Governor Kaine Announces State Child Support Enforcement Center to Locate in Martinsville

RICHMOND - Governor Timothy M. Kaine today announced that Martinsville will be the site of the first private-sector child support enforcement customer service call center in Virginia. Tier Technologies, a nationally recognized leader in support collection, will invest $3.1 million and hire 77 employees to help expedite the Virginia Department of Social Services’ collection process and improve the level of collections in Virginia. Tier Technologies will be located in the Commonwealth Centre.

“Nearly 25 percent of Virginia’s children rely on child support,” said Governor Kaine. “More than $560 million is collected per year on behalf of Virginia families. This new customer service center will help us assist more families by improving the level of collections, and bring good jobs to a community with a trained, eager workforce.”

The customer service call center is scheduled to open in mid-May, and Tier Technologies’ contract with the Virginia Department of Social Services will run through June 30, 2009, with four one year optional renewals. The contract revenues are expected to be about $27.1 million over the full seven-year period.

“Tier is honored to be selected for this important project, and is committed to supporting the Commonwealth of Virginia in advancing its child support mission,” said James R. Weaver, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Tier. “Tier shares Virginia’s spirit of innovation, and we look forward to delivering our proven, state-of-the-art interactive voice response system, and our highly efficient customer relationship management system, TierTracSM to provide a comprehensive customer service operation for the Commonwealth’s child support program.”

Tier Technologies (Nasdaq:TIERE) provides integrated information solutions for businesses and governments, with specific expertise in electronic payment processing, business process outsourcing and packaged software development and implementation. Tier has more than 2,200 clients, including federal, state and local governments in all 50 states, educational institutions and other commercial entities. The company’s headquarters is located in Reston.

“We are pleased that the contract with Tier will improve services to Virginia’s child support clients,” said Nick Young, Director of the Virginia Department of Social Services’ Division of Child Support Enforcement. “We expect the center will receive and respond to more than 1.4 million calls each year to assist families with child support questions.”

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corporation to secure the project for Virginia. Tier Technologies is eligible to receive state benefits from the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program, administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, because the company is locating in a Virginia Enterprise Zone.

“I welcome Tier Technologies to Martinsville,” said Martinsville Mayor Joe Cobbe. “These 77 new jobs are very important to Martinsville and Henry County. We are pleased that our Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corporation and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership were able to bring these jobs and $3.1 million in capital investment to Martinsville.”