* Booz Allen is primary provider of transition services for Networx
Whenever you switch to a new ISP, you’re faced with the tricky issue of transitioning your network services from one carrier to another. Consulting giant Booz Allen has built a sizeable practice helping federal and commercial customers plan and execute these transitions.
The company recently won a contract from the U.S. federal government to be the primary provider of transition support services for Networx, a 10-year, $20 billion telecommunications services program due for award next summer.
“We are working with the General Services Administration to map out how all the agencies should approach transition,” says John Feeney, a principal with Booz Allen’s Systems and Communications Organization who is overseeing the company’s Networx-related transition planning efforts. “We see ourselves as helping the various agencies capture all the benefits that will be available to them under Networx.”
Feeney says agencies can expect to see cost savings on Networx when compared to the predecessor FTS 2001 program and that the cost savings will happen faster for agencies with well-planned and well-executed transitions.
“We’re helping with all the hoops the agencies need to jump through to make the transition in an expedient and cost-effective manner so they can accrue the benefits and minimize the pain,” Feeney says.
Already, Booz Allen is consulting with the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Postal Service on Networx-related transition planning. Bids on Networx are due in early October, with an award anticipated by the summer of 2006.
“Annually, we have $30 million to $50 million worth of transition support type of work,” Feeney says.
Feeney says it’s essential for services such as transition support, billing validation and program management to be provided by outside experts such as Booz Allen.
“It makes sense for those services to be separate because you’re really overseeing the carrier in those roles,” Feeney says. “Having the fox guarding the hen house doesn’t work.”
With the Networx program, Booz Allen anticipates a significant amount of work helping federal agencies conduct competitive procurements to choose among the Networx contractors for their network services. In the past, GSA assigned agencies to particular FTS 2001 carriers.
Booz Allen predicts many agencies will use the Networx program as a means of consolidating their network infrastructures, rather than running separate voice, data and video networks.
“Consolidation is a powerful driver of efficiency,” Feeney says. “MPLS and newer technologies are the obvious choices. Instead of seeing like-to-like network transitions, we expect to see agencies moving forward on consolidation.”
Booz Allen provides similar transition planning services to commercial companies, particularly in support of mergers and acquisitions. Booz Allen also supports what could be the nation’s largest network consolidation effort with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.
“Only a handful of corporate customers are the size of a federal agency,” Feeney says. “We are using the experience that we’ve learned dealing with transition issues of the scope and magnitude of the federal government for our multinational customers. That experience sets us apart from everybody else. There are not a huge number of organizations that can plan out a network consolidation for a 165,000 employee organization.”
