Lured by the potential for huge savings, several area municipalities are joining a telecommunications network that eventually could link telephone, human relations and payroll services.
Tallmadge is among the first of 30 communities in Northeast Ohio to get on board. To illustrate the savings, Mayor David Kline said he had been preparing to sign a $350,000 contract to buy equipment expected to last about five years. After a study by Hosted Technology Exchange, he found he could improve services with a leasing deal that would cost $4,000 a month, or $240,000 over the same five years.
Other governments in varied stages of participation with HTEx are Fairlawn, Hudson, Richfield Village, Pepper Pike and Summit County. Hospitals, including Akron General Medical Center, and libraries also have signed up.
Because the network makes the entities’ software compatible, it also enables a variety of collaborations. The University of Akron is looking at the network as a way to link a new technology center to municipalities and businesses for sharing technology personnel, office software and such back-office services as human relations and payroll.
Organizing the network is Hosted Technology Exchange founder Don Shoemaker, who has been attending governmental meetings throughout Northeast Ohio for the past year, promising mayors and city managers he can cut their telecommunications budgets 15 to 25 percent.
He describes HTEx’s role as a general contractor and starts by contracting with the city to audit its telecommunications equipment and services. In Tallmadge, the study turned up a useless telephone line that ended at a pole and was costing the city $500 a month.
Fairlawn, which spent $95,895 last year on telecommunications, is just starting its audit. HTEx is charging about $10,000 in fees.
Shoemaker said HTEx also receives revenue from the vendors that he described as “minor, very minor” but declined to detail.
Stephen Ameling, Fairlawn’s information services director, said HTEx is “looking at each [bill] individually to see if we’re being charged for something we are not using, if there are some lines that we are not utilizing that are still on the account.”
After the audit, HTEx determines what the city needs and tries to seek vendors. The Sourcing Office, often known as a buyer of office equipment and other products for cities, serves as a council of governments handling the paperwork to make sure HTEx meets Ohio’s laws for competitive bidding.
At the bottom of its billing summary sheet, HTEx says: “If at the end of each membership year, you are not completely satisfied with the program value, you may withdraw from the program with no penalty.”
HTEx makes recommendations about leasing versus buying, what equipment is needed, and how much bandwidth is required now and in the future, and suggests vendors. It also makes sure the software to be used at various stops on the network are compatible.
“We are vendor agnostic,” Shoemaker said. “For instance, the solution we recommend in Tallmadge is not the same one that was recommended to Hudson.”
Because all of the communities will be able to share data over a broadband network, Shoemaker said, they will have potential to share services offered at places like the University of Akron, too.
“What the university is really interested in doing is providing services to other universities and, in the longer term, to municipalities and nonprofits that will result in lower cost for all of us,” said Jim Sage, UA’s chief information officer.
But first, the potential customers must be linked.
“The network that [Shoemaker] is preparing to build would be the key enabler,” Sage said. “Once you have everyone interconnected, you can get really creative about how you do payroll or how you do HR.”
That means an employee in Tallmadge could be filling out his payroll hours on the same operation that is used by a Fairlawn employee and other cities, saving the costs of multiple departments. Those same employees might be sharing word processing and other software tended at a central location.
With scores of computers and seven buildings, Kline, the Tallmadge mayor, said he already could use some help with IT personnel. He foresees sharing personnel with other communities or the university on an as-needed basis.
“I need more than one guy for our load, but I only have one, so if I can use one of Jim Sage’s expertise and help or online help, then that helps us from hiring a full-time person,” he said.
Dave Scott can be reached at 330-996-3577 or davescott@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow Scott on Twitter as Davescottofakro.
