Rural Sourcing, Inc. Announces Augusta Operation

Leader in domestic sourcing to create 100 jobs

Governor Sonny Perdue announced today Rural Sourcing, Inc. (RSI), an Atlanta-based provider of internet technology domestic sourcing, is opening a development center in Augusta in Richmond County. The company plans to create 100 direct jobs in the fields of computer and software engineering and programming.

“Georgia’s highly-skilled pipeline of talent for high tech companies will certainly be an asset to the Rural Sourcing Augusta development center,” said Governor Perdue. “The company’s expansion will boost the local economy and provide job opportunities for Augusta-area residents.”

RSI’s client list includes Fortune 500 companies, as well as small to mid-size businesses seeking cost effective alternatives to offshore staffing. The company leverages its pool of well-trained IT professionals in smaller markets to meet its clients’ critical IT resource needs.

“Our 300 percent annual growth rate is indicative of the market’s appetite for a low-cost, high-quality on-shore alternative to the traditional offshore India operations. We are extremely excited about our Augusta location because of the outstanding workforce in Augusta,” said Monty Hamilton, CEO of Rural Sourcing Incorporated. “RSI has an excellent working relationship with the Development Authority of Richmond County and the Georgia Department of Economic Development. As we look forward, our sights are set on continuing to put Americans back to work right here in Augusta and the surrounding area for many years to come.”

The company’s Augusta development center will locate at Augusta’s Enterprise Mill. During its location search, RSI considered communities with relative proximity to four-year universities in non-metropolitan areas that offer a high quality of life and low cost of living. This approach allows the company to pass along cost savings to its clients.

“I am very pleased that Rural Sourcing Incorporated has chosen Augusta for this project. Augusta shares RSI’s commitment to high quality information technology services,” said Terry Elam, chairman of the Development Authority of Richmond County. “We’re proud that Augustans will be at the forefront of this important information technology sourcing savings for companies around the world.”

RSI will hire from the local workforce in Augusta, and will be accepting employment inquiries from interested applicants via the company’s website, www.ruralsourcing.com.

“Rural Sourcing Incorporated will hire top-notch, skilled people with experience in computer operations and information technology, and will add greatly to the outstanding workforce here in Augusta,” said Walter Sprouse, the Executive Director of the Development Authority of Richmond County. Georgia Department of Economic Development statewide project manager Glen Whitley assisted the company with this location, in collaboration with the Development Authority of Richmond County.
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Nominate Your Workplace as One of Atlanta's 101 Best & Brightest Companies to Work For

/PRNewswire/ -- The search is on for Atlanta's Best and Brightest Companies to Work For. For the first time ever, Atlanta, GA will host the 101 awards event that identifies and honors organizations that display a commitment to excellence in their human resource practices and employee enrichment.

The event will honor 101 companies and present 11 elite awards at the first annual "Atlanta's 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For" symposium and awards celebration on June 20, 2011 at the Atlanta Marriott Century Center. The event will feature best practice workshop sessions that precede an awards brunch hosted by Monica Pearson of WSB TV 2.

An independent research firm will evaluate each company's entry based on its communication, community initiatives, compensation and benefits, diversity and multiculturalism, employee education and development, employee engagement and commitment, recognition and retention, recruitment and selection, small business and work-life balance. A basic assessment of each nominated company's overall ranking in each category will be provided.

Nominations are being accepted online at www.101bestandbrightest.com. Anyone can complete the online entry form. Nomination forms are also available by calling 866-321-1822. The nomination deadline is Dec. 1, 2010.

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Three Georgia Companies on Counselor's 2010 Best Places to Work List

Alpharetta-based eCompanyStore is No. 24 of ad specialty companies with greatest corporate cultures

Loyal staffs, trustworthy management, solid benefits and team effectiveness helped land 75 companies on Counselor magazine’s 2010 list of best places to work in the ad specialty industry.

Every company on the list provides typical health-care and financial benefits. But some also infuse their corporate culture with unique benefits such as an incentive program offering $1,000 to employees who buy eco-friendly cars. Other companies use food to win over workers, including wine tastings and family barbeques.

The number one "Best Place to Work" is Dacasso, a Gainesville, FL-based supplier that emphasizes the fun and the progressive, whether it's a holiday party, wellness program or late-afternoon sales challenge. The company also provides a fitness room, favorable scheduling policies and a tax-advantaged profit-sharing plan that allows employees to become fully vested at three months.

Three Georgia companies are included on the list: eCompanyStore (Alpharetta), Pinnacle Promotions (Norcross), and The Icebox (Atlanta).

