Subject: [NEXTEL-1] 'Good News, Bad News' About Georgia's Telecom Services

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 19:41:54 -0400

'Good News, Bad News' About Georgia's Telecom Services

Jul 16, 2003

The Georgia Governor's Telecommunications & Technology Task Force on Tuesday
released its findings in a 134-page report detailing ways to streamline the
state's telecom services procurement process. The document is important in that it
serves as a blueprint for other states - all of which face budget shortfalls - on
how to maximize scarce resources while upgrading telecom and related
communications services used by state agencies.

"The bottom line is our findings contain some good news for the state and some
not-so-good news," task force Chairman Wayne Clough wrote in a letter to Gov.
Sonny Perdue (R). Clough is also president of the Georgia Institute of Technology.

"The good news is that using a revised approach to procuring telecommunications
and computing services should yield considerable long-term savings to the state
and greater operational efficiencies. By building in flexibility to match systems
with agency needs, state government can improve productivity. Also, through
strategic use of contracting policies, the strengths of private industry can be
designed to be complement those of state government, while ensuring that strong
competition will exist among service providers.

"The not-so-good news is that the long delays caused by waiting for completion of
the CCOP [Converged Communications Outsourcing Project] process have serious
consequences for the state. These include outdated technology, lags in staff
productivity when systems go down, high telephone service costs, un-addressed
security concerns, and barriers to providing the services that Georgia citizens
and businesses deserve," Clough told the governor.

For more on the task force's findings, don't miss the next issue of Communications
Today's sister publication Telecom Policy Report, the industry's source for
in-depth, behind-the-scenes investigative journalism. To learn more about TPR or
to sing up for a free four-week subscription, visit the "newsstand" at
http://www.TelecomWeb.com.

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