At Unibase, the electronic age is opening up new opportunities for people who want to earn a little money and remain at home, possibly taking care of their children.
Dan Burt, human resources manager for the service and telemarketing company at 986 W. Atherton Drive, said the company cannot keep up with the work from several large firms even though 604 employees work at home and 143 more work in the office.Burt said the company, owned by Jim and Lyman Blodgett, will need an additional 835 people by June 30, 1994, based on the contracts already in place and the expected additional work caused by the electronic age.
For example, Unibase receives 100,000 documents from United Parcel Service daily. UPS is just one of several companies using Unibase's services. One home operator picks up the bundles of work from the headquarters and distributes them to several neighbors doing the same work.
Burt said that way a person only has to do the pickup once per week. Using personal computers, the home operators put the data in files and send them to Unibase by modem. Then the information is sent to the client for use in billing its customers or other uses.
Burt said the home operators need to type 40 words per minute and have a personal computer meeting the company's specifications. They work about 31/2 hours per day on an average and are paid by the image. He said a hard-working person can earn $7-$9 per hour.
Working at home has several advantages, Burt said. Those with children can care for them, and it reduces traffic on the roads.
Anyone interested can call Burt at 264-6007.
Unibase has provided data entry services to Federal Express since 1986 and was initially given 20 percent of the date entry requirement. For operational reasons, Unibase was directed to perform these services in eight remote offices in the United States.
Since 1986, Burt said, the company processes an average of 200,000 documents per day for Federal Express, representing nearly 25 million keystrokes.
Unibase has processed the entry of new credit-card application information for American Express Corp. since 1987, processing up to 20,000 applications per day, representing more than 16 million keystrokes.
"Of major importance to American Express for this project is the ability to handle high-volume fluctuations on a daily basis. Unibase handles these peaks and valleys and is now American Express' largest key entry vendor for new credit card applications," Burt said.