Daleville, IN (April 30, 2007) - At a news conference held Monday, April 30th, Governor Mitch Daniels and company spokesperson Olivette Whipple announced that IBM will be opening a new customer service center in Daleville. IBM plans to employ 500 people and invest $3 million within three years. The center will be housed in the former Burlington Motor Carriers National Headquarters building on Commerce Drive. The new call center will service a combination of new and existing clients.

Olivette Whipple, Vice President for IBM Global Integrated CRM Delivery, said the Muncie-Delaware County area was selected because it offers an excellent pool of skilled, qualified applicants and Ball State University provides cultural and higher education opportunities. The majority of the positions available will be for call center agents. These positions will help clients assess and obtain services for systems management and business processes ranging from system upgrades of antivirus software to complete transfer of HR or finance functions from a company to IBM. Governor Daniels said the new facility is one of the economic development projects called for under the agreement between the state and the IBM. "A cleaned up welfare system, a billion tax dollars saved over the next decade, and 1,000 new jobs on top. This was already a huge win - seeing hundreds of those jobs sited in a small town is the bonus to a great reform."

Delaware County Commissioner President John Brooke said this is another great project for Delaware County. "This is the second Fortune 500 Company to locate in our county in the last year. Between the two companies, they will be providing 1,200 jobs to our residents," added Brooke. "Like most economic development projects, Delaware County had to compete for this project and we are extremely pleased to have won this center. As incentives were discussed we were able to negotiate a ten year commitment from the company and a "best faith effort" to hire at least seventy-five percent (75%) of its employees from Delaware County," noted Brooke. "We are very pleased to have IBM here and are excited about the future".

"IBM will provide further diversification of the local economy and its $12 million plus annual payroll (when fully staffed) will have a very significant effect on the local economy. IBM, Sallie Mae, Muncie Ethanol LLC, and MPT-Muncie are four recent major successes here representing nearly 1,700 new jobs and $200 million in new capital investment," said Robert Curtis, President & CEO, Cardinal Health System and Chairman of the Board of Vision 2011 Muncie-Delaware County Economic Development Alliance (EDA).

"These projects, along with, Ball Memorial Hospital’s $120 million expansion and hundreds of new jobs, as well as numerous EDA-assisted existing business expansions are helping to fuel our local economy. The Vision 2011 Economic Development Alliance is doing a great job in helping to move our community forward. The teamwork between EDA and local government has been tremendous," added Curtis.

The jobs at the center are projected to average $24,109 in year one and growing to $29,137 in year five (includes benefits).