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SITEL, West TeleServices
Pick Georgia, Alabama
SITEL Corp., one of the largest U.S. teleservices firms, has chosen Augusta, Ga., for a technical support call center that will eventually employ about 500 people.

The company will outfit a 50,000-sq.-ft. (4,645-sq.-m.) former Wal-Mart retail store with approximately 400 work stations to handle service calls for high-tech clients such as Compaq, 3Com and Hughes Electronics. The facility will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

SITEL chose Augusta primarily because of its available work force and available real estate.

West TeleServices Corp., one of the leading independent teleservices firms in the United States, has opened a new call center in Dothan, Ala., creating about 300 jobs. Some 60 percent of the jobs will be full-time positions.

"The pro-business mindset and excellent pool of prospective employees makes Dothan a great choice for further West expansion," says John Ervin, president of West's Direct Teleservices Division.

Bell Atlantic Mobile's
South Carolina Move
Bell Atlantic Mobile has chosen the Columbia, S.C., area for a new call center that will create 500 new jobs, mostly for skilled customer service representatives to answer the growing number of customer calls.

"We had a 50 percent jump in customers during the first quarter over last year, thanks to the popularity of our SingleRate digital price plans," says Executive Vice President and COO Jack Plating. "Columbia provides us with a talented, experienced work force and a first-rate facility in an area where we already have a significant presence."

The firm also operates a regional headquarters in Greenvile, S.C., and a large wireless network operation in Charlotte, N.C.

Business, Not Beaches:
Southco Chooses Hawaii
When Southco CEO and Chairman of the Board Steve Kelly told his board of directors that Hawaii was the right place for the firm's new call center, they were circumspect, to say the least. Indeed, some hinted that perhaps the location choice was merely Kelly's ploy to spend some time on the state's beautiful beaches.

Actually, the company did eventually select a beach location, about a half-hour south of Honolulu -- but only after Kelly explained the many sound business reasons for the choice. The state made perfect sense for Southco (www.southco.com), a 100-year-old, Philadelphia-based company that makes proprietary access hardware for the telecommunications, computer, automotive and other industries. "We help people get into things -- or keep people from getting into things," Kelly explains.

The computer industry and telecom industry are moving a lot of manufacturing operations to Asia, and that trend was the primary driver for planning a new call center in the region, he says.

Southco needed a location in Asia with a stable political climate that would attract both young engineers and their spouses and families. Telecom was important too, and Hawaii fit the bill. "Hawaii has a very impressive fiber-optic system," Kelly says. "The U.S. military satellites download data there, and Hawaii has the biggest concentration of satellite-tracking equipment in the world."

Finally, language abilities were a strength for Hawaii, as was the state's time zone. "Hawaii has a higher percentage of bilingual residents than any other state in the union," Kelly reports. And a Hawaiian location offers Southco the opportunity to talk to customers on the U.S. East Coast, as well as in Tokyo or Singapore, during normal business hours.

Partway through his site search, Kelly says, the Hawaii governor's office connected him with the state's Dept. of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. "The support we received from the agency was tremendous," he says.

Southco's new facility is now open, calling on customers in places like China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Singapore. "We're very happy with it," Kelly says.