Accountancy software giant Sage will create 300 new jobs at its head office in Newcastle-upon-Tyne over the next year. Granted, most of these will be in that late 20th Century equivalent dark satanic mills -- the call centre. But beggars can't be choosers. especially in the North-East, England's biggest employment black-spot. The Register is all in favour of siting call centres where jobs are scarce. That way you get intelligent people on the other end of the line when you ring customer support. And as paying customers of Sage, we frequently ring customer support -- due to our own incompetence, rather than because of any defects in the software. Ahem. It sometimes takes them a while to pick up the phone, but Sage staffers are always courteous, and always solve our problems quickly. So as far as we are concerned, the more reps, the merrier. The newbies will boost Sage's drive to convert its two million customers to ecommerce-savvy operators. They will support customers wishing to set up their own Web sites and help to expand the Web services on offer. Graham Wylie, managing director of Sage UK, said staff had more than doubled over the last two years, and predicted healthy growth in the future. Currently, Sage employs 700 people. ®