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Dozens of U.S. companies from Microsoft to Federal Express, IBM to Eastman Chemical, Hewlett-Packard to Holiday Inn - have chosen the Netherlands as the site of their call centers. According to a Buck Consultants report, from 1991 to 1995, between 40 and 50 percent of U.S. companies establishing a pan-European call center in western Europe (covering at least five European countries) went to the Netherlands.
One of the newest call centers in Holland was established in June 1996 by XtraSource, the Kent, Ohio-based provider of worldwide customer service support to clients in the electronics, computer and software manufacturing industries. XtraSource was founded in January 1996 by Tom Tyler, former CEO of Universal Electronics. While at Universal, Tyler oversaw the growth of the firm's annual sales from $200,000 in 1988 to $98 million in 1994.
Universal Electronics manufactures and distributes remote control devices used for televisions and other electronic equipment, and one of Tom Tyler's fundamental realizations was that consumers, for the most part, don't like to interface with technology. "We understood that to make Universal Electronics a success, we needed to open a help desk to...