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Golden Gate is the name of the new building that you've seen going up on Highway 1 just north of town. And in case you've been wondering, the new tenant will be Telegroup, one of a number of dynamic and fast-growing Fairfield companies. As for the name of the building, developer Doug Greenfield explains, "Finishing touches will include a set of golden gates across the entrance that will theme the building."
Telegroup Inc. will consolidate all of its offices in the new building, except for those at the former Overland Outfitters building east of Fairfield on Highway 34. Telegroup has signed a four-year lease for the 31,650-square-foot facility, but wants to eventually consolidate all of its offices into one building. A search for that next building site is now under way.
The eventual occupants of Golden Gate will be a diverse group. Greenfield says there is a waiting list for tenants needing more space. Telegroup and other rapidly expanding businesses are driving the need for speedy construction. At a time when most office buildings reach skyward for more space per acre, Fairfield contractors are building one-story structures for the simple reason that they go up more quickly. Business demands dictate the going gait.
Telegroup plans to move into the new building no later than February 1. The company has been desperate for space in order to be able to do more hiring. Telegroup expects an increase of 100 or more employees locally over the next year or two&emdash;a 25 percent increase. Since its inception, Telegroup has been on the go, occupying both Tetra buildings, the Katie Ram building, the nearby "blue" and "red" houses, the building next to Newsland, and the Overland Outfitters building. Needless to say, being so spread out has created some difficulties which they hope the new building will help remedy.
It's been a good time economically for Fairfield&emdash;the sort of business expansion that everyone has dreamed of. Jobs, jobs, jobs. And good jobs. And many of those jobs are being filled with local talent.
Telegroup says it continues to attract highly qualified personnel: salespeople with good track records, computer programmers, network engineers, workers with Internet and intranet experience, and dedicated customer service representatives. With the exception of a few highly skilled software engineer positions, they have satisfied most of their personnel needs from Fairfield and nearby communities.
For those of you who haven't been north on Highway 1 lately, you'll be surprised. The building almost seems to be going up overnight. Prefabricated wall framing from Ottumwa is going up now. The final structure will be brick and conform precisely to the guidelines of Maharishi Sthapatya Veda, the science of design to promote energy, intelligence, and renewal. "It was positioned exactly with respect to the pole star," says Greenfield. Vastu Vidya, or the intelligence of a site, requires proper orientation, he says.
Energy efficient designs and the latest construction methods lend themselves to Sthapatya Veda without conflict. "It gives a blueprint for proportion and placement," says Greenfield, "and once the recommendations are received, then whatever design or modern techniques you want are put on top."
The Golden Gate is traditional in styling with a Trishala or U-shaped design, like the Sthapatya Vedic building next to The Mansion of the Mandala II project, which currently serves as executive headquarters for USA Global Link. Executives in that building have already found that they are enjoying much greater coherence and organizing power because of the Sthapatya Vedic influence. Telegroup expects to receive the same kinds of benefits from their new building.
The Golden Gate is capable of handling an occupancy of about 340, and most employees should get improved views over what they have now. There are no windowless basement rooms or views restricted by other buildings. The Gate occupies high ground and will have over 60 windows. Panoramas are of open fields with distant views of the Domes, airport, and Mandala project.
The entrance to the Gate is from the north off 185th St. The 100,000-square-foot parking area is in front, but because the building is slightly elevated it will be fully visible from Highway 1. The elevation allows electrical wiring to run under the floors instead of mainly in the walls, which means less electromagetic fields to tenants and sensitive electronic equipment. "The way it is being grounded and the use of dedicated circuits will also reduce these fields," says electrician Jim Anderson. It also means that nearly four miles of shielded wire is required, and a night shift will be necessary to complete the job on time.
The sensitive electronics which the building is being designed to accommodate are the kinds of leading-edge technologies that Fairfield is becoming known for. Telegroup has a team of about 60 engineers designing the next generation of telephone switches, which are unique to the industry. Telegroup calls the concept "Intelligent Global Network."
Switches route telephone calls, and state-of-the-art hardware switches are expensive and take time to develop and install. Telegroup thinks their "software" approach will be more flexible. Whenever a new feature is desired by the industry, it will be easier and faster to create these new software switches. Computerized switching has been a major part of Telegroup's business and growth in recent years.
Telegroup came into business as a reseller, buying long-distance time not needed by the large networks like AT&T, then reselling it. From a switchless reseller it expanded to become an international switched reseller, selling a U.S. dial tone via a new technique they pioneered referred to as callback. This "callback" service is not a long-term market strategy, according to Telegroup President Cliff Rees. "It's a market-entry strategy," he says, a way to gain customers and establish a marketing network worldwide. The next step is to add services such as Internet access, video on-demand, fax, and voice mail. To do business abroad, the company must become a facilities-based carrier with the ability to create direct operating agreements with overseas carriers, lease circuit capacity, and manage a network.
The software approach of the "Intelligent Global Network" should help them accomplish this. One thing the network will do is make callback obsolete. Since the intelligence is in a network instead of a central location, the switching is done on the customer's own continent. "Radical transformations are happening in the industry, and Telegroup is very well poised to take advantage of those changes," says Rees.
Telegroup has become a major player in U.S. and international communications, providing service for long-distance, for 800 numbers, and for calling cards with worldwide voice mail and fax capabilities. In 1994 and 1995 Telegroup revenue grew 100% and 50% per year respectively. Last year's revenue was over $100 million. In 1995 the six-year-old company ranked No. 2 on Inc. magazine's list of fastest growing private companies.
The company is looking to the Internet to keep costs low and remain competitive. They recently created a World Wide Web site that helps people find the carrier with the lowest long-distance rates. The site is called Call Cost Comparison (<www.callcost.com>).
The use of the Internet has transformed the company's sales force. Telegroup has a Web server devoted to its sales force. Representatives place new orders and check on their customers' hook-up all via the Net. Information is processed into the in-house system without waiting for clerks to type the data. Customers can be using the new service in fewer than two days, where it used to take as long as a week.
Telegroup and cross-town competitor USA Global Link boast of monetary gains, technical accomplishments, community building, and harmonious and evolutionary work environments, but mixed with these accomplishments is a pride in their global impact. They are helping to level the playing field for a global economy. They are helping businessmen of all industries, not just the communications industry, to compete on equal ground worldwide.
It's the sense of fair play that they like bringing to the world. When the FCC found in favor of Telegroup against the challenges of AT&T to the legality of callback, Telegroup Chairman Fred Gratzon responded, "I'm feeling like David felt when he slew Goliath." The FCC proclaimed that customers worldwide benefited from the increased competition and flow of international trade that reduced phone rates created.
"We've been one of the main economic levers to really bring competition into environments that have never seen competition before," says Rees. Most national long-distance telephone companies are government-run monopolies that charge high rates on the claim that they build up the local network, but Tom Morgan of USA Global Link says that no national phone company has ever published the uses of their revenues. He also points out that customer savings remain in their local economies to fuel their own growth.
"I like shaking up the competition," Gratzon says, "because when you get a really lively competitive environment, the technology gets better, the prices get better, the service gets better, and then everyone benefits." Talk of fair play and level playing fields from competitors in a town named Fairfield seems to be a natural fit.
