’t assume that I am only talking about inbound contact center. A growing segment of our end-users in both the public and private cloud (including some of our largest customers around the world) are using the powerful virtual outbound capabilities of CosmoCall Universe for their predictive dialing campaigns. We see this trend growing steadily into the future, especially in verticals like healthcare (for disease management and lifestyle coaching) and collections to name a few.

I am confident that the increased market demand for cloud-based technologies combined with CosmoCom's level of field-proven product maturity in both the public and private clouds, will make 2011 an exceptional year. I wish you and your business success and prosperity in 2011 and beyond.

CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF CONTACT CENTER

The word may bring frowns to people's faces when the weatherman makes his forecast, but when it comes to business these days "cloud" is a welcome term nearly everywhere you turn. Why all the buzz about "the cloud" and what do variants like private cloud and the public cloud mean? Haven't the concepts been around for a long time as roses of another name? They certainly have for CosmoCom who has been successfully developing and selling cloud-based contact center platforms since the nineties.

Many great ideas are ahead of their time and must wait for the world to catch on and understand their benefits - especially in business. Some organizations figure it out early and get a jump on the competition, but when it comes to the cloud it's never too late to realize real benefits - something the market is realizing in a big way. This is especially true of cloud-based contact center which you may already know as SaaS contact center, virtual contact center, hosted contact center, contact center on-demand, etc....Get the idea?

The nice thing about the term "cloud" is that it is easier to visualize than some of the other terms, some of which may have become associated with a particular delivery method over time. For instance, many people associate the term "hosted contact center" as customer communications services acquired from an external service provider like a telecom. In cloud terms this would be referring to the public cloud. Yet a growing number of enterprises are "self-hosting" their virtual contact center and making it accessible across their distributed organization including home agents and outsourcers when appropriate. This is what is now being called "private cloud."

Either way, it is easier to visualize all of the contact center components within an imaginary cloud with all end-points virtually connected. Yet regardless of whose cloud the technology is delivered from and how it is provisioned, benefits like fast and flexible deployment, location independence, resource pooling, universal reporting and recording, consolidation and more are sure to increase the popularity of cloud-based contact center long into the future. CosmoCom's unified, all-IP contact center suite excels in all types of clouds.

Whether you're an enterprise looking to improve your contact center or a service provider looking to add new services, engage us to listen to your needs and see how we can help you.

WHERE TO FIND COSMOCOM IN Q1

Don't Miss Us on the Road this Quarter

With the new year in full swing, we want to make sure you're aware of some of the upcoming Q1 shows. Please come and talk with our experts who are always happy to listen to your contact center and customer communications needs and show you how CosmoCall Universe can help you meet them. We'll be adding more events to the line-up so be sure to check our events page often for the latest list of live events and on-demand webcasts.

Starting off the list in Germany, CosmoCom will once again be exhibiting at CallCenterWorld 2011 in Berlin from 22 - 24 February. You'll find us in stand 1A17 and if you don't already have an expo pass you can be our guest using this free one day expo pass compliments of CosmoCom.

Days later in sunny Orlando, Florida you will find CosmoCom as a silver sponsor of Enterprise Connect (formerly known as VoiceCon) at the Gaylord Palms from 28 February to 2 March. Make sure you stop by booth 1309 to learn how your enterprise can benefit from unified customer communications and contact center consolidation.

In mid-March we invite attendees of the Channel Partners Conference and Expo at the Aria Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada to stop by booth 1336 to talk to learn about joining the virtual revolution as a CosmoCom service provider, integrator or reseller.

Finally, wrapping up Q1 you'll find CosmoCom representatives in booth 305 at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association Call Center and MTM Conference in New Orleans. If you are a health plan provider make sure you meet with us to learn how your peers have already benefitted from CosmoCom's CosmoHealth offering, including the integration with the Health Plan Sales Solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM mentioned above.

GLOBAL SALES AND ENGINEERING MEETINGS SET THE COURSE FOR 2011

Despite the exceptionally cold and snowy start to the year on Long Island, the CosmoCom global sales team and special guests gathered for our annual Global Sales Meeting (GSM) and Global Sales Engineering Meeting (GSEM) in New York during the second week of January.

