KS&R’s INSITE contact center takes advantage of downtown Syracuse move

SYRACUSE  —  KS&R, Inc. brought nearly 200 of its employees close to home last month by relocating its INSITE survey contact center. It’s so close that those employees can reach the market-research firm’s downtown Syracuse headquarters by crossing the street.

“That’s all I hear, how nice it is to be able to walk and go back and forth,” says Joseph Snyder, KS&R principal. “We’ve been there one month now, and it’s been huge.”

The contact center’s new home is in the Syracuse Building at 224 Harrison St., while KS&R’s headquarters is in the nearby AXA Towers. KS&R moved the contact center from its previous home at 5792 Widewaters Parkway in DeWitt on Jan. 2.

The move brings 185 employees, who work in the contact center, to downtown Syracuse. The center runs a day shift from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and an evening shift from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., according to Snyder. It also operates some weekend shifts to support consumer calling, he says.

INSITE is a full-service, in-house resource center for collecting data and managing information. Its services range from recruiting for focus groups to conducting interviews with senior business executives.

The center’s new location is 6,700 square feet, which is smaller than its previous space in DeWitt. That office space was 7,500 square feet.

Even though the new contact center has a smaller footprint than KS&R’s former space in DeWitt, the company did not lay off any employees when it moved, Snyder says.

“We were able to reduce the square footage because it’s a more efficient space,” he says. “Our old space was chopped up. It was originally set up as a call center, but we added to it over the years.”

The new center has a large open floor plan, which will help employees work together, according to Snyder. KS&R considered keeping the center in DeWitt before opting to move to Syracuse because the space was more efficient and closer to its headquarters, he adds.

KS&R started evaluating its contact-center space at the beginning of 2011. It looked at a number of issues before deciding to relocate, including making sure employees would have enough space for parking, Snyder says.

“We utilize what I would call the old Hotel Syracuse parking garage, and we also have spots in the back of the building and the Harrison Street garage,” he says.

The new facility required new floors, moving some walls, and rewiring for data networks and telecommunications. KS&R worked with its landlord, Syracuse–based JF Real Estate, to select new carpeting and tiling, Snyder says.

JF Real Estate coordinated renovations, according to Snyder, who called the work “relatively minor.” He declined to share the cost of renovations.

He also declined to disclose revenue totals and projections. KS&R does not anticipate any major changes to the size of its operations, he says.

KS&R employs about 275 people worldwide, Snyder says. It has offices in Syracuse; the metropolitan New York City area; Atlanta; Memphis, Tenn.; Frankfurt, Germany; and Asia.

Its Syracuse headquarters in the AXA Tower II in Syracuse is 23,000 square feet and has 75 employees.

KS&R performs worldwide market research and consulting in the technology, telecommunications, transportation, medical devices, health-care, retail, and finance/insurance industries. It was founded in 1983 and is privately held by 11 owners.