Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (RE: Locations).

Have you ever called America Online, Hertz, Southwest Airlines, Sprint PCS or The Hartford Insurance Company? Well, I have and I wanted to find out where I was calling. Guess what? It is a better-than-average chance that I was calling these companies at their contact center in Oklahoma City. Thanks to the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce (who coordinated my visit as they would do for any serious call center or back-office prospect), I was able to visit and see firsthand why these and other fine firms have located their contact centers in this city. I enjoyed two days of visiting call centers and talking with call center executives to better understand, "Why Oklahoma City?" I will do my best to share with you the excitement and energy that was shared with me when people talked about operating their centers in this great city.

The Oklahoma City Area

The Oklahoma City Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) consists of the six counties of Oklahoma (yes, it is a county and a state), Canadian, Cleveland, McClain, Logan and Pottowatomie, and is the 49th largest MSA in the U.S. and the 29th largest city in the U.S. The Oklahoma City MSA area covers 4,242 square miles, giving it not only a large land area but, more important, a large number of people from which to draw for call centers and similar operations.

Population And Labor Force

According to the U.S. Census 2000, the Oklahoma City MSA population is 1,083,346, which is a 13% gain from the 958,839 the area had in 1990. The city's population during the same period grew from 444,719 to 506,132 and is projected to reach 564,295 by year 2010.

As of 2001, the labor force for the MSA area was sitting at 533,400 with a 3.9 percent unemployment rate. The labor force has grown from 493,663 in 1990 to its present 554,900 and a 43 percent unemployment rate in 2002. The labor participation rate for the area is 69 percent.

Another key factor to consider is the number of high school graduates, which were 9,383 in 2002. The average ACT Score is 19 compared to the US average of 21. The 15 colleges and universities located in the area have a total enrollment of 107,659, which is very appealing for those operations needing part-time and flexible workers.

Those institutions and enrollment are as listed below.

NAME                               ENROLLMENT
                                  (FALL 2001)

University of Oklahoma                 25,584
University of Oklahoma Health
  Sciences Center                       2,652
University of Oklahoma
  College of Law                          518
Oklahoma State University              21,515
Oklahoma State University
  Technical Branch                      4,499
University of Central Oklahoma         14,741
Oklahoma City Community College        10,321
Rose State College                      7,746
Oklahoma City University                4,041
Langston University                     3,408
Redlands Community College              2,191
Southern Nazarene University            2,086
Oklahoma Baptist University             1,955
Oklahoma Christian University of
  Science and Arts                      2,139
Seminole State College                  1,917
University of science and arts
  of Oklahoma                           1,472
St. Gregory's College                     807
Hillsdale College                         267
Total                                 107,859

The educational level of attainment should be noted for those operations requiring high school or college education.

The proximity to Tinker Air Force Base, which is less than 10 miles southeast of the city, provides even more opportunities for customer service operations seeking proven talent. The Tinker Air Force resource pool provides an additional 2,000-trained personnel who annually leave the military but remain in the area. These highly trained people have experience in technical, managerial, computer and electronic skills. Spouses of active personnel represent an additional 6,000 to 7,000 available workers, the majority of whom have two years of college and customer service and data entry skills.

The racial and ethnic population of the area will also be a plus for those customer service operations seeking diversity and a multicultural work environment, The breakdown according to the U.S. Bureau of Census 2000 for the MSA is:

White            75.7%
Black             4.8%
Native American   4.2%
Asian             2.5%
Hispanic Origin   6.7%

Due to the size of the area, the commute patterns are interesting to note as well. According to the latest data, the commute time and number of people are as outlined.

Clearly the workforce is willing to drive for good jobs.

Area Income And Average Wage Levels

The MSA Median Household Income in year 2000 was $32,286, with 72.5 percent of the area with incomes of $49,999 or less. The average per capita personal income in calendar year 2000 was $23,436, which was just 80 percent of the U.S. average of $29,469.

Many of the call centers I visited were extremely happy with the entry-level wages, which were in the $8.50 to $10.00 range.

