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EchoStar, Convergys,
TicketMaster Choose Texas
It seems everything's bigger in Texas -- including call centers. Several high-profile firms are establishing large facilities in border communities, drawn by those cities' ample labor availability.

EchoStar Communications, for instance, has chosen El Paso for a 100,000-sq.-ft. (9,290-sq.-m.) in-bound sales and customer service center to serve DISH Network satellite television customers. The company anticipates employing as many as 2,000 employees within five years.

El Paso's attractions included a bilingual work force, good labor availability, competitive wage rates and enterprise zone incentives.

Convergys has opened several new call centers in Texas. Its new 600-seat facility in Pharr, for example, is expected to employ 1,000. Convergys's new 300-seat call center opened last year in Killeen, where the company already had a 1,000-seat facility. And yet another Convergys call center will open in Brownsville.

Pharr also recently attracted TicketMaster's 800-employee facility, a national in-bound center for marketing incentives and even ticket sales.

In Irving, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, credit-card leader Capital One has announced a $17.6 million call center that will create at least 800 jobs.

General Motors
Software Spectrum Pick Tampa
According to a recent study by Deloitte & Touche Fantus Consulting, Florida grabbed some 14,500 of the estimated 60,000 call center jobs announced nationwide in 1998. The Sunshine State's hottest place for those facilities moves? Tampa. Call centers added some 3,630 jobs in the Tampa-St. Petersburg metro area in 1998.

Tampa's robust call center growth continued apace in 1999. The biggest new move is General Motors' selection of NetPark @ Tampa Bay, in the former Eastlake Square Mall, for a facility that eventually will employ 600.

GM consolidated eight call centers in southeastern Michigan into three new sites, including Tampa. When owners of Buicks, Pontiacs, Chevrolets, GMCs, Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs have questions about their cars, their 1-800 calls go to one of those three new locations. The majority of the Tampa center's staff will work for Sitel Corp., an outsourcing firm that GM hired to operate the facility. "Sitel has probably 700 employees there, and GM about 100," reports Robin Ronne, director of economic development for the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce/Committee of 100.

Not far behind Tampa's state-leading growth was Lakeland, Fla., which added about 3,500 call center positions in 1998, and Jacksonville, Fla., which boosted call center employment by 2,800. GEICO is adding 3,000 jobs in Lakeland, while Citigroup, Bombardier Capital and Humana expansions account for most of Jacksonville's call center growth.