Sony CISC
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Headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida, the Sony Customer Information Service Center (CISC) is a part of Sony Electronics, or SEL [1]. The CISC was started in the early 1990s and had initially been located in a warehouse in downtown Fort Myers, Florida, until completion of a two-story facility located in a Lee County community called Gateway, in 1996.
At the time of this writing (March, 2006), the CISC is the headquarters for all American Sony telephone technical support, which includes consumer video and audio products; VAIO® desktop and notebook computers and computer monitors; Sony's Business and Professional group; Qualia and Cierge high-end customer groups; as well as other related administrative groups. Additionally, other specialty or high-end products, such as both the discontinued AiBO® robotic pet and CLIÉ® PDA lines are or have been supported here. Sony's National and International Customer Relations groups are also located here.
Support organisations for Asia-Pacific and Europe exist as separate entities.
[edit] Recent developments
At the end of January, 2006, Sony Electronics Vice President Dan Wiersma announced the migration of approximately 170 technical phone representative positions to a third-party call center company named Alorica, which agreed to sub-lease the top floor of the facility. The senior technical representative positions were subsequently migrated to a facility at Sony Electronics headquarters in San Diego, California.
As June, 2006, Spanish-language support was relocated to an Argentina-based third-party call center company, named Teleperformance. A team of approximately 30 agents are tasked with domestic U.S. Spanish-language support for both hardware- and software-based concerns. All representatives are first level or "Tier 1" agents and cover Sony's VAIO(tm) desktop and notebook computer lines, as well as Sony's consumer electronics products, such as televisions, DVD players, digital cameras, cam-corders and sound systems. They also have been empowered to initiate repair procedures for customers experiencing physical (that is, hardware-based) difficulties with their equipment.
