Keep an eye on BalanceBPO
To the editor:
The opportunities that will be created at BalanceBPO as we work together as a community are almost endless.
Case in point, I moved to Austin, Texas just after my discharge from the U.S. Army in 1992. In 1994 I moved to a nicer part of the city known as the Arboretum area. Complete with outdoor shopping, dining and a nice hotel, this was a County Boy’s dream come true. As I’d walk through the open air mall on cool evenings or mornings, I noticed the big blue logo of a company called Dell on the outside of a 15-story office building adjacent to Arboretum. The company was all the buzz around town and at the time they were employing some 400 people. Jobs ranged from sales and customer service, to manufacturing and engineering. As the years went by, Dell expanded by leaps and bounds and now occupies a sprawling campus dotted with building after building, near Austin, in Round Rock, Texas, and boasts over 100,000 employees worldwide.
Dell experienced massive growth because they were different. As the personal computer markets evolved and newer, faster models and components emerged, customers wanted to pick and choose and design a system that was right for them. Up until this time, options were limited to makes and models, not unlike buying a Chevrolet. This differentiator, coupled with Dell’s unique “just in time” inventory management and manufacturing capabilities, rocketed the company to billions in revenue and provided a lifestyle for employees that was before unheard of in this funky central Texas town.
What BalanceBPO is doing is not all that different. Instead of building custom made computers so efficiently that the Japanese have replicated the idea, we have created an unprecedented process and software system that ensures customers’ issues are resolved on the first contact. The consumer market for PCs, especially in the 1990s, was near limitless, as is the market for BPO services today — over $76 billion per year is spent on business process outsourcing (BPO) by nearly every company in the Fortune 500 and beyond. Our “Center of Excellence” here in Presque Isle is similar to Dell’s presence in the Arboretum in Austin, and the workforce available here is second to none, including that of central Texas.
As our hiring begins, we want the best and the brightest to join us. We are not a telemarketing establishment selling products or services to an unresponsive consumer base trying to eat dinner in peace. Nor are we a “spoke” call center; an outpost for operations with headquarters somewhere in the Midwest. To that end, we will seek those that wouldn’t have considered such a career until now, as well as those with years of applied experience, who want to join a family of like-minded individuals who are resolved to change an industry that is flat out broken.
We’ve all suffered through phone calls to 800 lines staffed by agents that either didn’t have the tools to resolve our issues, or they did, but just didn’t care enough to. Our processes and culture will change all of that, if executed to plan with the right people.
At BalanceBPO we are creating a culture and a facility that excites those who are a part of it. As the company grows, our focus in Presque Isle will shift from front line jobs to administrative and software development careers. The facility we occupy has ready-made expansion plans, and we’d love nothing more than to expand our footprint in Presque Isle. We have an amazing opportunity, one Aroostook County has not seen in years, perhaps ever.
Keep an eye on us as we continue to grow. Stop by and say hello, I’d be happy to show you around and talk about how the business is developing and what we are trying to build. I couldn’t be happier to be back in Presque Isle, and nothing would be more fulfilling than for us all to share a global success story with the world, with roots right here at home.
BalanceBPO
