Making Contact

Alliance Data Systems, a provider of marketing, loyalty and transaction services, celebrated the opening of its new call center facility in Ennis, Texas, today with a ribbon cutting ceremony that was attended by company and city officials. The new “best in class” facility, which started operating in March, already has 225 employees and the company reportedly plans to hire an additional 355 over the next three to five years. It has reportedly already handled 40,000 calls since it opened just three months ago. The opening of the new call center was a joint effort between Alliance Data and the city of Ennis. During the ceremony, Mayor Russell Thomas and City Manager Steve Howerton were recognized for their efforts in assisting Alliance with the opening of the new center. A report in the online version of the Waxahachie Daily Light doesn’t mention anything about a tax incentive. Officials from Alliance’s top client, Direct Energy, were reportedly also on hand for the celebration.

Hi, I’m Pat and this is my call center blog. It’s all about call and contact center technology and how it makes life better for all of us … or not. At times I might address other topics that are either directly or indirectly related to the call and contact center industry - such as CRM, speech technologies, VoIP, unified communications, wireless technologies, video, workforce management, headsets, call center furniture, etc. - and how these make life better for all of us … or not. I might also occasionally discuss how technology in general makes life better for all of us … or not. So what makes me qualified to write about call and contact center technology, you might ask? Well, for one thing I’m a journalist with about 15 years experience contributing to various publications.