Connecticut manages M in savings with telecom audit

Connecticut’s IT staff have now managed to cut telecommunications costs by $3 million, according to Bernie O’Donnell, director of communications services for the state’s Department of Administrative Services.

It’s all part of a program that O’Donnell dubs a “combination audit and detective work project,” as his department examines how the state’s agencies can change the way they use technology to save money.

“You look at your home telephone bill or your cellular telephone bill, it can be pretty intimidating with the unique little charges in there,” O’Donnell told StateScoop at the National Association of State Technology Directors’ annual conference in August. “Those little charges add up when you look at it on a large enterprise basis such as a state government.”

O’Donnell thinks the process of examining the state’s current telecommunications services has also helped raise awareness about the cost of those services and made the billing process less “cryptic” overall.

Now, Connecticut staff are currently exploring ways to use the latest and greatest voice technology available, and cut down on costs in the process.

“We’ve had a number of agencies who’ve made headway and advances in certain areas of voice, be it call centers or interactive voice response,” O’Donnell said. “Although many have used those technologies over the years, some have used the more recent advances in those and we’re leveraging those to apply those — especially to midsize and smaller agencies who might not typically have the wherewithal in terms of resources to implement, or money to get those kinds of capabilities and those systems on their own.”