In August 2005, Dell announced they will locate a customer contact centre in Ottawa, Ontario to provide technical and sales support for its growing North American customer base. This project will bring 500 new skilled jobs to Ottawa at the on-set, followed by more than twice that over the next few years.

This is the second call centre which Dell has chosen to locate within Canada. In October 2004, Dell chose Edmonton, Alberta to establish its first customer call center. With recent growth of ICT in Canada and the outstanding success of the call centre in Edmonton, Dell’s decision to locate another call centre in Canada represents a clear indication of the momentum for growth among some of the largest telecommunications and high tech institutions in Canada.

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Shortly after Dell cemented plans for the Ottawa call centre, Canada’s ICT industry found another outsourcing call centre success. CNC Global, an IT staffing company for information technology plans to hire 500 technical support and customer service agents for a large international telecommunications provider and multinational hardware manufacturer.

Both companies’ investments in Ottawa will contribute to diversifying the region's technology workforce, which is known for its research and development capacities. Ottawa’s high level of bilingualism and educated labour force, with 45 percent holding a university degree, college diploma or certificate, were key factors in the selection of Ottawa as an ideal location.

In September 2005, NeoIT a leader in offshore outsourcing, consulting and services sourcing software solutions, ranked Canada second in the world, after India, as a top outsourcing destination for technology operations. From January 2002 to July 2004, 148 new customer contact investments, acquisitions and expansions took place in Canada and today there are more than 14,000 customer contact centres, with a 33 percent increase forecasted for 2007.

Canada’s knowledge intensive ICT industry offers a promising future. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit (UK), Canada is the best place among the G-7 to invest and do business within the next five years.

For more information on the ICT industry in Canada, please visit www.investincanada.gc.ca

Or for information on the Dell’s announcement, visit www.investincanada.gc.ca.

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