This year the enthusiasm was at a record high as team member after team member shared countless success stories and best practices from increasingly larger and diverse implementations from around the globe. Stories of innovative applications and unique integrations were plentiful. It is always impressive to see what can and is being done with our agile contact center platform.

As Ben Eisner talks about in his reflections above, the cloud is one of the hot topics of the day, so it was only fitting that the cloud was also the unifying theme for the week. Interactive sessions were designed to capitalize on our success in the space and prepare our teams to soar in 2011. In addition, everyone was inspired by a special guest speaker from one of our premier global service providers who further punctuated just how fast cloud-based contact center is growing as the world catches on to its benefits.

Of course, another good reason for bringing the global team together under one roof is to strengthen internal bonds and build camaraderie. While the days included plenty of team building workshops, each evening was filled with fun activities to stimulate interaction across the organization. One of the more memorable evenings was a private event at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden CIty, NY where everyone had a great time getting to know each other better while wining and dining in this microcosm of aviation history. Everyone even got the chance to ride in a simulation of a world-famous Blue Angels precision flying jet, which prepared them to soar in the years ahead!

RECIPE FOR VIRTUAL CONTACT CENTER SUCCESS IN DALLAS

If you will be within driving distance of the Dallas area on March 3, you may be interested in joining CosmoCom and BenchmarkPortal for a half-day event that looks at the operational and technical considerations for building the recipe for virtual contact center success. And after the interactive sessions, participants will get to enjoy a gourmet lunch from the local culinary academy.

If you are interested in filling your mind with information on virtual contact center and your stomach with some great food, contact Anthony Malley at +1-631-940-4202 to learn more. Seating is very limited.

Importance of Buyer Relationships
Inspired by our CosmoCom and CSD Improving Communications for Deaf and Hearing Impaired announcement in November, Jaz'd Communications reached out to CSD to learn more. In addition to writing more on the topic, the writer also posted a story dedicated to how good relationships between buyers and responsive vendors can make a difference. In the article "Buyer: relationship is most important factor in telecom purchases,"  one of CSD's directors shares...

"Of course cutting-edge technology came into play, but we've had a long and very successful relationship with them [CosmoCom], and that was the primary factor in our decision. CosmoCom and the platform they've delivered have been great for our deaf and hard-of-hearing clientele."

TRADESHOW NEWS: COMING ATTRACTIONS

	CallCenterWorld 2011 February 22 - 24, 2011 Estrel Convention Center Berlin, Germany Use this free one day expo pass compliments of CosmoCom Join CosmoCom in Stand 1A17
	Enterprise Connect Gaylord Palms Hotel Feb 28 - March 2, 2011 Orlando, FL, USA http://www.enterpriseconnect.com/orlando/ CosmoCom is a Silver Sponsor of this event - Booth 1309
	Channel Partners Conference & Expo March 13 - 15, 2011 Aria Resort and Casino Las Vegas, NV, USA http://www.channelpartnersconference.com/2011/vegas Booth 1336
	Blue Cross Blue Shield Association 2011 Call Center and MTM Conference March 27 - 30, 2011 Marriott New Orleans New Orleans, LA, USA Learn about CosmoCom's Healthcare Communications Solutions in Booth 305
	On-Demand WEBINAR Do's and Don'ts of Successful Virtual Contact Center Implementations CosmoCom and BenchmarkPortal present this informative on-demand webcast on what you should and shouldn't do when implementing a virtual call center. View On-Demand Now
	American Telemedicine Association - ATA 20111 Tampa Convention Center Tampa, FL, USA  http://www.americantelemed.org/ATA2011/ Mark you calendars early to see CosmoCom in booth 622 in May
	Best Practices for Planning a Multi-Site Call Center Deployment   In this on-demand webinar on Multi-site Contact Center Deployment, ContactBabel founder Steve Morrell shares key findings from their research and CosmoCom's Steve Kaish explores best practices for achieving good results, and details of successful migrations to virtual contact centers in both mid-size and large-size operations. View on-demand now
	MORE ON-DEMAND WEBINARS
	View On-Demand Webinars including "New Horizons in Telehealth", "Consolidation 2.0", "Hosted Contact Center for Outsourcers", "Contact Center On-Demand" and "Telecom Customer Care"

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