Jamaica's biggest call centre, Teleservices suffered a major setback earlier this year when a United States business slump caused it to cut staff as it scaled back operations. The new agreement is providing the basis for renewed expansion.

"We have been hiring to meet the growth demands of West," said Teleservices chief executive officer, Art Freidman. "We are hiring over 120 people per week between our Portmore and our MoBay offices."

West will begin performing outbound transactions at these centres in late August or early September, the US contact centre company stated in its June quarterly report. It said the agreement will allow West's clients to take advantage of the highly skilled and motivated workforce in Jamaica at a lower cost.

"They want to find opportunities where they can have better quality and good pricing," Mr. Freidman said. "They have examined lots of places around the world and they have chosen us to be their partner in Jamaica."

Jamaica now has a unique opportunity because it can capture a significant portion of the North American demand for offshore customer contact centre services, Mr. Freidman said. It has an advantage over the Asian competition in terms of travel time, and this is now compounded by the instability in that region.

"I am not concerned about (competition from) the Philippines or India," he said. As well, "Americans are in love with the British accent, and like it or not, the Jamaican accent is very British."

With a staff of 24,000, West is the world's largest independent telemarketing company, Mr. Freidman said. It represents over 40 of the world's leading companies.

Teleservices slashed hundreds of staff to level off at about 500 employees in February as a result of the downturn in business in the United States, its primary market. Mr. Freidman said a recovery in the US in addition to the securing of the West agreement had allowed the company to increase its staffing to over 800 employees now.

The agreement with West is such that Teleservices will do the actual selling in the telemarketing venture. West will solicit the clients, do the sophisticated programming and place the phone calls.

West's technical infrastructure will be utilised allowing all scripting, reporting, call monitoring and call verification to be controlled by West's San Antonio facility, West stated in its quarterly report.

"We are really integrated into the core of their business," Mr. Freidman said. "They are eager to use our employees here in Jamaica."

The result is that capacity at the Teleservices office in Montego Bay is almost fully utilised now, Mr. Freidman said. Expansion is taking place in Portmore and the second floor of the building there should be occupied before the end of the year. Additional space is now being considered in New Kingston.

"They will be moving more and more of their work down here," Mr. Freidman said. "Clearly we have to perform (but) the nature of our contract is such that we feel very secure."

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