AT&T's Telemarketing Site Selection System Offers Customer Support

Over 180,000 telemarketing centers in the United States employ over 2,000,000 people. Because of the rapid growth in the telemarketing industry, site location has become a critical problem. The National Technical Center came to Business Operations Analysis to develop a decision support system to help AT&T customers determine “good” locations for their telemarketing centers. The core of the system is a mixed integer programming model which minimizes labor, communications, and real-estate costs, while determining the optimal number, location of centers, and geographic regions to be served. In 1988, 46 AT&T customers made decisions on site locations swiftly and confidently, while committing to $375 million in annual network services and $31 million in equipment sales.