29/4/2005 - County Council secures new jobs for Cumbria

Employment opportunities were boosted today as Cumbria County Council secured over 50 new jobs for the county.

The Council and its IT partner Agilisys Ltd have won the race to create a contact centre to deliver the Department of Trade and Industry’s flagship advice service - ‘Consumer Direct’. The County Council and Agilisys now plan to create a centre in Barrow in Furness which could provide up to 70 jobs to bolster the county’s economy.

Eight regions are already operating Consumer Direct, it is hoped that the DTI funded centre in Barrow will be operational and providing the service to the North West by March 2006.

In order to win their nomination the County Council and Agilisys team put together a 120 page proposal and gave a presentation to the North West selection panel. After overcoming strong competition from Liverpool Direct (a joint venture between Liverpool City Council and BT which already provides extensive contact centre services in Liverpool), the team will now go forward to negotiate costs, prices and start-up dates with the DTI. The aim is to sign the contract by 1 May so recruitment and training can start in the late summer.

Peter Stybelski, Chief Executive of Cumbria County Council said:

"We are extremely proud to be bringing Consumer Direct to Cumbria. With 6.8 million people in the North West, we can expect to take around a quarter of a million calls a year. We are confident of providing high quality advice to help people resolve their consumer problems. This is a great success for the county council and demonstrates the huge benefits of our partnership with Agilisys. Barrow will really benefit from the new jobs the centre will create and this initiative is a good joint working between the County Council, Barrow Borough Council and Furness Enterprise."

Charles Mindenhall, Chief Executive of Agilisys Ltd commented:

"This is great news. Our partnership with Cumbria County Council is only in its infancy but we have already proved its strength. The combination of Agilisys technical expertise in telephone, computing and contact centre operations and the County Council Trading Standards team’s knowledge of consumer advice came together in a very strong proposal."