What is the Telecommunications Audit?
In this Q&A with EOTSS Chief Strategy Officer Crosby Burns, we take a closer look at the telecommunications audit and how it benefits the Commonwealth.
Q: What is the telecommunications audit?
A: The telecommunications audit is an effort to map the Commonwealth’s telecommunications assets and networks, recover revenue from vendors overbilling our accounts, and shut down lines and accounts that are seldom or never used. EOTSS has partnered with Shaheen & Associates to audit our telecommunications network across the eight secretariats, with the primary goal of cost-savings and revenue recovery.
Q: How much do we spend on telecommunications as a Commonwealth?
A: The Executive branch spends over $66 million annually on telecommunications goods and services. Through the audit of these accounts, we’ve found that telecommunications spending in the Commonwealth is largely inefficient compared to other states. Moreover, consultants originally estimated our telecommunications spend at around $30 million, or about half of what our actual audit has found. This shows we do a poor job of understanding how much and where we spend on telecom in the Commonwealth.
Q: What progress has been made so far on this initiative?
A: After identifying, confirming, inventorying, and auditing accounts for 6 months, Shaheen and EOTSS have 93% of accounts under review that account for 99% of total telecom spending. We have identified several cases of overbilling and billing inaccuracies, which will result in a total of $2.2 million refund credits given to the appropriate secretariats or agencies. There are plans to shut down or consolidate defunct or low-usage accounts in order to optimize costs, but with safeguards in place to ensure that critical services are not disconnected (e.g. public safety emergency services). Shaheen has identified an annual savings run rate between $9.9 million and $10.9 million, and they have offered dozens of recommendations to realize these savings.
Q: What are the benefits of the telecommunications audit?
A: The telecommunications audit allows the Commonwealth to obtain substantial refunds and manage lower monthly operation costs. In addition to the cost-saving efforts, the telecommunications audit moves paper-based tracking systems to an online portal for maximizing efficiency and productivity, and secretariats will have more resources to identify billing inaccuracies in the future. Lastly, we hope to rethink and move towards the centralization of telecommunications procurement and ministration, which will result in decreased costs and more efficient processing of bills.
Q: How did our telecommunications spend become less-than-manageable? How do we prevent history from repeating itself?
A: There are more than 70 telecom buying points in the state. In the absence of a centralized telecom expense management system, it has been difficult for the Commonwealth to track the allocation of telecommunications resources and “right-size” our assets across secretariats and agencies. Centralizing this function will help prevent us from having to hire an auditor anew in 3–5 years.

