CALL CENTERS (CENTRES) - Faculty of Industrial Engineering and ...

set of experiments, the model analyzes the design options for an actual call center.
27. Richardson, R. and J.N. Marshall. Teleservices, call centres and urban and regional development,
The Service Industries Journal, 19 (1), 1999, 96–116.
Abstract. The character of call centers, which are attracting considerable interest among economic
development agencies seeking to attract inward investment is examined. The type of
employment provided in call centers, their locational requirements and their wider impact on
local economies are examined. It is argued that information and communications technologies
are allowing these teleservice firms to develop in new locations, but that call centers remain constrained
in their locational choices especially because of the uneven distribution of labor. It is
concluded that call centers providing teleservices contribute to local economic development, but
the employment created on the whole tends to be of low quality. Few managerial, professional or
technical jobs are created in most call centers, and there are few local spin-offs. Inward investment
by these sorts of services in less-favored areas displays many of the drawbacks associated
with traditional manufacturing inward investment.
Keywords: Call centers, Urban development, Economic development, Studies
28. Stier, Richard D. The medical call center, Marketing Health Services, 19 (2), 1999, 25–28.
Abstract. Health care marketing executives value the medical call center as a centralized telephonic
front door to their enterprise. Medical call centers will be a core competency for health
care organizations in the new millennium and are already a priority for visionary marketing and
managed care executives. However, unless they tangibly help achieve the organization’s priority
outcomes, they will not be successful. The call center leverages marketing strategy to connect
with and support the major clinical and operational processes of the enterprise. The call center
must not be isolated from central enterprise strategies, clinical pathways redesign, marketing
plans, managed care priorities, the organization’s plan for quality or consolidated scheduling.
Keywords: Health care industry, Call centers, Systems integration, Marketing management,
Strategic planning, Profitability
29. Taylor, Phil and Peter Bain. ‘An assembly line in the head’: work and employee relations in the
call centre, Industrial Relations Journal, 30 (2), 1999, 101–117.
Abstract. To date, academic studies of the call center sector remain limited in scope. This
article attempts to remedy that omission by analyzing the recent and spectacular growth of
call centers in the UK, drawing on a wide variety of sources, including 2 extensive surveys of
developments in Scotland during 1997.
Keywords: Call centers, Work environment, Studies
30. Weidong Xu. Long range planning for call centers at FedEx, The Journal of Business Forecasting
Methods & Systems, 18 (4), Winter 1999/2000, 7–11.
Abstract. FedEx is the world’s largest express transportation company, generating $14 bil-
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