Universal Solutions, a leading provider of business communications products and services, is moving its worldwide corporate headquarters–-currently located in Jackson, Miss.–-to the Fountain Walk development in downtown Charleston.

Named by Inc. magazine as the 28th fastest growing U.S. company in 2002, Universal Solutions has offices in 25 states, as well as in the Middle East and North Africa. The company was founded in October 1997 in Jackson, Miss., with the aim of offering businesses "world class" communications solutions with a hometown focus on customer service.

"[The move] will benefit the company, the employees and the customers," says company CEO Bob Scott. "We will have a world class facility equipped with leading edge technology designed to provide best in class support in a community that offers a superb quality of life."

Universal Solutions currently has an office in Mount Pleasant with 12 employees who will be moving to the new building, says Scott. An estimated 7 or 8 employees will relocate to Charleston from Texas, New York, Alabama and Mississippi, and the company also plans to hire between 15 and 20 local employees.

The move to the new facility will be complete by the end of April and staffing and relocation will be finalized by the end of the summer. The offices in Jackson will stay open and expand; the company is in the process of building a 10,000-square-foot office and plans to hire additional staff.

Besides creating local jobs, the move to Charleston will generate opportunities for the state's college students. Universal Solutions expects to hire 16 paid interns and is on the lookout for the brightest students in engineering and computer science from South Carolina higher learning institutions. The interns will not only receive experience with a company that offers state of the art communications technologies, but will later have the opportunity to work for Universal Solutions in their offices nationally and abroad. In addition to paying for the interns to receive the necessary Microsoft, Cisco and Avaya certifications, Universal Solutions will allow them to study on the job.

"Universal's location of their corporate national headquarters in Charleston means that our brightest students will receive real world training and great employment opportunities without having to leave the state," says Ernest Andrade, director of the Charleston Digital Corridor, which aims to attract, support and promote knowledge-based enterprise in the city of Charleston.

According to Scott, the Fountain Walk building will serve four main purposes, including acting as the company's network operations center, a hub for both executive briefing and customer training and eventually serving as the company's primary IT center. "We are building a state of the art network operations center that will monitor, diagnose and manage our customers' equipment and networks globally," says Scott. "We are purchasing or moving approximately $1 million of test equipment and switches to the facility and will also install a redundant data center to mirror our data center in Jackson."

Scott, a Charleston native and Citadel graduate, says the city was chosen for the new headquarters because of its superior quality of life and proximity to Scansource Inc., a major partner in the U.S., Middle East and North Africa. Local colleges and the presence of a port were also incentives. In addition, says Scott, most of the company's customers will be eager to visit Charleston, which will assist in attracting clients to the executive briefing center. Universal Solutions will be the Charleston Digital Corridor's 35th knowledge-based company.