Contact: Ayanna Smith, (202) 724-5178

Today District of Columbia Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Interim Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Chris Willey announced that the District’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) and Office of Financial and Resource Management (OFRM) have achieved savings on District government telecommunications costs for the third year in a row.

In FY 2008 OCTO and ORFRM launched an ongoing initiative to reduce costs for both landline and cellular telecommunications.

The two agencies collaborated to negotiate a ground-breaking three-year custom contract with Verizon that delivers unprecedented savings on landline costs throughout the District government.  Estimated savings total $2.4million per year.

Another OCTO-OFRM savings initiative addressed cellular costs.  The two agencies negotiated with District cellphone providers to obtain volume discounts and to pool unused minutes within and across agencies.  Through this initiative, the agencies reduced the District’s wireless cost per user from $75 to $58.  The unit cost reduction enabled the District to expand its wireless inventory to improve service delivery through a more mobile workforce, without incurring enormous increases in wireless costs.  While the District’s wireless inventory grew by 80%, overall wireless costs rose by only 31%.

OCTO and OFRM have also negotiated dramatic reductions in charges for personal digital assistant devices (PDAs) and wireless “air cards.  OCTO and OFRM persuaded a leading vendor of wireless air cards to give a discount of over 20% from $45 to $35 per card.  .”  For example, the agencies negotiated an agreement providing for $.01 devices and all-inclusive pooled usage plans for $58, instead of previous agreements that called for $150 devices and $78 per month for usage. 

In addition, beginning in October 2008, OCTO and OFRM have collaborated to find efficiencies in high-telecom-usage agencies such as the Mayor’s office and the City Administrator’s office.  In just a few months, OCTO and OFRM reduced the combined inventory of the two offices by 30% and saved nearly $100,000K per year on telecom costs for these two offices alone.

Overall, OCTO and OFRM estimate, their efforts saved the District about $4.5 million in telecom costs in FY 2008—the first time in six years that the District has obtained savings on telecom costs.  OCTO and OFRM were also able to reduce the District’s telecom budget by $4 million in FY 2009 and are on track to do the same in FY 2010.

At the same time that they have negotiated cost savings, the two agencies have managed to negotiate service upgrades.  Vendors now provide free, dedicated onsite support to the District.  Average vendor response times for problems with on wireless devices have dropped from weeks to 24 hours.  Vendors now email custom user-by-user invoices so the District can track usage, check the accuracy of the bills, monitor the District’s total telecom inventory, and hold users for personal calls on District-issued cell phones.

“In these challenging economic times, we have to buy smart,” Mayor Fenty.  “Our dedicated technology and financial managers in OCTO and OFRM have cut our telecom costs by millions while getting better service.  That’s what I call smart buying.”

“One of OCTO’s key objectives  is reducing the cost of government operations while maintaining service quality,” said Interim CTO Willey.  “I commend my staff and OFRM for their hard work and appreciate the willingness of the telecom community to partner with us in achieving this goal.”

To learn more about DC Government technology initiatives, visit www.octo.dc.gov.