Acxiom employs 3,000-plus associates in Arkansas that earn an average salary twice the state average.

    Many higher paying, knowledge-based jobs come from the information technology sector. Arkansas, in fact, serves as home to two internationally prominent information technology firms: ALLTEL and Acxiom.
      Acxiom employs 3,000-plus associates in Arkansas that earn an average salary twice the state average. Today, the company is developing two new facilities: a 12-story facility in downtown Little Rock and a second building in West Little Rock.
      Last year, ALLTEL invested $2.8 million to expand its operations in Harrison, Ark., adding 200 new inbound-service call jobs. Relationships with state and local officials helped both firms expand in Arkansas.
      "The Conway (Ark.) Development Corp. very innovatively gave a major gift to the University of Central Arkansas, which is about a 9,000-student state university in Conway," notes Jerry Adams, corporate leader for economic development and community relations with Acxiom. "They gave a three-year, $300,000 grant to the computer science department at the university in our name as well as ALLTEL's name."
      Work-force training and education also play key roles in ALLTEL's and Acxiom's success. Both firms work closely with the universities to develop the curriculums and training programs.
      "We have seven targeted universities, four of which are in Arkansas," says Adams, who chairs the university relations committee for Acxiom. "We work very closely with the computer science and technology professors."
      Allison Nicholas, team leader of college recruiting for Acxiom, notes that Arkansas' EAST (Environmental and Special Technology) initiative helps Acxiom and other technology-related industries with developing labor skills throughout the state. The high school-based initiative, originally founded in Arkansas and now spreading throughout the country, places students in a lab-based environment with a facilitator to prepare students for a technology-driven world. Acxiom, through benchmarking sessions, developed the teaming process used by EAST.
      "The initiative was not developed to create programmers, but by and large to teach students problem-solving skills as much as it does technology skills," Nicholas explains. "There currently are 10,000 students in the state of Arkansas. It's about six years old now, and it's making a difference for the youth in our state."
      Today, more than 100 schools feature EAST, including the Little Rock/Pulaski County schools.
      "The Dept. of Education has also created a student loan forgiveness program," Nicholas says. "So if students choose a technology-based career, for every year they stay in the state of Arkansas and work, the state will repay the loan.
      According to Pickens, Arkansas is the nation's largest producer of rice, the second in broilers, and in the top 10 in cotton, soybeans and aquaculture. "People may not know that the National Aquaculture Research Center is in Arkansas, as well as the Rice Germplasm Research Center," he notes. "Our timber and its value-added paper and pulp components are also extremely significant."
      One example of Arkansas' success with natural resource manufacturers is Del-Tin Fiber. In 1998, Del-Tin, a joint venture between El Dorado, Ark.-based Deltic Timber and Diboll, Texas-based Temple-Inland Forest Products Corp., chose El Dorado for "one of the largest MDF (medium-density fiberboard) plants built in America," says Deltic Timber Corp.'s Cliff Vaughn. Today, the company is investing $2.8 million to install new equipment in its El Dorado facility.
      In the initial stages of locating the facility, the joint venture group looked at several different locations. "We ultimately landed in El Dorado for three reasons," says Vaughn. "One was the help that the state and county assisted in permitting as well as access and amenities to the plant. The second reason was the fiber supply. There's a heart of very good timberland operations here, so the fiber supply was plentiful. Thirdly, El Dorado is just a good place to live. It has a very good public school system, a good labor force and highly trained, technical people."
      Vaughn suggests that because the area has several chemical plants and an oil refinery that it consists of the type of people his firm needs. "This plant is highly mechanized and computerized, so we needed people with good backgrounds," he adds.
      Del-Tin's presence in El Dorado attracted one of the company's end-users to the area: Pacific MDF. In the past few months, Pacific MDF expanded to a full-time second shift that created about 25 new jobs. Don Young, plant manager of Pacific MDF's El Dorado operations, says the company also plans to operate the facility 24 hours a day, employing approximately 110 workers, by early next spring.
      "Our growth has been very strong, so it's been a great decision for us," says Young. "One of the reasons was the availability of raw materials and a good work force because of the manufacturing that seems to be in this area."
      Both Del-Tin and Pacific MDF cite the South Arkansas Community College as key to their success in El Dorado. The school provides training programs tailored to the industry's needs.