Puget Sound Business Journal
November 30, 2001
Washington Dental calls on Colville for telework
George Erb

Seattle-based Washington Dental Service is the first company to sign up for a pilot project at Washington State University that will use computers and long-distance technology to establish rural work centers for urban employers.

The nonprofit dental insurer this month agreed to open a call center in Colville, a city of about 4,750 in the state's northeast corner. Washington Dental will set up the call center in a former restaurant being remodeled by the Tri-County Economic Development District.

Between 25 and 30 employees will work out of the call center, with one group processing claims and another group fielding simple questions from customers.

WSU's program, dubbed the Rural Telework Project, is a modest experiment in using technology to bring urban jobs to rural communities. The project's hypothesis: Rural residents could use computers and long-distance telecommunications to work for employers many miles away, in the state's big cities.

If the project looks promising, it could be a new tool for narrowing the persistent economic gap between Washington's rural and urban communities. Year after year, Washington has one of the widest rural-urban gaps in the country.

Washington Dental's claims-processing work in Colville will supplement the insurer's claims operation in Seattle. The customer service workers will replace a service now provided by a Sacramento contractor.

Washington Dental decided to try Colville because it was running out of room at its headquarters in Seattle's Northgate neighborhood. Also, Colville offered cheaper office space, lower wages and a ready supply of workers with computer and customer-service skills.

"It penciled out and had a nice, visible contribution to the community," said Craig Gowdy, the company's vice president of information technology and facilities.

Gowdy said the company is still trying to determine the pay range for its Colville workers, although The Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane reported that the pay would range between $8 and $12 an hour.

Meanwhile, WSU is trying to recruit four or five additional employers for rural work centers in other communities, said Monica Babine, a rural telework specialist based in Kirkland. Northeast Washington, Okanogan County and the city of Forks are participating in the project.

Washington Dental's call center was big news in Colville. "It's amazing how important 30 jobs were to this community," Gowdy said.