The list of 75 is a mix of large and small, geographically diverse companies identified by an in-depth survey process. To create the list, Counselor - published by the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) - partnered with third-party research firm Quantum Workplace, which conducts Best Places to Work contests in more than 40 major cities, including Boston, Dallas, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Seattle.

“At a time of unprecedented economic challenge, the companies on our list are rising to the task and providing a great workplace for their employees,” said Timothy M. Andrews, president and chief executive officer of ASI. “In return, they’re rewarded with loyalty and creativity by hard-working employees who simply love their jobs and enjoy going to work every day.”

The list appears in the September issue of Counselor, the “voice” of the promotional products industry. The accompanying cover story was written by Counselor Editor Andy Cohen and Staff Writer Dave Vagnoni and includes an interactive map. To view, click here.

The “Best Places to Work” list includes distributors and suppliers, companies with hundreds of employees and small firms with only 12 staffers (to qualify, a company had to have at least 10 employees).

The Counselor 75 Best Places To Work List:

1 Dacasso (Gainesville, FL) 2 Royal Crest Promotions (Golden, CO) 3 Hirsch Gift (Houston, TX) 4 Albrecht & Co. (Milford, OH) 5 The Book Company (Delray Beach, FL) 6 Metromedia Marketing (Edmonton, Canada) 7 Catalyst Marketing (Seattle, WA) 8 SnugZ/USA (Salt Lake City, UT) 9 Talbot Marketing (London, Canada) 10 MadeToOrder (Pleasanton, CA) 11 LogoBranders (Montgomery, AL) 12 Custom Logos (San Diego, CA) 13 Overture Premiums & Promotions (Vernon Hills, IL) 14 Pingline (Chicago, IL) 15 Sunrise Identity (Woodinville, WA) 16 The Sunshine Group (Maitland, FL) 17 Akran Marketing (Ottawa, Canada) 18 NewClients (Richmond, VA) 19 Posh Xessories (Chino, CA) 20 BrandVia Alliance (San Jose, CA) 21 The Vernon Company (Newton, IA) 22 Identity Marketing Inc. (Tempe, AZ) 23 Zebra Marketing (Memphis, TN) 24 eCompanyStore (Alpharetta, GA) 25 JH Specialty (Fort Wayne, IN) 26 Bluegrass Promotional Marketing (Charlotte, NC) 27 Pinnacle Promotions (Norcross, GA) 28 Go USA (Wenatchee, WA) 29 Identification Services/Halls and Company (Brooklyn Park, MN) 30 The Icebox (Atlanta, GA) 31 iClick (Seattle, WA) 32 Stitch Designers (Louisville, KY) 33 Mac Mannes (Bethesda, MD) 34 Insight Resource Group (Orinda, CA) 35 Image Group (Vancouver, Canada) 36 Stowebridge Promotion Group (Chandler, AZ) 37 Immediate Sales Agency (Waterloo, Canada) 38 Boundless Network (Austin, TX)

39 Cotton Candy (Mississauga, Canada) 40 Greater China (Bellevue, WA) 41 Metropak (Richardson, TX) 42 Moore Exposure (Fayetteville, NC) 43 Indoff (St. Louis, MO) 44 Mid-Nite Snax (Mineola, NY) 45 Cavanaugh Marketing Network (Pittsburgh, PA) 46 American Ad Bag (Woodstock, IL) 47 Sonoma Promotional Solutions (Sonoma, CA) 48 Image Source & Branded Solutions by Edgar Martinez (Kirkland, WA) 49 Bob Lilly Professional Promotions (Dallas, TX) 50 Crystal D (St. Paul, MN) 51 Show Your Logo (Oswego, IL) 52 Genumark Promotional Merchandise (Toronto, Canada) 53 Atlas Embroidery & Screen Printing (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) 54 SanMar (Preston, WA) 55 Walker-Clay (Hanson, MA) 56 Proforma (Independence, OH) 57 Pinnacle Designs (San Fernando, CA) 58 Adco Litho (Broadview, IL) 59 Sweda Company (City of Industry, CA) 60 AddVenture Products (San Diego, CA) 61 CSE (New Berlin, WI) 62 Rightsleeve (Toronto, Canada) 63 Brand Fuel Promotions (Morrisville, NC) 64 BamBams (Lorton, VA) 65 ePromos Promotional Products (New York, NY) 66 14 West LLC (Pewaukee, WI) 67 Match-Up Promotions (Longwood, FL) 68 California Tattoos (Tucson, AZ) 69 MediaTree (Parsippany, NJ) 70 Bag Makers (Union, IL) 71 The Promotional Specialists (Markham, Canada) 72 Digispec/Visstun/CounterPoint (Las Vegas, NV) 73 Bag Designs (Concord, Canada) 74 Sonic Promos (Gaithersburg, MD) 75 HDS Marketing (Pittsburgh, PA)

