International Call Centers -- Site Selection magazine, January 2000

International
Call Centers(cover)

Key Business
Concerns Driving
Call Center Growth

Labor, Telecom Top List
of Location Factors

United States

Canada

Europe

Asia-Pacific

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Sprint PCS Picks Illinois
Sprint PCS made a clear, strong connection with Illinois, selecting Bolingbrook for a new customer care center that will create 1,200 high-tech jobs. The company is investing about $17 million in the 105,000-sq.-ft. (9,755-sq.-m.) facility.

"The Chicagoland area is not only a great place to locate our newest customer care center, but also an area that we treasure highly as a part of the Sprint PCS nationwide wireless network," says Senior Vice President of Operations Keith Paglusch.

The state is providing grants from its Industrial Training Program to help train employees in the use of high-tech computer equipment. Other assistance includes low-interest financing, property tax abatements and highway improvements in the vicinity of the site.

Above left: Sprint PCS's 75,00 sq.-ft. customer care center in Rio Rancho, N.M., will eventually employ an estimated 1,200.

"This new call center is a prototype for the kind of high-tech employers that we're working to bring to Illinois," says Pam McDonough, director of the Illinois Dept. of Commerce and Community Affairs.

Omaha Lands ADT, U S West
Omaha has long been ground zero for cutting-edge telecommunications services. In the 1960s, for instance, long before most of the world even glimpsed the coming digital communications revolution, it was installing the globe's first ISDN line -- in part to serve the critical communications needs of the United States Strategic Air Command.

U S West Those telecom services helped attract large numbers of credit-card processing and data management facilities in the 1970s and 1980s. And in the 1990s, Omaha's telecom infrastructure has lured numerous call centers.

For example, ADT Security Services, whose systems guard homes and businesses throughout the United States, recently revealed plans to establish an $11 million call center in suburban Papillion that initially will employ 400 to 500. The 50,000-sq.-ft. (4,645-sq.-m.) facility will be built in the city-owned Papillion Business and Technology Park.

Above right: Gearing up: Dan Ross, left, Theresa Brown and Brad Stephens prepare to open U S West's specialized customer service center in Omaha, Neb., that eventually will employ 250 people.

"This is a Fortune 500 firm that obviously had a choice," says Rod Moseman, vice president for economic development with the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce. "It's obviously very exciting and rewarding."

Other big Omaha moves include U S West's new customer care center, which will employ 250 when fully staffed in early 2000. "This center will help us make dramatic improvements in the experience our customers receive when they order from us," says Mardy Cloyes, vice president of strategic customer initiatives.

"We have a long and positive history of working together with our elected officials, who have fostered a progressive telecommunications environment that promotes investment, competition and the deployment of the latest in technology and services," adds Rex Fisher, U S West vice president-Nebraska. "Here in Nebraska, we have a telecommunications infrastructure second to none."

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