Call centers and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) well symbolise
the rise of an " information economy ". As IT-enabled services, call centers
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could have been regarded as footloose. Actually, call centers take advantage
from a large array of location factors, the most important being the availability
of labour.
The map of French call centers shows a strong, but irregular metropolitan
pattern. A much finer analysis demonstrates that the closeness to Paris has been
a strong location factor in the recent de-concentration process. In a first time,
CRM firms have targeted medium cities in the surroundings of Paris, with a
strong presence of universities, offering a well educated workforce. During the
last three years, these labour pools went to saturation. Thus, call center
companies shifted to smaller or more remote cities, often with high
unemployment rates.
In such places, call center location has become a major tool for economic
development, particularly in those which suffered from recent industrial
downturns. In order to attract call center-related investments, several local
communities have established dedicated training programs and offer purposebuild,
ready-for-delivery premises. Without mention of incentive packages.
Nevertheless, "the driving effects" of CRM business are reportedly low.
Spillover effects cannot be expected, because call center operations are highly
taylorian and require, on average, low skills. Moreover, CRM investments per
employee are small and easily movable. With respect to the rise of overseas
locations, call center perspectives for sustainable, local development seem to
be narrow. For local communities, focusing on call centers only would be a
dangerous bet.