Pennsylvania nabs NiSource call center

One month after NiSource Inc. announced a massive outsourcing, its call center in Smithfield, Pa., has received $5.5 million from the governor of Pennsylvania to add up to 330 jobs.

The call center, which employs 170, apparently came out the big winner in NiSource's $1.6 billion outsourcing contract with IBM. An IBM subcontractor, U.K.-based Vertex, will run the Smithfield center.

"This alliance with IBM will enable us to access new technology and deliver state-of-the-art service for our customers," said Robert Skaggs Jr., NiSource president and chief executive officer in a prepared statement. "Its decision to maintain and expand the call center in southwestern Pennsylvania is a testament to the dedicated employees of this region."

The outsourcing announced June 21 chopped one-quarter of NiSource's high paying white collar and technical jobs in Northwest Indiana. Company-wide, 1,017 jobs were either outsourced or cut.

Call center work done at NiSource subsidiaries in Kentucky and Ohio is being consolidated to the Smithfield center and the company is negotiating with the union at a Springfield, Mass., call center to send its work to Smithfield.

The Smithfield call center is non-union.

The Northern Indiana Public Service Co. call center in Merrillville, where 120 members of United Steelworkers of America Local 13796 work, was not affected by June's outsourcing move.

Union leaders credit a job security provision in their union contract with keeping the jobs there. But that contract runs out in four years.

"That is something we are worried about," said Debra Birkholz, USWA Local 13796 president. "Ever since this whole thing came out, we've said we will have a real battle on our hands in four years."

The company said the NIPSCO call center was preserved because of the utility's unique customer profile. It is the only NiSource subsidiary that provides electric service in addition to natural gas.

Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell on Sunday trumpeted the job growth at the Smithfield call center as a victory for his Governor's Action Team. Since January, the team has completed 101 projects to create or retain jobs, according to the governor's statement.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. did not provide information when asked Wednesday about any efforts it made to land the consolidated NiSource call center for Indiana.

A former NiSource executive in April told an international outsourcing conference that states were offering the company economic incentives to land its outsourced, consolidated call center.

"So they were actually willing to help more than be a hindrance in doing this, which surprised us somewhat, to be honest with you," former NiSource chief operating officer Sam Miller told the Accenture-organized conference, in Barcelona, Spain.

NiSource officials have said Miller was not speaking on behalf of the company at the conference because he had stepped down from his corporate post at the end of March.

NiSource Inc. is the third largest natural gas distributor in the nation. Its operating companies have 3.7 million customers. NIPSCO is the largest utility in Indiana with 712,000 natural gas and 445,000 electric customers in northern Indiana.