May 5, 2011 -- Sudbury was the "dark horse" for TSYS when the Georgia-based company was searching for a city in which to open its first Canadian location.

"I pretty much was coming here just to complete my due diligence," said Dale Sahs, the senior director of operations at TSYS.

Once he arrived in Sudbury, however, he changed his tune. Sudbury shot to the top of the list of 15 cities that were considered.

"There was a wonderful facility that was readily available and would make it easy for us to move in," he said.

"Having so many French speakers, the bilingual demographic is excellent. Because our focus will be on servicing clients in Canada ... that bilingual skill is very important to us."

Sahs was at Tom Davies Square on Wednesday to announce the opening of TSYS's financial services support centre. The centre, scheduled to open in July, will be located in Southridge Mall at the site of the former Sitel call centre.

Sitel shut down in September 2009 after being open less than two years. There were 350 people working there at the time.

The TSYS business plan calls for 150 people to be hired in the first year, but that number could double, said group executive David Figgat. A managing director has already been hired, with general recruiting, hiring and training to begin immediately.

"We could easily fill up the centre (450 seats) by the end of next year. Filling up the centre means if you run two shifts you could have double the number of folks... we'll have to see what it goes to, but that's what the plan is right now."

Positions in the centre include everything from customer service to collections and fraud investigations related to debit and credit cards.

There are also fraud strategy positions, which means working with the banks TSYS counts as clients to develop fraud algorithms.

As for qualifications, Figgat said college graduates and students are preferred, but that it's not a requirement.

"We are also looking for a fairly healthy dose of French speakers because of the requirement of our Canadian banks to speak French."

While the company qualified for incentives for coming into Sudbury, it will not be using them, said Figgat.

"TSYS is coming here to make an investment, not necessarily to draw money from the city or the country of Canada. We're quite excited about what we're going to be doing, investing in this area."

"We want to be an employer of choice here in Sudbury," Sahs added.

"It is a pleasure to welcome our newest corporate citizen to Greater Sudbury and Canada," Mayor Marianne Matichuk said in a release. "We are absolutely thrilled that TSYS selected Sudbury as the location of their first financial services support centre in Canada.

"I look forward to TSYS, a global leader in the financial services sector with proven long-term client relationships, becoming an established employer of choice within our City. Greater Sudbury is open for business."

Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: http://www.thesudburystar.com