SOLUTION - Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce

CHATTANOOGA, TN
YOUR NEW BACK-OFFICE
SOLUTION
CHATTANOOGA
YOUR NEW BACK-OFFICE
SOLUTION
Chattanooga offers a strong legacy of
entrepreneurship and is conveniently located
near all of the key major markets in the South.
It is a proven location for financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, and manufacturing and is home
to numerous corporate headquarters. With nearly 70,000 experienced professionals dedicated to these various
sectors, Chattanooga is well-equipped to be your new back-office administration solution.
Chattanooga is one of the most trusted mid-sized cities for hosting new back-office operations.
Critical success factors include:
• A deep pool of talent, well-versed in various business sectors including insurance,
telecommunications and logistic industries.
Proximity to Major Markets
• America’s most advanced smart grid, providing unmatched power, reliability and
gigabit telecom capacity at any location.
Atlanta
Nashville
Knoxville
Birmingham
• World-class technical training programs and customized academic partnerships
designed to meet your company’s specific talent needs.
• Business-friendly elected officials and community leaders.
• A community with such outstanding economic vitality and quality of life that it’s
garnering national and international attention as a model for other cities, making
it an easy choice for top executives when relocating.
Within 180 miles:
Within 300 miles:
Charlotte
Louisville
Memphis
“Chattanooga’s gig network has helped attract $4 billion
in foreign investment since the downturn and a flock of new
tech entrepreneurs to the city, who revel in its green spaces,
hip cultural offerings – and clean air.”
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“With more than 10 years in the business-friendly
Chattanooga area, we’re happy with the low cost
of doing business here and the ease of recruiting
from a substantial local workforce with an
already strong customer service skill set.”
Tim Krug
Site Manager, T-Mobile
T-MOBILE IS GROWING
ITS SUPPORT STAFF WITH THE SPEED
OF THE NATION’S FASTEST INTERNET
In 2004, T-Mobile’s site selection team began analyzing
potential locations for a new customer service center. The T-Mobile
team lived up to its reputation for meticulously considering every
angle as they culled through hundreds of possible sites.
Over a six month period, Chattanooga rose to the top of
T-Mobile’s list as the best location with the strongest workforce
and an unparalleled ability to partner with the company to reach
its goals. The new facility would be T-Mobile’s second in the state
of Tennessee and would be critical in meeting the needs of the
company’s growing customer base.
The state of Tennessee, Hamilton County and the City of
Chattanooga worked seamlessly with T-Mobile to identify a viable
site, create infrastructure plans to support the company’s critical
telecommunications requirements, screen hundreds of local
applicants and train the newly hired workers to the company’s
exacting specifications.
Just seven months after announcing the project, T-Mobile moved
into a new facility with an initial 150 employees which has now
grown to 550. Additionally, T-Mobile has announced plans for an
expansion of its Chattanooga facility in the near future.
With nearly 1 million people
in the labor shed, multiple colleges and universities,
and a strong base of financial services and back office operations,
Chattanooga makes it easy to hire
well-prepared employees.
CHATTANOOGA
WORKFORCE AND TRAINING:
LARGE AND IN THE LEAD
Chattanooga area wages are
16% below the national average.
(Driven by a local cost of living that is also well below the average for the U.S.)
In the last year alone, Chattanooga has
extended its long-standing financial services
heritage by adding more than 1,000 back-office
and financial services jobs.
We’re also taking the lead on technical workforce
preparation. Educators and businesspeople are
collaborating at all levels to expand our large,
well-prepared, back-office and financial services
workforce by providing young people with
practical, applications-based training. In fact,
academic partnerships have been created for a
myriad of companies. Training topics include:
customer service, leadership, professional/
business writing, computer skills and Lean Six
Sigma programs.
Labor Pool
465,256 workers (Population
in labor draw area: 987,245
people)
Financial Services
12,556 people in the
Chattanooga MSA
(5.6% of all MSA employees)
$62,779 average wage per year
Educational Attainment
52.7% with some college or
higher (22.9% with 4-year
degree or higher)
Number of People
Employed in Call
Centers
2,500 people employed in Call
Centers
“Having a strong candidate pool is vitally important
to our operations areas, and we are fortunate to
have that resource in Chattanooga. We also benefit
from the support of numerous government and
civic partners whose efforts positively impact the
development of our current and potential workforce.”
Maria Darras
Vice President, Commercial Operations
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee
“Chattanooga is a great place to locate an operations
center. The region has a tremendous workforce, an ideal
geographic location, and a sense of civic momentum. You
have something really special when you couple those
factors with a low-cost operating environment.”
