Thought Leaders in Outsourcing: Interview with John Meyer, CEO of Arise Virtual Solutions (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What is the total population of people who are working through your system?

John Meyer: Right now the network is about 26,000 people. Some of it is seasonal. Right now we have a giant demand for retail because this is their big period, and a lot of e-commerce transactions are going on right now. So we bring in a bunch of people for retail. Some of it is a convergence of people who were working with other customers in the summer, and we have the ability to make [the model] work for three different customers over the year, following that seasonality. We have another customer that is a tax-related customer. You would see toward the end of the retail season a whole bunch of people in that area. Or cruise line people – their season runs from January to April.

Then you get to the summer, when we have roadside assistance work. A core of these people can continue to work for one customer throughout the year, but there are people who like the variety and like to do different things for different clients. You will find that they move from client to client. They can never work for more than one client at a time. So when a call comes in, they know it is for Carnival or one of the other 60 clients we have.

SM: Where are these 26,000 people working in your portfolio? What are some of the regions represented?

JM: They are in all 50 states and in four countries right now. We are in the U.K., in Canada, in Ireland, and in the U.S.

SM: Where in the U.S. do you have stronger adoption?

JM: Our biggest state is Florida because this is where we started. We have almost 8,000 people working in Florida. The next biggest state is Georgia. We are finding growth across all the states as people get to know us and what we are doing. California is probably the third state, then Texas, Illinois is a big state, North Carolina, New York, Minnesota – really any place where individuals have time that they could work and where they have access to a broadband network so they can work with us. There is no reason that Texas isn’t as big as Florida. It is historical. There is no reason that California isn’t as big as Florida. It is just historical.

Some of this is us doing a better job in developing a network in the respective states, so that people help propagate a rise. My big dream is that people meet in big cities and say, “Oh, you work for Arise. We have that in Florida, we have that in Georgia.” When people see me walking around in my Arise shirt, they stop me and ask, “Wow, are you working for these guys?” They are really upbeat on this, and I want to create that same type of branding and impression – maybe not around the entire world, but I’ll settle for the U.S. right now.

This segment is part 5 in the series : Thought Leaders in Outsourcing: Interview with John Meyer, CEO of Arise Virtual Solutions
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