Stream, a Richardson, Texas- based global outsourcer of call center services, has been on an expansion spree of late, adding facilities in Iowa,

Katherin Dockerill is Stream's senior vice president of marketing and business strategy.

Larry Callahan is Stream's senior vice president for corporate services.

New Brunswick and the Dominican Republic over the past year. The latest announcement is a 1,000- seat facility in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, just south of Sioux City.
   Katherin Dockerill and Larry Callahan direct site selection efforts for Stream, which now has 26 call centers around the world. Stream provides technical support and customer service for its clients, which include large high- tech firms.
   "Our clients still require support out of the U.S. because of the quality there," says Dockerill, Stream's senior vice president of marketing and business strategy. "There continue to be opportunities both in the U.S. and Canada for reasonably priced quality support.
   "Our clients have also shown a strong interest in near- shore opportunities," she continues. "They prefer to have a mix of locations for the work they outsource. As a result, we have a pretty diverse mix of onshore, near- shore and offshore locations. Three or four years ago, everyone was going to India or the Philippines because of the labor arbitrage, but the challenges of cultural affinity and the weariness of travel have made people more open to near- shore opportunities."
   Callahan, Stream's senior vice president for corporate services, says Latin America is rapidly becoming more sophisticated in its efforts to attract call center investment.
   "There are several Latin American countries that have an affinity with the U.S.," Callahan says. "The Dominican Republic, for example, has many citizens who have either traveled to the U.S. or who have family members in the U.S. Many are bilingual, and share a love of baseball."
   Callahan says Panama and Costa Rica have similar attributes, making those countries attractive for near shoring.
   The decision to go to Iowa came after a thorough search of small communities around the U.S. and a subsequent comparison to potential sites in Canada, Callahan says. The Iowa site will eventually create 1,000 jobs, bringing Stream's total employment to 13,000 and counting.
   "In Iowa we found a work force and infrastructure that was as good or better than anywhere we looked," he says. "That's what drove us to Iowa."
   For Sergeant Bluff, Stream's site choice could not have come at a more fortuitous time. Stream was able to deftly move into a site vacated by a Verizon call center in June.

Stream opened its second call center in the Dominican Republic in October 2006.

The facility provided what Dockerill refers to a as a "plug and play" scenario. Verizon's closing in Sergeant Bluff took with it nearly 600 jobs.
   Stream chose the Iowa site after looking at locations in New York, Oklahoma, Delaware and Maine.
   "There's never just one deciding factor," Dockerill says. "It depends on where you are in the sales cycle, the timing of capacity and when you need to bring it on line. There are also labor costs, facility costs, negotiating the right lease and whether it's a plug and play."
   Dockerill and Callahan say they continuously evaluate communities as potential sites for new centers.
   "We have an inventory of communities with real estate that we continuously update," says Callahan, adding that a lot of his information on potential sites comes from industry contacts and from commercial real estate firms. Clients also provide input, he says.
   Stream will continue to add call centers as its business grows. Dockerill says Stream has other site location efforts in the works, likely to be announced in 2007. An aptitude for customer service is at the top of the list when Stream looks for personnel to fill its call center seats, Dockerill says.
   "We do extensive training in partnership with our clients," she says, "but individuals can't be successful without a real sense of wanting to help the customer."
   Dockerill says Stream has not encountered a lot of demand for bilingual speakers specializing in Spanish, as have other companies, but Canadian clients do have need for French- speaking support. Thus far, Spanish- speaking requirements have not dictated a site choice.
   "If we have a client that needed Spanish- speaking support that requires 10 bilingual Spanish individuals, chances are we would be able to fill the need in Watertown, N.Y.," Dockerill says. "Spanish speakers in small numbers are not difficult to come by in most of our North American sites and we can also provide support from the Dominican Republic."
   Stream opened its second Dominican Republic facility in October. The new 450- seat facility is located in Santo Domingo's Cyberpark, the country's first free zone park for technology.