Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
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Dolores Diez
Thursday, 15 February 2007 03:58
SalesForce Australia Pty Ltd (SalesForce), the country’s largest outsourced call centre service provider, has opened its new Geelong call centre. The Honourable John Brumby MP, Minister for Regional and Rural Development, officially opened the new premises.
The new centre provides a significant boost to the region’s local economy and delivers outsourced contact services for a number of Telstra divisions - undertaking outbound and inbound functions for Mobile Services, Telstra’s Messaging product and Telstra’s Fixed Line services.
Attending the opening were representatives from State Government, senior officers of the City of Greater Geelong, senior Telstra executives and senior management from SalesForce and Salmat Limited. [SalesForce is one of the major operating divisions of Salmat Limited and has delivered strong financial results to the Sydney based listed company.]
SalesForce has been particularly successful in its recruitment of staff throughout the Greater Geelong area having attracted over 350 people in the first two months of its recruitment operation. The company has invested heavily in its Geelong Centre, with over $2 million being committed to the call centre’s infrastructure, training rooms, management and advanced technology operations.
“Geelong, with its established infrastructure and proximity to Melbourne, presented us with an excellent opportunity to expand our service centre operations”, said Mr Kevin Panozza, chief executive officer of SalesForce.
“In arriving at this location for our latest expansion, our business planning also took into account regional Victoria’s high quality work force, lower real estate costs, lower employee turnover, less competition for staff and a lower concentration of competing centres compared to locations within metropolitan Melbourne,“ said Mr Panozza.
The decision by SalesForce to expand its call centre operations by 300 seats comes at a time when a number of major Australian enterprises are reviewing their in house sales and call centre capabilities with a view to outsourcing this function as they seek to increase efficiencies and reduce operational expenses for competitive advantage.
SalesForce was founded in Melbourne by Mr Kevin Panozza in 1994 and is recognised, today as one of Australia’s largest contact centre outsourcing specialists. The company currently employs 4,000 people of which over half (approximately 60 per cent) are in Victoria. It has been consistently recognised for its strong employee focused culture and recognised by industry as delivering best practice. It has been in the annual Hewitt Survey Top 20 list for five consecutive years and has been judged as Australia and New Zealand’s Best Employer in 2004 and 2005 and is currently a finalist in the 2006 awards.
The company offers a range of outsourced solutions including call centre, face-to-face and consulting services and provides support to clients such as Telstra, Citylink, Jetstar, Foxtel, NAB, Origin Energy and Fly buys.
Committed to its staff, the company held an Australia Day celebration extravaganza with a big 30 metre flag as the backdrop in a park outside its headquarters in Carlton, Victoria. The street party featured a staff rock band (lead by Greg Ham, from the 1980s group “Men at Work’). The all Aussie themed day involved over 60 Australian owned food companies. - ENDS About SalesForce Australia Pty Ltd
With major contact centres in five locations across Australia, as well as New Zealand, SalesForce is a leading Australian provider of inbound, outbound and field force customer services. The company has won the prestigious Hewitt Award for Best Employer in two successive years and currently holds four ICSP Awards for customer service excellence.
