Staff Report

FLORENCE -- Zenta, a business and knowledge process outsourcing company, has established a 35,000 square foot operations center in Florence and will employ up to 250 people.

The move to Florence is a result of growing client outsourcing needs for residential mortgage services and further commitment by Zenta to expand its residential mortgage and financial services platform.

Craig Evans, a 20 year veteran of the residential mortgage industry, has been hired as a vice president and will head the Florence operations. Most recently, Evans served as a senior executive with Bank of America’s correspondent lending operation with approximately 200 employees. He had previous experience with Washington Mutual, Fleet Mortgage and First National Bank of Chicago.

“We are extremely excited about the opportunity in Florence,” said Jack Freker, Zenta’s president and chief operating officer. “The Florence location will allow Zenta to service a premier institutional banking client. It will also serve as a strategic onshore platform for other Zenta clients in the residential mortgage, banking and financial services industries.”

The opportunity for Zenta in Florence developed as other participants in the mortgage industry are seeking ways to reduce fixed costs and utilize business process outsourcing to transition to a variable cost model. Such a transition allows Zenta clients to better control costs in an environment where activity and loan volume cyclicality has created waves of hiring and firing within the industry.

By outsourcing certain activities, clients can pay for services on an “as needed” basis and reduce capital requirements that come from employing a large staff of back office personnel.

“What typically has been viewed as a cost center for our clients is a profit center for us,” Freker said. “Consequently our viability absolutely depends on taking existing processes and enhancing them to perform better, faster and with less cost than before.”