During his 16 years at the helm of Fiserv Inc., George D. Dalton transformed a data-processing outfit with 120 customers and 300 employees into a $1.6 billion global organization with 14,000 employees and 10,000 customers.
At age 72, one might imagine that Mr. Dalton, the founder and former chairman and chief executive officer of Fiserv, would begin to slow down. But instead of easing into retirement he has founded a new company, Call Solutions.com Inc., in Waukesha, Wis., to take advantage of what he perceives to be an enormous new opportunity in outsourcing: providing call center services.
About 80% of companies run their call centers in-house, but outsourcing has begun to take hold, Mr. Dalton said. According to his estimates, the market is extremely fragmented, with 3,231 outsourcers in the United States.
Though there are some outsourcers that mostly serve the financial services industry, including Anytime Access Inc., which was acquired by Digital Insight this year, and Siebel Systems Inc. of San Mateo, Calif., Mr. Dalton plans to serve companies in any industry. His company has some credit card firms as customers already.
From Call Solutions' offices at Criet's Field, a small airport west of Milwaukee where Mr. Dalton keeps his airplane, the company's chairman and chief executive has embarked on the same type of acquisition streak that characterized his tenure at Fiserv, where he made 92 acquisitions.
In its first six months Call Solutions has bought two companies: GLS Direct Inc. of Philadelphia and Advantage Line Telemarketing Inc. of Williston, N.D. The acquisitions give Call Solutions eight call centers, annualized revenues of about $20 million, and 1,100 employees.
For Mr. Dalton, the new gig fills the gaps that six grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, civic activities, a Harley Davidson, and a small airplane could not. "I needed something that was measurable performance," he said. "I love being with people, and I need to be challenged."
He said he left Fiserv, which is based in Brookfield, Wis., only after deciding that he needed "to get out of the window because I wasn't a youngster anymore." Also, at age 56, Leslie M. Muma, Mr. Dalton's successor at Fiserv, "created a better image," he said.
When he started casting about for a new full-time engagement, he found that the call center industry was "a tremendous opportunity," because it was "ripe for consolidation and improvement in terms of quality of service."
Handily, Ross L. Housley, 60, one of Mr. Dalton's best friends and neighbors, happened to be president and chief executive officer of GLS Direct. The two began to talk about setting up a new venture in the spring, around the same time Mr. Dalton retired from Fiserv. (He remains a director on the board.)
Mr. Housley became president and chief operating officer of Call Solutions when it acquired GLS.
Call Solutions acquired Advantage Line, an inbound call center, last month. Mr. Dalton said he expects that by the end of next month the company will have doubled its centers and employees through additional acquisitions. He used his own money and bank lines of credit to finance the two acquisitions.
Mr. Dalton said he hopes to differentiate Call Solutions from other outsourcers by providing additional services, such as fulfillment and printing.
Normally, an inbound call center takes an order, while another company ships it from a fulfillment center, he said. "My intention is to put an inbound call center together with a printing and fulfillment center. Most centers don't do fulfillment, printing, or warehousing, so this will make us unique."
Call Solutions is aiming to serve businesses with $10 million or less of annual revenues that cannot afford to set up their own call center and fulfillment operations, Mr. Dalton said. "They don't have the talent nor the capital. We can eliminate the redundancies for them in the area of technology."
Michael Coady, senior equity analyst at Sidoti & Company LLC, a New York brokerage firm that focuses on small-cap companies, said technology and the Internet are creating a need for improved call center services.
"To be competitive in this space, a company needs to have e-mail management capability, including automated and/or customized responses," he said. "And it needs the ability to update a customer's account in real time, regardless of the means of communication, whether by e-mail, phone, or fax."
Even organizations with very large customer bases, such as financial services firms and telcommunications carriers, are starting to outsource sales and customer service to one or more third-party providers, Mr. Coady said.
Mr. Dalton also said that the Internet has increased the need for better call centers. "Even in the electronic world, there's a need for humans."
Call centers of the future will incorporate more automation to help humans serve customers better, he said. "People don't give the telephone enough recognition. I think we'll improve the delivery system."
Eight people work out of Call Solutions' head office, including Kevin Kasper, senior vice president of market development. Edward P. Alberts, senior vice president and treasurer, spends his winters in Palm Springs Calif.
Mr. Kasper and Mr. Alberts, 77, are former Fiserv officials. Mr. Alberts retired as senior vice president of finance at Fiserv in May 1999 but has been enticed out of retirement "mostly by George," he said. "He's a piece of work. He likes to work with me, and I like to work with him. It's been fun."
He continues to advise Mr. Dalton on the structure of acquisitions by evaluating the target companies' financials. "I think George is going to build another company that is going to be a success," he said. "There's a good shot that by the end of next year it'll be among the top 20 companies in the country."
Mr. Muma, president and chief executive officer of Fiserv, said, "George is focused and a tenacious son of a gun. If anyone can succeed in the call center business, he can." The industry is potentially a high-growth one, Mr. Muma said, though the business can be tough "because of the people turnover."
M. Arthur Gillis, president of the Computer Based Solutions Inc. consulting firm in Dallas, said Mr. Dalton's move into the call center industry was not something he expected. However, "he really has a sense for what works in this business," Mr. Gillis said. "He's got the record, and he's got the energy. The only factors that could slow him down are conditions in the marketplace."
Mr. Gillis described Mr. Dalton as a "tough" person."
"I know him as an honorable, straight-talking guy who's not subject to make mistakes. He takes everything seriously. He's a perfect businessman. Unlike other guys who may have smarts and skills, George has a huge heart. He's a people man."
Mr. Dalton, whose workday generally begins at 6:15 a.m. and ends at 6:30 p.m., shows no signs of slowing down. "This is what I do for my fun," he said.
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