Scott C. Pierce
Senior Vice President, Government Programs
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee
In August 2006, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee
broke ground on a nearly 1 million square-foot corporate
campus in downtown Chattanooga. Their new LEED
Gold certified headquarters is home to more than 4,000
employees, including several hundred call center employees.
CHATTANOOGA
ONE OF AMERICA’S
BEST PLACES TO LIVE
Nationally ranked among the best places to live
by publications like Outside Magazine and National
Geographic Explorer, Chattanooga offers one of the
most engaging lifestyles you’ll find anywhere:
• Music: Free summer concerts every Friday
evening, the 10-day Riverbend Music Festival in
June and a variety of music venues.
• Dining: From top-shelf, locally-sourced gourmet
food to the best “down home” cooking and
barbecue.
Education
Chattanooga’s public schools include two of the nation’s
top magnet schools. Several schools offer the International
Baccalaureate program. The STEM High School and HUB
are dedicated to teaching science, technology, engineering
and math through industry-based projects. Hamilton County
is also home to 36 private and parochial schools. Higher
education boasts the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
and Chattanooga State Community College plus seven
private universities and colleges and many private, technical
training schools.
• Culture: The Hunter Museum of American Art,
the Chattanooga Theatre Center (community
theater), the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera,
dozens of festivals including the Four Bridges Art
Festival and much more.
Give everybody a raise (without spending a cent)
• Healthcare: Three major hospital systems with
national rankings ranging from heart care to
stroke treatment.
• Median price of existing, single family homes is about
$139,000.
• Outdoor Adventure: The area’s mountains, rivers
and lakes put you within minutes of rowing,
white water rafting, hang gliding, rock climbing,
boating, biking and hiking.
• Shopping: From Hamilton Place, the largest mall
in Tennessee, to boutique shopping and several
farmer’s markets.
Chattanooga offers low costs and taxes that give your
executives and employees who relocate here more buying
power:
• ACCRA Cost of Living Index is consistently below the
national average.
• Tennessee has no state income tax.
Chattanooga is “A Top 10 Place to
live big, Play Hard,
and work (if you must)”
- Outside Magazine
CHATTANOOGA
BUSINESS-FRIENDLY
WITH LOW OPERATING COSTS
Tennessee and Chattanooga offer
an incredibly business-friendly atmosphere at
remarkably low costs. The Chattanooga Chamber
serves as your one-stop local point of contact for
coordinating close collaboration among city, county
and state agencies to support you in selecting a site,
incentives and fast-tracking your permitting.
The City of Chattanooga and Hamilton County
partner on local incentives with the State of Tennessee
offering additional incentives for infrastructure
development, training and related areas.
Chattanooga State Community College and the
Tennessee Career Centers work in tandem to help
you move through the hiring and training process.
Once our team helps you start-up and begin
production, you’ll enjoy low employment costs,
business-friendly taxes, the nation’s smartest smart
grid and America’s fastest community-wide internet.
Speed to Market:
Chattanooga’s fast-track permitting and
support allowed Amazon.com to construct
a 1 million square-foot fullfillment center
and staff it with 1,250 employees in just 8
months.
Tennessee is a “Top Ten State For Least
Red-Tape, Low Business Taxes”
- U.S. Chamber of Commerce
“Chattanooga creates an environment where companies of all sizes can thrive and prosper. It
is a business-friendly city that combines technological advancement, an educated workforce
and a quality of life that makes it an excellent location for Unum.”
Richard P. (Rick) McKenney
President and CEO, Unum
Chattanooga is home to several publicly-traded corporate
headquarter operations, including the S&P 500 ranked Unum
with 2,800 employees.
Our unique combination of big-city amenities and low cost of
living makes Chattanooga attractive to relocating executives
while maintaining a fair cost of living for back-office
employees.
Major Corporate Headquarters
Company
Product/Service
Full-Time
Employees
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee
Healthcare Financing
4,437
Unum
Insurance
2,800
McKee Foods Corporation
Mfr. Cakes & Cookies
2,750
Astec Industries, Inc.
Mfr. Asphalt & Construction Equipment
1,318
U.S. Xpress Enterprises, Inc.
Transportation Services
1,036
Kenco Group
Supply Chain Solutions, 3rd Party Logistics (3PL)
639
EPB
Electric Power & Telecommunications
545
Walden Security
Contract Security Services
516
Schnellecke Logistics USA, LLC
Transportation Services
485
Southern Champion Tray, LP
Mfr. Folding Cartons
468
Jake Marshall, LLC
Mechanical Contractor
411
Miller Industries Towing Equipment, Inc.