Call Center Incentives

The State of Oklahoma has the Quality Jobs Program, which is a new cash-back program aimed at manufacturing and service sector attraction and investment. In a nutshell, the business must be a central administrative office or service company with out-of-state sales exceeding 75 percent of total sales and must achieve a payroll of $25 million or more. The actual amount of the incentive is determined by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. Most businesses will fall in the cash-back range of 3 to 4 percent of their total payroll.

Other incentives include Customized Employee Training for Industry Program (TIP), which is delivered through the stare's Career Technology Centers, of which there are nine in the Oklahoma City Metro area alone.

Tax exemptions on specific computer data processing service facilities are also available, as are exemptions on 1-800, WATS and private line telecommunications systems. The area believes in and supports this industry and is well worth the time and effort to pursue serious discussions!

Real Estate

Oklahoma City has an abundance of space ready for call center, back-office and administrative use with ample adjacent parking. Rates for Class A and Class B space will range from $10.00 to $18.50 triple net.

Call Center/Back Office Employment

This industry is doing well in the area as it proudly boasts of 28 companies employing 15,212 talented and reliable workers. This means that if it were to be measured as an employment sector such as manufacturing, the call center "sector" would rank 9th out of 11. In fact, the Chamber cites seven expansion projects in 2002 totaling 1,983 workers, demonstrating the availability and attractiveness of this sector in the area. This represented an outstanding 14.9 percent employment growth in the industry in 2002 over 2001. At 15,212 workers, the call center industry represents 2.8 percent of the area's labor force.

When calculating the opportunity for growth within this segment and using 4 percent as saturation rate means that the area can grow to 21,336 workers or an additional 6,124 new workers before any significant issues of labor costs would begin to surface.

However, given the continued growth of the area's labor force and population, the Oklahoma City area will be in great shape for new operations and expansions of current centers for quite a long time. In fact, when Sprint PCS held a job fair for 1,000 customer positions, they received over 13,000 applications!

The following companies have call centers/back office operations in Oklahoma City:

* APAC Customer Services;

* AT&T Wireless;

* America Online;

* American Cancer Society;

* Avaya, Inc.;

* Boise Cascade Office Products;

* CIT Group/Sales Financing, Inc.;

* Cendant's Travelers Advantage;

* Center Partners;

* Convergys Customer Management Group;

* Cox Cable;

* DialAmerica Marketing;

* Farmers Insurance Group;

* Globe Life;

* The Hartford Group;

* Hertz Reservation Center/Data Center;

* Midland Credit Corp.;

* Seagate Technology;

* Service Zone;

* Southwest Airlines Reservation Center;

* Sprint PCS;

* TCI Services;

* Travelers Motor Club;

* VisionQuest Marketing;

* West Interactive Corp.;

* Williams-Sonoma.

Well, to paraphrase Will Rogers, the native son for whom the Oklahoma City airport is named, The city is not just OK, it just plain makes good sense.

My heartfelt thanks to all who e-mail me. Please send your questions and comments on this as well as ideas for future articles to me at [e-mail] or [e-mail] and remember to go to the Web site www.callcentersites.net, "The official site for call center and back office locations worldwide," for the latest in call center information.

LEVEL OF ATTAINMENT     NUMBER  PERCENT

High School Graduates  213,875     31.1
Some College           154,735     22.5
Associates Degree       41,554      6.1
Bachelors Degree       121,185     17.6
Graduate Degree         55,767      8.1

DISTANCE               NUMBER  PERCENT

Less than 15 minutes  136,392     30.3
From 15 - 29 minutes  194,552     43.2
From 30 - 44 Minutes   76,752     17.1
From 45 - 59 Minutes   18,685      4,2
Over 60 Minutes        12,480      2.8

Source: Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce

ENTRY WAGE LEVELS FOR SELECTED OCCUPATIONS ARE:


Telephone Sales Representative   $9.00
Administrative Assistant        $10.07
Computer Operator               $10.95
Programmer Analyst              $19.29

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