Your towns and school districts are facing revenue shortfalls, while the cost of everything continues to go up. Your facilities continue to age and need repair. (I am referring to buildings, not you personally) - [slide: old school]
It’s free.
“As long as the bill doesn’t differ greatly from month to month we don’t worry about it”.
IT just wants the system to work.
We are dealing with billing. This is why I am bringing this information to you in procurement.
Did you know that your Town is being billed for every listing in the white pages? Each of these listings costs $4.50 a month and the total is included in the heading: Monthly charges.
An independent analyst doesn’t have x-ray vision that allows him to see past the total into the individual parts. But he does have special decoding abilities to read the customer service record.
But he does have special decoding abilities to read the customer service record.
Are you using all of the lines you are paying for?
What about the phone-jacks on the wall? Are those jacks still live? – have all the old modem lines been properly disconnected?
Do you still have pay phones?
Your towns and school districts are facing revenue shortfalls, while the cost of everything continues to go up. Your facilities continue to age and need repair. (I am referring to buildings, not you personally) - [slide: old school]
Most towns have very little interstate calling, but the addition of monthly per-line charges and other cost recovery fees has created a huge profit for the vendors.
By the way – I heard a story about a very secure password:
During a recent password audit by a company, it was found that an employee was using the following password:
"MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofySacram-ento"
When asked why he had such a long password, the employee said: "IT said the password had to be at least 8 characters and include a capital."
Circuits are phone lines that are in use 24/7.
These lines may connect the Police and Fire Departments to their antenna. Or, they may be for the fire or entry monitoring devices in various buildings. Or, they may be for point-to-point connections between buildings.
And, speaking of fire alarms—The old cast iron pull boxes may have been removed from telephone poles and the outside of buildings, but their circuits may still be seen by the vendor as connected.
Cell Phones
Cell phones are an area where once again the vendors flood the market with a wide variety of plans. Each one has features and many have extra fees that towns may not have to pay.
Would any of you give a credit card to a teenager?
Sometimes the expected savings are high enough to warrant an early cancelation of the existing contract. An audit will give you the information you need in considering these decisions.
What happens if you are thinking about changing your current vendor?
Do I ever get surprised?
YES!
LET’S STOP HERE FOR A WHILE AND OPEN THE FLOOR TO QUESTIONS.
