January  2003

By James Beatty, NCS International

In a past article on call center site selection strategies, I wrote about the 'Small Town Call Center Strategy' in which I extolled the virtues of rural America. These are areas with a population of less than 50,000 that unfortunately do not show up on enough site selectors' radar screens. These areas are undiscovered treasures for call centers and back-office operations, as they can supply these operations with quantity and quality work force.

I want to share with you what I discovered and experienced after touring one area up close and personal. The Rural MidAmerica Development Association is an organization consisting of communities in nine counties in Northeast Missouri that have come together to better market their area for corporate and industry expansion'a kind of 'strength in numbers' approach. The principle is based on creating new jobs in an area that has suffered over 1,100 job losses since June of 1999. The geography of the area starts in Brookfield and Marceline on the western part and stretches to Hannibal, Louisiana (a city in MO) and Clarksville on the eastern portion, stopping at the Mississippi River. 

My tour was coordinated by the economic development officials with Ameren Electric, State of Missouri Office of Economic Development and the Mark Twain Council of Governments. The three-day tour included visits to 10 towns, including Mexico (Mexico, Missouri, that is.) Although I have visited hundreds of communities in my years as a site consultant, I always look forward to visiting new places and meeting the people involved in the economic development leadership of these areas. I find it is exciting to meet and hear firsthand about the plans, hopes and dreams of these leaders and it is even more impressive to learn about their willingness to fund their hopes and dreams with proper economic incentives for the 'right companies.'

This initiative showed by this particular part of the U.S. is not surprising when one considers its leadership heritage. Molly Brown, the 'unsinkable' heroine of the Titanic was from Hannibal, Missouri. General Omar Bradley, who headed the D-Day invasion of World War II, and General John J. Pershing, who was the overall American commander of World War I, are from this area. John Cash Penney, also known JC Penney, also hails from the area. Did you know that he also was a founder of Junior Achievement? Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), the author of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, grew up in Hannibal. (I also learned the name Mark Twain is actually riverboat jargon for 'two fathoms deep.') Walt Disney grew up in Marceline, which he credits as the source of much of his inspiration and magic. Sam Walton attained the rank of Eagle Scout as an eighth grader in Shelbina.

Here ends the history lesson; let's now examine each community by the numbers to make the case.

(A) The area's labor force is not additive, as some areas overlap; however, the data and research figures are representative of the mobility of the labor force as some individuals commute as much as an hour each way for work.

It is interesting to note that this area is also home to some substantial and well- known call centers such as Brookstone and Home Decorators in Mexico, Missouri and Swiss Colony in Hannibal.

Clearly, when the area is considered as a region whose population is over 50,000 with a labor force approaching 100,000, it is worth considering for a wide variety of projects. In fact, the area suffers from only one problem: it does not have a legally accepted metropolitan name. Instead, it is a collection of smaller communities that would resemble neighborhoods were it a metro area. This is no different than analyzing Chicago, New York or Los Angeles, where one has to break down the metropolitan complex into smaller areas for economic consideration and comparison. The same process should be applied when reviewing smaller areas. The more enlightened companies will understand and embrace this as it offers distinct advantages. There will be several communities to choose from, each with their own set of economic priorities but still with an accepted regional development approach. Generally, the state department of economic development will also provide additional resources and incentives and will be more flexible when industry is considering smaller areas for 100 to 300 jobs. 

These factors work to your advantage because projects of this size don't occur with the same frequency as they do in the metro areas.

In terms of wages, I've collected the following hard numbers for hourly wages in the Northeast Missouri region:

Clerk-Typists: $7.16
Clerk, General Office: $5.66
Data Entry Operator: $6.77
Secretary: $7.74

The average service sector wage in the region is $7.85; the median wage is $5.85. This compares favorably to the $10.00 per hour wage commonly enjoyed by customer service agents nationally.

