EXPERT GLOBAL SOLUTIONS ADDS 300 JOBS
September 2015
By David Zaslawsky
Photography by Robert Fouts
After all the fanfare and hoopla surrounding an announcement of 300 new jobs in front of business and civic leaders, an Expert Global Solutions executive said don’t be surprised if there is another announcement by January.
That’s how confident EGS Site Director Pat Deprospo is about the Montgomery location adding more clients. The company invested $1 million to refurbish the third floor of its site at Executive Park. It already operated on the second floor.
“We’re definitely not maxed out here,” Deprospo said. “There is opportunity for future expansion.”
He said there is capacity for additional hires on top of the 300 that were announced at the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce Blount Boardroom, depending on how successful the firm is with current clients. He said the additional business the firm landed, which created the new hires, “was because of the superior service we consistently deliver to our customers.
Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange said, “We recruit call centers all day long because they like what’s in Montgomery.” He said that Montgomery is an ideal market because of the students at local colleges and universities as well as the spouses of airmen at Maxwell Air Force Base and Gunter Annex.
“If you want to have a ready-made client go develop a call center, because what we’re seeing is coming back (from overseas),” he said.
The problem now is that Montgomery needs people to develop call centers “because, frankly, we’re out,” Strange said.
EGS has been in Montgomery since 2001, but under different ownership. Back then it was called Outsourcing Solutions Inc. and then was purchased by NCO Financial Systems in 2009. EGS Financial Care Corp. bought NCO in 2013.
“Our organization thinks highly of Montgomery,” Deprospo said. “We have sites in over 300 different cities and 13 different countries and Montgomery is considered one of the top sites. The decision for us to expand Montgomery was an easy one.”
Of course, the firm could have selected another of its call centers for expansion. As of late July, the firm was looking to fill 100-plus jobs including agents, supervisors, managers and support positions.
“It’s one thing to recruit here, but it’s (another) thing to have those that are already here and have an opportunity to take new jobs anywhere that they have platforms and make that investment here and to hire an additional 300 people …” Strange said.
The Montgomery site handles about 275,000 transactions a month – inbound and outbound calls – with clients from the telecom and utilities sectors. The transactions “are typically financial in nature,” Deprospo said.
“You are a great example of what you think about and believe in Montgomery, Alabama,” said Montgomery County Commission Chairman Elton N. Dean Sr. “We applaud you for bringing these jobs here.”
Strange did point out that he had a third-floor office at the EGS location for nine years when he worked for Blount International Inc. “He took my office,” Strange said about the renovation.
“If you continue bringing 300 jobs you can have both of (our offices),” Dean said.
