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Into
the Information Age
Rural South Carolina gets catapulted into the technology
realm.
By Trisha Ostrowski & Laura Corbin
Perception isn't always reality.
Perception: Rural Williamsburg County, South Carolina with
a population of 35,000 couldn't possibly provide the skilled
work force needed by the technology-intensive operations of
ClientLogic, a company that services such cutting-edge giants
as Microsoft, Dell Computers and BellSouth.
The reality is, Williamsburg has provided 400 specifically
trained workers for ClientLogic with plans in place to add
several hundred more to the company's South Carolina team.
"We began early, six to eight months before the company's
opening, visiting ClientLogic in Oakridge, Tennessee, to find
out its needs," explained McGill. "Our contingent
included representatives of South Carolina's outstanding worker
training program, the South Carolina Technical College System,
the local school district superintendent and others critical
to the process. We saw first-hand what ClientLogic required
so we would know how to train the workers."
In the 1960s, Williamsburg County had many of its residents
employed in the apparel industry. But, as it entered the 21st
century, most of those jobs had gone overseas. Now the rural
community was looking at high-tech for its future. ClientLogic's
decision to locate a customer contact management center in
the town of Kingstree ushered in a new era.
Why would this international provider of marketing, customer
contact management and fulfillment services for high-tech
companies choose rural South Carolina? As ClientLogic Project
Manager Walt Lopus explained, "the decision was based
on two factors: availability of the labor force and the fact
that South Carolina was extremely business friendly, characterized
by the help we received at the state and local levels to conduct
research and get answers to our questions. In our industry,
everything moves quickly. South Carolina always had a timely
response."
"We've been more than pleased with our work force in
South Carolina. Honestly, we had some concerns in choosing
such a rural community, but everything has worked out very
well," Lopus said.
As Patrick Sheehan, site director for ClientLogic said in
June 2001, "The massive growth in Kingstree would not
have been possible without the support of the state of South
Carolina and Williamsburg County. Through the efforts of South
Carolina's Technical College Program, we were able to create
a strong work force in a compressed amount of time."
In addition to work force, Williamsburg County leaders also
recognized that product is extremely important to technology-intensive
firms.
"A rural community needs to realize that product development
is essential," McGill said. "A high-tech company
wants to come into a well-planned development with existing
buildings; that's important."
ClientLogic chose to locate in the Williamsburg Cooperative
Industrial Centre, an industrial park that features a circular
roadway system with curbs and gutters, water and sewer infrastructure
and utility service from Santee Electric Cooperative. The
Centre is easily accessible from I-95, I-20 and from ports
at Charleston and Georgetown. While the company ultimately
decided to build its own facility, the fact that the park
had 50,000 square-foot speculative building made it more attractive
to the company, McGill said.
Attracting ClientLogic emphasizes South Carolina's initiative
to recruit technology-intensive companies and to attract quality,
competitive companies into rural areas. When ClientLogic's
plans were announced in April 2000, Governor Jim Hodges noted
that the state legislature "has placed a special emphasis
on making our state's rural areas the place for technology
companies to grow." He also pointed to the low cost of
living and business incentives as contributing to the company's
decision to locate in rural South Carolina.
To train its work force, ClientLogic is taking advantage
of South Carolina's Center for Accelerated Technology Training
(CATT). The company has utilized CATT to recruit, hire and
conduct pre-employment training, all at no cost to the company.
Having the benefits of CATT provides rural communities with
the same edge as more urban ones, McGill noted.
"The Center for Accelerated Technology Training is the
strongest recruitment incentive in the state of South Carolina.
Its cutting-edge technology training is the best I've ever
seen, and they've made a commitment to train 400 or more workers
for ClientLogic," he said.
A plus for all of South Carolina's rural communities, and
Williamsburg County in particular, is a "real willingness
of people to get training for the jobs," said Jimmy Williamson,
president of Williamsburg Technical College. "People
here have been willing to put in the extra time and energy
into a program that prepares them for high-tech jobs.
"What we have done for ClientLogic in terms of training
its work force will have a bleed-over effect, so now we will
be able to serve other high-tech companies," Williamson
said. "That is happening, and we are ready to serve more
companies. We have a long way to go to reach our saturation
point.
"We have been catapulted into the technology realm,"
he added. "We have left our agricultural and apparel
industry age and have moved into the Information Age. I believe
there will be benefits down the road. Industry will see that
we can react and respond to supply a technically competent
work force."
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