Tier Technologies lands Va. child support call center deal

The Virginia Department of Social Services has tapped Tier Technologies Inc. to run an outsourced call center for child support enforcement under a deal worth as much as $27.1 million.

Under the contract, Tier of Reston, Va., will operate a customer services call center designed to expedite and improve the collection process for the department's child support program.

To carry out the program, Tier will deploy an interactive voice response system and its proprietary customer relationship management system to deliver a full-service solution.

The three-year contract has four one-year renewal options. Tier plans to invest $3.1 million in the call center and plans to hire about 77 employees to staff it.

The new call center is expected to handle more than 1.4 million calls each year to assist families with questions related to child support.

Twenty-five percent of the state's children require child support payments, state officials said. To assist them, the state collects more than $560 million each year in payments.

Tier has about 860 employees and had annual sales of $127.9 million in fiscal 2004, according to Hoover's Online of Austin, Texas.