Teletech to create 900 jobs

US company Teletech Holdings will create around 900 jobs over the next two years in a new customer service call centre for telephone and e-commerce based customer care operations in north Belfast.

The North's Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Sir Reg Empey, said he was delighted that the company had chosen the Duncairn Gardens area, which has particularly high unemployment, as the location for its second European call centre.

Sir Reg, who is currently heading a business delegation to five major US cities, said the announcement was also significant because of the company's commitment to allocate 150 of the posts to recruits under the New Deal programme for long-term unemployed people.

Teletech has been offered selective financial assistance of £7.17 million sterling (€11.86 million) by the North's Industrial Development Board (IDB) towards the £11 million cost of this investment.

Chief executive officer and president of the online customer management services company, Mr Scott Thompson, said the key requirements for locating such a centre were a strong workforce and excellent telecommunications infrastructure.

He said: "We opted for Belfast because it provided the right combination of flexible, highly-motivated, available people with a robust and resilient telecommunications network."

The IDB's Northgate advance factory at Duncairn Gardens is being customised for Teletech's call centre operations, and recruitment for the new business will start shortly.

Sir Reg said the company would provide opportunities for people throughout the area to gain expertise in e-commerce technologies and activities.

The centre is scheduled to begin operations in early October.

Teletech is a provider of integrated e-commerce, enabling customer relationship management solutions (eCRM), predominantly for telecommunications, financial services, technology, government, and transportation industries worldwide.

The company's platform for applications, CyberCare, integrates voice and Internet communications, including custom email response, "chat" and extensive Web co-browsing capabilities.

The company employs more than 19,300 people in nine countries.