Affiliated Computer Services plans to hire 600 people in Colorado Springs

The struggling Colorado Springs economy got a much-needed shot in the arm Monday when a Dallas-based outsourcing giant announced plans to hire 600 people by the end of August for a customer service center it is opening.

The center, planned by Affiliated Computer Services Inc., is the biggest local business relocation or expansion announced since T. Rowe Price Group Inc. announced plans in June 2006 to expand a local customer service center and add 650 employees. The project also includes the most hiring by any company coming to the Springs since ICT Group Inc. opened a customer service center in 2003 with plans to employ more than 1,000. That center closed last year.

The Affiliated Computer Services announcement comes as more than 25,000 Colorado Springs area residents were out of work and the area's unemployment rate was at 8.1 percent in May, the most recent available data and the highest seasonally adjusted rate in more than a decade. The announcement is the eighth this year by companies that, combined, say they plan to hire 1,395 people within five years; those gains have been partly offset by 842 layoffs by 16 local employers.

"This is excellent news for a large number of our work force and our city," said Mike Kazmierski, president and chief executive of the Colorado Springs Regional Economic Development Corp., which helped bring Affiliated to the Springs.

Fred Crowley, senior economist for the Southern Colorado Economic Forum, estimated that spending by Affiliated's employees will generate another 350-400 jobs during the next year in the local economy at grocery stores, auto dealers and other businesses.
Affiliated, which employs 74,000 at more than 500 locations worldwide, will open the 34,000-square-foot center in the space it is leasing in the Verizon Communications Inc. complex at 2424 Garden of the Gods Road.

The company said it hiring immediately; a job fair is planned, and training will begin, in July. Job candidates must be at least 18 years old with a high-school diploma or General Equivalency Diploma and can apply online at www.acs-inc.com/. The full-time jobs could include weekday, night or weekend shifts, will pay "more than the minimum wage" and include health insurance benefits, said Chris Gilligan, an Affiliated spokesman.

"Colorado Springs offers an exceptional pool of skilled an educated talent, enabling us to continue offering some of the best customer care work in the industry," Tom Blodgett, chief operating officer of Affiliated's commercial operations, said in a press release on Monday. "Our ability to exceed our customers' expectations and the desire of economic officials to make this happen very quickly helped bring this project to Colorado."

Affiliated selected Colorado Springs over several other cities Gilligan declined to identify because the client wanted a location in the Mountain region or western United States that could be operating within a few months. He also declined to identify the client, but Affiliated's Web site posted a job for a call center manager in Colorado Springs for the company's "wireless division" and indicates that "wireless call center experience is a plus."

"One of our selling points to clients is that we are able to grow rapidly to meet their needs. This is a classic situation where we have to do a lot in a short period of time," Gilligan said. "We are always growing and continue to look for new opportunities."

Affiliated's contract customer service operation has announced plans this month to hire 1,300 people, including the 600 in the Springs and 700 others in Indiana, Maine and Washington, Gilligan said. The company also announced plans last week to add another 300 people to the 530 it already employs in San Antonio to process electronic transactions for the U.S. Treasury Department and the Social Security Administration.

Kazmierski said he expected the company will be "swamped" with applicants and the project "the start of a relationship with a growing company. Like many other companies, if the community can meet their needs they are likely to grow and expand their operation here."

Affiliated ranks 401st in Fortune magazine's annual listing of the nation's 500 largest public companies with revenue of $6.2 billion and profits totaling $98.6 million last year. The 21-year-old company's clients include firms in the communications, financial services, health care, manufacturing, retail, hotel, transportation and travel industries as well as state and federal agencies for programs ranging from Medicaid and child support to student loans and mass transit.