Promotional products, or advertising specialties, are often imprinted with slogans or logos to market a company, organization, product, service, achievement or event. The items are used in marketing campaigns to dramatically increase response rates.
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Seven Georgia Counties Reach Certified Work Ready Community Status

Creating skilled workforce, improving public high school graduation rates

Governor Sonny Perdue today announced seven new Certified Work Ready Communities, a designation showing the county has the skilled workforce businesses demand and the educational infrastructure to drive economic growth and prosperity.

“By becoming Work Ready these communities are positioning themselves for future growth,” said Governor Perdue. “The communities are building the skilled workforce that employers rely on to succeed and grow.”

Barrow, Bleckley, Catoosa, McDuffie, Pike and Ware counties were named Certified Work Ready Communities of Excellence. Brooks County has been named a Certified Work Ready Community. These counties represent the sixth group to complete their Work Ready Certificate goals and have successfully met at least the required minimum increase in their county’s public high school graduation rate.

The new Certified Work Ready Communities achieved the following:

- Barrow County: 866 Work Ready Certificates earned (33 percent above goal); increased high school graduation rate from 69 percent to 75.5 percent
- Bleckley County: 533 Work Ready Certificates earned (118 percent above goal); increased high school graduation rate from 72.1 percent to 82.6 percent
- Brooks County: 424 Work Ready Certificates earned (95 percent above goal); increased high school graduation rate from 50.5 percent to 63.3 percent
- Catoosa County: 860 Work Ready Certificates earned (25 percent above goal); increased high school graduation rate from 70.9 percent to 76.2 percent
- McDuffie County: 869 Work Ready Certificates earned (164 percent above goal); increased high school graduation rate from 72.7 percent to 77.6 percent
- Pike County: 507 Work Ready Certificates earned (121 percent above goal); increased high school graduation rate from 76.4 percent to 80.2 percent
- Ware County: 1,147 Work Ready Certificates earned (102 percent above goal); increased high school graduation rate from 62.6 percent to 76.6 percent

To earn the Certified Work Ready Community designation, counties must demonstrate a commitment to improving public high school graduation rates through a measurable increase, and show a specified percentage of the available and current workforce have obtained Work Ready Certificates.

Each community created a team of economic development, government and education partners to meet the certification criteria. Counties are given three years to reach the goals necessary to earn the designation. One additional county – Berrien County – has met its Work Ready Certificate goal and continues to work to improve it high school graduation rate.

To date, 19 counties have earned the Certified Work Ready Community designation and 120 others are working toward their individual goals.

Once counties attain their Certified Work Ready Community goals, they are able to maintain their status by ensuring a small percent of their available workforce continue to earn Work Ready Certificates, engage local businesses to recognize and use Work Ready, and continue to increase their public high school graduation rate until they reach a threshold of 75 percent. Once they reach 75 percent, they must maintain that graduation rate to maintain their certification status.

To continue their work, each county will receive a $10,000 grant. Their Work Ready Community teams will also receive a two-year membership to their local chamber of commerce and a budget for additional Work Ready outreach materials. Counties that are fully certified receive road signs and a seal denoting the year they achieved certification.

Georgia’s Work Ready initiative is based on a skills assessment and certification for job seekers and a job profiling system for businesses. By identifying both the needs of business and the available skills of Georgia’s workforce, the state can more effectively generate the right talent for the right jobs. The Certified Work Ready Community initiative builds on the assessments and job profiling system to create opportunities for greater economic development.

For more information on the Work Ready initiative please visit the Web site at www.gaworkready.org .
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Army Reserve Chief Seeks Private Industry Partners

The general in charge of the Army Reserve has a deal for U.S. employers: If you agree to hire qualified employees, he'll help you recruit them.

Lt. Gen. Jack Stultz said the "Partnership for a Shared Workforce" initiative emerged as a way to help the reserves and the private sector attract young talent. Stultz said the concept was born of similar challenges facing the entities -- namely, that only about three in 10 young men ages 17-24 are fit to join the ranks of military or industry.

The reasons people are precluded from service -- from failure to meet educational or physical requirements, to a criminal background -- often are grounds for non-employment in the private sector too, the general said.

