Firm To Add ‘Hundreds’ Of Jobs Here Software Spectrum’s Employment To Jump Over Next 12 Months
Software Spectrum, the company that picked up some of the pieces of the disintegrating Egghead Inc. a couple of years ago, plans to more than double the size of its Spokane work force over the next 12 months.
“Sales are going so well in both our Dallas and Spokane technical support centers that we anticipate that much growth over that time,” Katherin Dockerill, Software Spectrum’s corporate communications manager, said Monday.
The company announced in a news release Monday that it will add 50 technical support analysts at its Spokane call center in the next six months, and has a goal of adding “several hundred analysts in Spokane within the next 12 months.”
Dockerill said the company currently employs about 125 here.
“It would be correct to say that we will more than double our presence there,” Dockerill said. She added she can’t offer any more precise numbers at this time.
Software Spectrum, based in Garland, Texas, describes itself as a leading worldwide supplier of personal computer software and technology to organizations. It has operations in North America, Europe and Asia.
The company came to Spokane in early 1996 when it acquired Egghead’s corporate, government and education (CGE) division.
Egghead had relocated its corporate headquarters to Spokane from the Puget Sound area a few months earlier, and had built its local employment base to almost 500.
Sale of the CGE division, though, began a downward spiral that has stripped Egghead of most of its workers here. Egghead is currently completing closure of all of its retail outlets, and will sell solely through electronic commerce on the Internet. The company’s employee base here has dwindled to 50.
Software Spectrum, though, has fared much better. Rather than selling on a retail basis, the company sells software to big business, government agencies and educational institutions worldwide.
When it acquired Egghead’s CGE division, Software Spectrum agreed to open a call center in Egghead’s space at Liberty Lake, and keep that center going for at least three years.
But Software Spectrum officials have said several times that they are pleased with what they have found in Spokane, and intend to expand operations here.
A big chunk of Software Spectrum’s business is providing technical support. Spectrum workers offer that support to the company’s customers. The company also contracts with software manufacturers to provide technical services in support of their products. And the company contracts with large corporate entities to support whatever software they buy.
The business of providing technical support to the customers of independent software manufacturers is the piece of Software Spectrum that is driving growth in its Spokane call center.
, DataTimes