Call centre industry witnesses steady growth. (Sault Ste. Marie).

A wave of call centres has put Sault Ste. Marie on the map within the last two years. Now the city is looking to attract higher-end information technology (IT) businesses for an eventual e-commerce centre.

With its sights set on developing an IT centre, the city rezoned 12 acres of a 22-acre parcel of former Ministry of Transportation property to be the future home of an eventual e-commerce centre.

Sault Economic Development Corp. president and CEO Bruce Strapp says the greenfield site is large enough to support more than one multi-facility project, but the city has no plans to build anything until they have secured tenants.

They are aiming to have some form of e-commerce business running on the property by next summer and are dealing with two clients now, one "almost committed" and another which "we're just checking out," says Strapp.

With at least two established local call centres announcing plans to hire more employees this year, Sault College is starting up a customer service/call centre representative training program this month. About 1,400 are expected to be employed by year's end, and it is anticipated that the city will need 3,000 call centre positions over the next two years as the local demand for skilled people continues to expand.

Though the city is not chasing off any call centres business, the new emphasis is on attracting high-end customer interaction centres which require better trained employees. with more flexible skills.

"We're dealing with call centres that have specific skills requirements of their employees," says Tom Hernden, the Sault's economic development officer, "and they tend to draw from a different labour pool."

To ensure there is a sustainable local workforce to support these centres, Sault College's customer interaction program will have an emphasis on linguistic and computer skills.

"One of the things we're looking at is future growth of the labour pool, targeting not only people who are on assistance, but bringing back people from outside," says Strapp.

Among the higher-end customer interaction centres the city would like to draw more in is the proposed EDS call centre scheduled to open this fall.

EDS Canada, a major telecommunications company and a partner with the Sault's Innovation Centre, is investing $16 million in converting a vacated grocery store into a $20-million inbound customer interaction centre. The centre would receive emergency roadside assistance calls for General Motors car owners. Expected to be operational. sometime in November, the centre will eventually employ 275.

It is the city's fourth call centre to open its doors in the Sault since June 2000.

RMH Teleservices International was the city's first dedicated facility, opening a 241-seat facility in a former 32,000-square-foot Woolco store on Queen Street. The company announced plans in August to increase its current workforce of 600 by about a third in the near future.

NuComm Marketing, which established an inbound call centre last fail in the vacated British American Bank Note building on Second Line, held its third job fair in October to add another 90 to 120 positions to its 540-person staff. The St. Catharines-based company is searching for applicants with Windows and Internet skills for its three-week training course to handle inbound customer care and technical support calls.

MKG Communications, the smallest of the call centres, laid off its 40 employees during the summer and is reportedly negotiating with a new client.