"Employers of America are having the same problem (as the Army)," Stultz said. "They're looking at that same work force out there and saying, 'How many of those kids can pass a drug test who don't already have some kind of conviction in their records? And how many have the aptitude to do the task we're needing in a much more technological age?'"

Among other enterprises, Stultz said, the partnership has received particular interest from America's trucking industry, where the average long-haul truck driver is more than 50 years old. Couple this aging work force with a shortage of qualified drivers, the general said, and young, employable talent is hard to pass up.

"I've got soldiers in my ranks that are truck drivers," Stultz said he tells employers at trucking companies. "They've already passed a drug test; they've already passed a background check; they've already passed a physical; they've already scored high enough on an aptitude test; and I've trained them how to drive a truck. All you've got to do is hire him."

Stultz said similar pitches to place reservists in civilian positions are gaining traction with industry employers around the country. He plugs the reserve's cadre of X-ray technicians to health care providers looking for help; he sells signal soldiers -- trained and experienced in using fiber optics -- to communications companies; he suggests military police troops for jobs in civilian law enforcement.

"We're getting a lot of synergy there now, being able to tell a potential soldier, 'How would you like to come work for us in the Army Reserve and go to work for this company in your local community at the same time?" he said.

The initiative hearkens back to Stultz's experience as a young man transitioning out of the active-duty Army in 1979 into a "dual-hatted" role as a reservist and a civilian employee at Proctor and Gamble.

Placing high value on the training and principles instilled in young officers, Proctor and Gamble and other companies eager to employ managers heavily recruited junior military officers, Stultz recalled.

"There were a lot of headhunter companies that would go around the military installations saying, 'If you're thinking about leaving active duty, let us talk to you,'" he said.

At the first national Proctor and Gamble meeting he attended, Stultz said, it was virtually a military homecoming. "Everybody there was like, 'Who were you with? What unit were you in? Where were you stationed?" he recalled. "Nowadays you really don't see that."

The general said he would like the two forces -- military and civilian -- to work together again as they did when he started at Proctor and Gamble, where Stultz, an operations manager, has worked for nearly three decades.

"Just like in 1979 when Proctor and Gamble was looking for new potential managers and they saw the military as a great source, I'm telling the employers of America that hasn't changed," Stultz said. "We produce some of the finest quality individuals in America.

"If we can get that partnership together, it's the way we're going to sustain this all-volunteer reserve force for the future," he said. "It's going to be us and the employers together succeeding."

By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service

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Military training device supplier to expand in Eastanollee

Combat Training Solutions, which manufactures simulated explosives for the military, announced today that it plans to add more than 30 jobs and invest $1 million to expand in Stephens County.

“Helping entrepreneurial companies expand is an important part of our mission,” said Ken Stewart, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. “We are especially proud that Combat Training Solutions is not only growing our economy, but also supporting our troops.”

Combat Training Solutions, founded in 2005 in Stephens County, evolved from a recreational paintball company into a full-fledged defense contractor. With an extensive line of military and law enforcement training products, CTS’s proprietary systems allow the trainee to be in direct contact with the explosion effect without injury. This unique feature is the driving reason for its extensive usage by U.S. and allied militaries around the world.

CTS has purchased a 6,000-square-foot building on close to seven acres at the Meadowbrook Industrial Park in Stephens County. The company expects rapid growth as it continues to add to its product line and service offerings.

“This move meets an immediate need in our manufacturing and engineering operations while the additional acreage permits rapid expansion as new contracts materialize,” said Nathan Brock, president and CEO of Combat Training Solutions.

“We appreciate Combat Training Solution’s additional investment in our community and the additional jobs they will provide for our people,” said Bob Defenbaugh, chairman of the Stephens County Development Authority. “We’re proud of their accomplishments and will continue to support them and assist their growth. Combat Training Solutions is a great example of the entrepreneurial spirit of our people and the talent that we have right in our own back yard.”

Suzanne Browne was project manager for GDEcD.

Combat Training Solutions, Inc. (CTS) is the leading provider of innovative non-pyrotechnic Improvised Explosive Device (IED) simulation products and integrated solutions for education, training and operations. Based upon a legacy of non-pyrotechnic design achievements, CTS has successfully adapted its technologies to national security, defense and law enforcement organizations across the U.S. and abroad. CTS continues to deliver on its mission to design, manufacture and integrate the most advanced simulators and training devices available today to better prepare war fighters for battle and help win the war on terror.
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