Telecommunications and Internet access are provided by a variety of companies ranging from Southwestern Bell to Spectra Communications, all of which are capable of providing DS-1 through DS-3 services. In fact, in Macon, wireless Internet is available to the community.

Class B buildings ranging in size from 7,900 square feet to 40,000 square feet are available for immediate call center usage with annual lease rates in the $2 to $8 category, making this area very affordable. In fact, a few of the communities I visited were considering constructing spec buildings and equipping them specifically for call center clients, inclusive of work stations and furnishings!

Incentives discussed ranged from training to free rent for the 'right project.' The reception, energy and leadership I witnessed on this tour are an example of the hunger and eagerness that small towns have in recruiting not just new industry, but information technology-related industries such as call centers. 

For more information, go to www.ruralmidamerica.org. For the latest on call center and back-office location information, visit www.callcentersites.net. I welcome your questions and comments via e-mail at [email protected].

James Beatty is president of NCS International, Inc., which specializes in corporate site selection, community analysis and marketing.

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By Tracey E. Schelmetic, Managing Editor

This past autumn, I, as Customer Inter@ction Solutions^'' roving editor-on-the-spot (a self-anointed title, but I like it), had the unique experience of visiting Glasgow, Scotland, with the intent of looking at the city as a European call center location. The concept of locating in Europe, in the U.K. in particular, is generating increasing interest among many of CIS' readers who are interested in locating operations off-shore. To this end, I was invited to tour Glasgow's new International Financial Services District (IFSD) with representatives from BTeLocations, the inward investment branch of British Telecom (BT).

In August of 2001, Scotland's First Minister, Henry McLeish, launched the International Financial Services District with the intent of making the city one of the most high-tech locations in Europe for a vast array of services. The IFSD is a financial-industry-specific, pre-equipped business area that was designed for fast-track locations by both U.K. and international firms looking to get multichannel customer contact centers up and running quickly. To develop the area to its potential, BTeLocations, in partnership with Scottish Finance Enterprise, Scottish Development International, Scottish Enterprise Glasgow and the City of Glasgow, has invested heavily in the area and identified it as a prime location for call centers, particularly those within the financial services sector. Glasgow, which already has a lively call center presence, is felt to be an ideal, 'ready-made' location for technology-driven business; the IFSD possesses state-of-the-art connectivity and network infrastructure (including the deployment of next-gen ATM switching, and IP infrastructure and fiber-optics) and benefits from the presence of BT Ignite Content Hosting/BT Ignite Data Center, which offers Web hosting and storage solutions in addition to both physical and data security, round-the-clock support and direct access to BT's high-speed, high-bandwidth Internet backbone.

The entire area, which sits on the River Clyde and is proximal to the M8, Glasgow International Airport and the Glasgow Central Station, has a unique new-meets-old feel to it; many of the buildings that comprise the IFSD were completely rebuilt, keeping only the original cleaned and sand-blasted fa'ades. The results are buildings that look stately and traditional on the outside, but become twenty-first century on the inside.

Said John Campbell of BTeLocations (with whom I had a pleasant lunch by the river and a particularly nice piece of seared ahi tuna), 'There are few more competitive and crowded markets in the world today than the finance sector, whether it be retail or wholesale banking, insurance or investment management. The IFSD is a direct result of these challenges, the new electronic economy and the changing profile of investment projects. BTeLocations is leading the way in answering the needs of the 21st-century finance company.'

An additional benefit that Glasgow offers is ready access to a labor pool of computer-literate individuals, many of whom are multilingual.

Glasgow's International Financial Services District is the most recent addition to BTeLocations' portfolio of investments in business, technology and science parks.
While these days, the lure of Southeast Asia seems almost impossible to escape, I've noted the rising appeal of the U.K. for potential sites; Glasgow, among other U.K. cities and regions, is a modest six-hour flight from New York and involves far less of a cultural adjustment for North American companies than Southeast Asia. 

And then there's the beer'.

For more information, contact John Campbell at +44-1977 591874 or [email protected].

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