As the Internet grows, web jobs boom here

While the Internet is opening up new advertising and sales channels for some businesses here, it also is opening the door to new jobs-both for people who work directly with the worldwide network of networks and in more conventional positions at Internet-related companies here.

just how large

an impact Internet-related jobs are having on Spokane's economy is difficult to determine, since such jobs aren't tracked by the state, says Fred Walsh, regional labor economist here for the Washington state Department of Employment Security. Also, Walsh adds that since Internet jobs exist in all types of businesses - not in just one particular industry they would be harder to track than many types of positions.

Still, it's clear from on-line job-recruitment sites, projected employment growth at Internet-related companies here, and ads in The Spokesman-Review daily newspaper that businesses in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area are looking for workers with Internetrelated skills.

"I think that very shortly Spokane is going to be burgeoning with opportunities for experienced web developers," says Barton Cooke, founder of Screaming Mouse, a Spokane-based Internet start-up.

in addition to Screaming Mouse, at least two other Internet ventures-Post Fall-based Netivation,com and TicketsWest.com, the entertainment services arm of WestCoast Hospitality Corp., formerly known as Cavanaughs Hospitality Corp. - have launched web-site operations in the last 10 months.

Those three ventures alone now employ a combined about 200 people, and are expected to employ nearly twice that many by the end of the year. Of course, while those companies are tied to the web, not all of their job positions would be directly linked to the Internet.

Meanwhile, another Internet start-up here, Dealerswap.com, also has announced plans to roll out its web-based business concept this summer. That company employs about 15 people now, but expects to employ more than 100 here by year-end. Thus, those four ventures expect to add a combined roughly 285 employees by the end of the year.

Other Internet-related businesses in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area include Webiness Inc., a web-development and web-hosting company launched by Packet Engines founder Bernard Dairies; Translation Technologies Inc., which makes software that uses the Internet and translates computer-assisted design (CAD) programs from one format to another; Avista Advantage, a business unit of Avista Corp. that performs Internetbased energy billing and information management; Huppin's Hi-Fi Photo & Video Inc., a major player in the mail-order and on-line consumer electronics sales arena; and more than 20 locally based Internet service providers. There also are dozens of -entrepreneurial ventures that offer web design and consulting.

Demand for Internet skills also fueled an effort to retrain about a dozen former Itron Inc., software engineers for possible jobs with Internet-related companies. (See story page A7)

Retailer gears up

Coldwater Creek Inc., the big Sandpoint-based apparel, home, and gift retailer, is one company that has been advertising lately for two web developers and one or two web designers. Company spokesman David Gunter says that in the last year Coldwater Creek has developed an Internet division that now employs 15 people.

"Last year at this time, our web site was just a brochure site," Gunter says. "Now we have a full-blown ecommerce site that currently represents about 13 percent of our total sales." Internet sales are expected to account for more than 25 percent of the company's total sales by the end of the year.

"As our Internet sales have taken off, more development, maintenance, and support positions are being brought inhouse," Gunter says.

In addition to the employees who make up Coldwater Creek's Internet division, the company employs another 35 people in its Coeur d'Alene call-processing center in the newly created position of Internet customer-service representative. Like conventional customer-service representatives, the web workers answer customers' questions, but do so interactively in an electronic "chat room," where they "converse" with customers by replying in real time to written questions submitted via the company's web site. Customers enter the chat room by clicking on an "Instant Help" button on the web site.

"Customers love it," Gunter contends. "Our Internet customer-service representatives field about 400 chat sessions a day. On a heavy day, they field more than 600."

Meanwhile, Avista Advantage, which currently employs 120 people, is looking to hire another 100 to 150 people during the next year, says Greg Sisson, the company's human resources director.

Avista Advantage provides customers such as AT&T and Home Depot consolidated utility billing, financial reporting, cost and use reporting, analytical tools, energy-load profiling, and energy analysis through its proprietary Advantage Customer Internet site technology.

"We have the kind of opportunities that are attractive to software developers and IT (information technology) people because it's great to develop new and innovative web-based applications and work with state-of-the-art technology," Sisson says.

The employment-agency and education sectors also are gearing up to serve Internet-related employment.

Within the last two months, Provisional Staffing Services, a temporary-help agency here, has started a division called Provisional Technical Services, which focuses on supplying employers with technical employees.

Some Spokane employers appear to have a growing need for what are called active server page (ASP) programmers to fill e-commerce positions. Amy Botsford, the division's technical staffing manager, says that ASP programmer jobs typically are full-time positions and pay about $20 an hour here. The salary of such positions varies, though, depending on the number of programming languages and the type of languages the worker knows.

"There are many businesses right now that are using web sites as advertising tools, and they need employees who can design, maintain, and upgrade those sites," Botsford says.

So far, few employers have asked Provisional to look specifically for web designers, although, employers often want workers with some background in web design, as well as other skills, she says.

"Right now, most of the people who want to do just web design are starting up their own businesses from home and doing that on the side for additional income," Botsford says.

Meanwhile, Spokane Community College, in anticipation of Internet-related job growth, launched a program last spring that allows students to earn either a one-year Web Development certificate or a two-year Web Development degree.

Judy Cameron, an instructor in the college's Business Computer Systems department, which is offering the new courses, says 24 students have been admitted into the program each quarter since its inception, and there's a waiting list of more than 40 people who still are interested in entering the program. Most students who have enrolled are planning to earn the two-year degree, she says.

The first group of students to earn twoyear degrees in the program will graduate in spring 2001, but might have jobs before then, says Grace Leaf, a liason counselor for the department at SCC.

"I do know that some of the students are being hired away from the program or have gone into business for themselves before even finishing the program," Leaf says.

She adds, "There are some Internet start-ups here that already are gathering people. As they get up, they're going to need more people. The explosion is about ready to start."