Cox Business Services expansion calls for more hiring

April 2, 2010 – bizjournals.com – Original Source

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By Patrick O'Grady

Cox Communications Inc. is getting ready to hire two dozen or more employees for its business services unit, a result of increased demand and a plan for the cable operator to expand in the Valley.

The company announced last year it planned to target businesses as its biggest expansion opportunity in Arizona through upgraded networks and packages. Cox added about 24 people to the division last year and is preparing for more hiring for everything from network operators and administrators to salespeople, said Hyman Sukiennik, vice president of Cox Business Services in Arizona.

“We’re seeing a good deal of success in the marketplace,” he said.

Officials would not say how much the company is spending on the increased physical infrastructure, other than it was in the tens of millions of dollars in 2009 and likely will be about the same this year.

Cox plans on hiring during the next couple of months, further expanding a division the company has been staffing since last year. Sukiennik said the company has doubled it sales force in that time, and the latest addition will look to build the entire division by about 50 percent.

Salaries for the new hires will range from $30,000 to $90,000. Salespeople also will have the option for commissions beyond that, he said.

Trends in outsourcing and telecommuting are creating a large push for businesses to seek changes in their telecom structure, as is the use of online data storage and cloud computing, said Mark Goldstein, president of the International Research Center in Phoenix, which focuses on the telecommunications industry.

Cox’s ability to offer higher speeds through using the newest version of the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification, DOCSIS 3.0, allows for a multitude of features for business customers, Goldstein said.

“If they are doing media-rich conferencing, where they do video or real-time document sharing, there is some benefit to that,” he said.

Qwest Communications International Inc., one of Cox’s main business competitors in the Valley, is gaining more traction on the enterprise end through its 14-state territory compared with growth among small and midsize businesses, said Jim Campbell, Arizona president of Qwest.

“We haven’t seen as much of a growth (in that sector) in Arizona,” he said. “We’re probably a little behind here on the business growth side because of the recession.”