Interesting news came across the wire this morning. CosmoCom announced the release of UniFrame, a solution that integrates the CosmoCom Universe and Microsoft Customer Care Framework.

The full release is below. To learn more about CosmoCom, please visit their Hosted Contact Center channel on TMCnet by clicking here.

CosmoCom Announces UniFrame Offering

UniFrame Dramatically Simplifies System Integration for Complex Call Centers

MELVILLE, N.Y— May 2, 2005 — CosmoCom™ today announced availability of UniFrame™, an integrated combination of CosmoCom’s flagship product CosmoCall Universe™ and Microsoft Customer Care Framework (CCF). CosmoCom also announced that Technology Marketing Corporation’s (TMC®) Customer Interaction Solutions® magazine (www.cismag.com) has named CosmoCom and Microsoft as the recipients of a 2005 IP Contact Center Technology Pioneer Award for the UniFrame offering.

UniFrame represents a dramatic step forward in the unification of contact center technology. Every contact center today includes two main components -- a communication platform and an information platform. Unification, both within the many elements of each of these platforms and between these two main components, is much needed to reduce the high cost and high risk associated with call center projects, and UniFrame is a giant step in the right direction.

CosmoCall Universe is an all-IP platform whose hallmark has always been the unification of the Communication platform including the ACD, CTI, IVR, Agent Desktop, Recording, and Reporting functions across all media and all channels. Microsoft Customer Care Framework creates an agile information integration and presentation framework that allows contact center agents to access service configuration and billing information in highly flexible and effective ways, no matter where and how that information is maintained.

By integrating these two components to create UniFrame, CosmoCom has enabled a real quantum leap in the contact center today – one that can gracefully take its place in the most complex information application environments and dramatically improve the time and cost picture of contact center implementation and ongoing operation.

“UniFrame is an easily integrated and cost-effective solution for customer care aimed at service providers, using Windows Server System as the carrier-grade server platform, ” said Michael O'Hara, general manager of the Communications Sector at Microsoft Corp. “The solution combines CosmoCom’s expertise in hosted contact centers and Microsoft Customer Care Framework to accelerate time to market and provide an overall lower-risk investment.”

“CosmoCom has always used Microsoft tools within its own platform, so integrating CCF with our CosmoCall Universe was not only very compelling for us, but also relatively easy to do, especially with the active cooperation of Microsoft.” said Ari Sonesh, CosmoCom’s CEO. “We look forward to providing the benefits of this combined effort to existing and new customers.”

New this year, the IP Contact Center Technology Pioneer Award recognizes companies that have created a successful IP contact center product or service that is truly innovative.

“TMC realizes that technology is the key to the success of any call center, and we have been covering call center technology since 1982. This is why TMC is offering this awards program, so we can judge the ‘best of the best’ in IP contact center technology,” said Nadji Tehrani, Executive Group Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Customer Interaction Solutions. “With the UniFrame offering, CosmoCom and Microsoft have demonstrated to the editors of Customer Interaction Solutions their innovative leadership in the burgeoning IP contact center industry, and their ability to deliver a superior, high quality solution,” Tehrani continued.

The IP Contact Center Technology Pioneer Award highlights can be seen in the March 2005 issue of Customer Interaction Solutions magazine.