Mfr. Towing Equipment
404
Vision Hospitality Group, Inc.
Lodging
397
CBL and Associates Properties, Inc.
Shopping Center Developer, Owner & Manager
375
Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation
Physical Rehabilitation Hospital
360
Mueller Company
Mfr. Gate Valves
357
Propex Operating Company, LLC
Mfr. Carpet Backing/Technical Textiles
351
“We’re lucky to be right
in the heart of downtown
Chattanooga, especially in an
office with as rich a history as
Warehouse Row. And being so
close to top recruiting schools
makes it easy to hire great
people. They’re excited to live
and work in such a vibrant
community.”
Jeff Silver
CEO,Coyote Logistics
CHATTANOOGA
A VARIETY OF BACK-OFFICE
SOLUTIONS
Chattanooga is home to growing success in
the back-office market. Freight brokerage firm Coyote
Logistics and financial services company Transcard
recently announced the addition of more employees,
most of which will be focused on sales and customer
service.
Chattanooga boasts the low costs of a mid-sized
city with the strong ability to leverage an existing
workforce that has proven to be effective for
numerous leading companies. The depth of the
employment pool—with particular expertise in the
insurance and logistics industries—has proven to be
an asset for new-to-market companies as well as
those with recently expanded operations including
T-Mobile, HomeServe and Convergys.
Company Name
Emps
Industry
BlueCross BlueShield of TN
4,437
Insurance
Unum
2,800
Insurance
Cigna
2,200
Insurance
Convergys
800
Call Center
T-Mobile
559
Communications
Whirlpool Xperience
550
Call Center
HomeServe USA
238
Home Repair Services
Coyote Logistics
235
Freight Brokerage
TransCard, LLC
69
Financial Services
Haverty’s Credit
65
Financial Services
Total Employment
10,553
CHATTANOOGA
HOME OF TOMORROW’S
INTERNET
With a state-of-the-art
telecommunications infrastructure,
Chattanooga houses America’s fastest internet.
Fiber-optic lines deliver 1 gigabit speeds and connect
smart meters on every home and business within a
600-square-mile area. The Gigabit Passive Optical
Network (GPON) provides coverage that allows
you to work from headquarters or distribute your
workforce without missing a beat. You also have the
opportunity to develop and test next generation apps
in the only real-world environment in America that
uses tomorrow’s internet.
We provide a wide variety of intelligent network services to
improve business productivity and efficiency. Chattanooga’s
communication advantages include digital housing centers
that accommodate 1,500 smart switches. The computerized
switching technology confines outages by re-routing power —
often within less than a second — and can be used to provide
a second electrical access point to your facility for a fraction
of the cost of a dual feed.
In addition, SONET transport technology, Integrated Services
Digital Network (ISDN) and Asymmetric Digital Subscriber
Line (ADSL) are available. Both traditional and competitive
local exchange carriers provide service, and Chattanooga has
multiple points of presence for all major long distance and
local carriers. These features allow Chattanooga to provide
the fastest and most comprehensive Fiber-to-the-Home and
Smart Grid in the United States.
STARTING UP
CHATTANOOGA’S
ENTREPRENEURIAL ENGINE
Chattanooga’s entrepreneurial
ecosystem thrives with startup investment
funds and local accelerators.
From seed fund Blank Slate Ventures
to venture capital funds Chattanooga
Renaissance Fund, SwiftWing Ventures, Jump
Fund and the venture incubator Lamp Post
Group, Chattanooga offers a strong base of
financial support for local entrepreneurs.
The Chamber-managed INCubator, the
largest business incubator in Tennessee, has
graduated more than 500 small businesses
into the community upon their completion of
a three-year development program.
The Company Lab, yet another resource
for entrepreneurs in Chattanooga, offers
CO.LAB Accelerator, a mentorshipdriven startup accelerator, as well as
GigTank, a summer accelerator supporting
entrepreneurship which takes advantage of
Chattanooga’s gig internet.
The Chamber-managed INCubator,
the largest business incubator in
Tennessee, has graduated more than
500 small businesses.
“Feetz chose Chattanooga as our location because of the grass
roots community that is developed in incubator networks like
the BDC. We are just a step away from other startups in diverse
industries of fashion, engineering, and software to kick around
ideas with.”
Lucy Beard
Founder & CEO, Feetz
www.ChattanoogaCanDo.com
811 Broad Street
Chattanooga TN, 37402 - 2626
1.423.756.2121 • info@chattanoogacando.com
www.chattanoogacando.com