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Splash photo by Valerie Putnam

The Center Partners building at 1730 N. Madson in Liberty Lake (pictured above) will soon be rebranded to reflect its acquisition by Qualfon. The Qualfon rebranding has already transpired at the former Center Partners location in Coeur d’Alene (left). Qualfon has also announced it is hiring for the Liberty Lake location.

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Qualfon has plans to grow in Liberty Lake
9/29/2014 2:30:01 PM


Submitted photo

By Valerie Putnam
Splash Contributor

A call center located at 1730 N. Madson in Liberty Lake is in the midst of a transition. 

Qualfon, a leading business process outsourcing and call center provider based in Colorado, acquired the call center from Center Partners this spring. While Center Partners announced plans to lay off nearly 600 employees at the Liberty Lake location a year ago, Qualfon has reversed course at the location and is in hiring mode, advertising recently for aspiring employees to visit www.qualfonjobs.com.

The next stage for the company is to increase its brand awareness in the local market.

"Center Partners brand is being slowly dissolved and transitioned over to Qualfon," explained Brian Kearney, Qualfon's vice president of marketing. "We have already begun this process. Eventually, every visual sign of Center Partners will be gone, but you will still recognize a continuity of business practices and operational excellence."

Along with the new name, Center Partners will operate as a fully integrated part of Qualfon, adopting the company's people-focused strategy and mission of "making people's lives better" and "to be the best BPO." BPO stands for "business process outsourcing, which is where a business contracts out the operations and responsibilities for specific functions. 

"We found an outstanding business in Center Partners that shares the same people-oriented approach and is a perfect fit to diversify our client base," Qualfon CEO Mike Marrow said in a press release. 

According to Kearney, as part of the company's new focus, Qualfon's chief mission officer is creating more employee-supported programs.  The company recently hired an activities coordinator to implement "Fun Clubs," caring programs and community service opportunities for both employees and their families in the Inland Northwest corridor sites.

"These initiatives are backed by Qualfon's mission office," Kearney said, "and are specifically designed to offer educational workshops, programs and services that help employees, families and the Liberty Lake community at large."

The combined experience of the two companies reaches across multiple industries, such as communications, retail/commerce, technology and financial, providing a more diverse client portfolio.  

"Qualfon discovered a complementary business in Center Partners," Kearney said. "(It) acquired Center Partners with the vision of one stronger organization that provides an expanded global footprint with a solid United States presence." 

Most of acquisition details were not disclosed publicly, except for the fact that Qualfon purchased Center Partners in a cash transaction. 

"Qualfon has been a financially stable and steadily growing business," Kearney said. "Qualfon's executives felt it was a smarter business decision to remain a debt-free company, and we were positioned to purchase Center Partners out right - so we did."

Prior to the purchase, Center Partners was in business for more than 17 years, with six centers across Idaho, Washington and Colorado. The company was headquartered in Fort Collins, Colo. It's first contact center site was in Coeur d'Alene, with less than 500 employees. 

The Liberty Lake Center Partners location opened in 2011 and is currently staffed by 300 employees.

"Our plan for the Liberty Lake location is to utilize it to its full capacity and stabilize the business here for many years to come," Kearney said. 

Center Partner's 2,500 employees will be added to Qualfon's estimated 11,000 employees globally. These employees are located in Washington, Idaho, Colorado, Kentucky, Mexico, South America and the Philippines. 

Qualfon was founded in 1996 and operates out of a virtual global corporate structure. Departments are located in different areas around the world. The sales, marketing, client services and CEO are located in the United States, where as the finance, human development and information technology departments are located in near-shore and off-shore locations for financial savings. The company began as an IVR provider for clients and soon partnered with companies like IBM and AT&T to provide sales and customer support for ISP services.

"This is an outstanding time to add more clients from Center Partners and expand our U.S. footprint," Kearney said. "The acquisition enables Qualfon to be even more competitive in the mid-tier BPO market."

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