COMMUNICATIONS DAILY WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2000
GSA EXTENDS FTS BRIDGE CONTRACT IN FACE OF SLOW TRANSITION
General Services Administration (GSA) is on track to miss Dec. 6 deadline it set earlier this year for shifting govt. agencies onto $1.5 billion FTS 2001 contract. Today (Wed.) marks end of GSA’s interim contract with vendors of FTS 2000 agreement – Sprint and AT&T – to serve agencies that haven’t yet made switch to FTS 2001. GSA spokesman said agency was in discussions with AT&T to extend bridge contract again and 6-month extension with Sprint was finalized Tues. because not all traffic had shifted. Transition deadlines that GSA set for itself already have slipped several times and it said earlier this year that ultimate deadline for moving traffic to FTS 2001 would be Dec. 6. Sprint, which also won FTS 2001 contract, estimated 90% of its circuits had been switched to new agreement and WorldCom estimated that 80% of its units have been transitioned. Companies cited slowdown factors ranging from Y2K transition earlier this year to Verizon strike of last summer. Discussions to extend bridge contracts have been under way several weeks, GSA spokesman said. Bridge contracts are designed to accommodate agencies that haven’t transitioned to new contracts, he said. "It’s up to the agencies and vendors and the vendors had to be ready to transition," GSA spokesman said. Earlier this year, GSA had missed self-imposed deadline of Sept. 30. Extension of interim contract had been because at that time, agency had said transition essentially would be complete by Dec. 6, although some lines wouldn’t make deadline. Sprint Vp-Govt. Systems Div. Anthony D’Agata said that while 90% of circuits had been shifted, 99.6% of sites that company serves had shifted to new contractor. "We still have some conversions that will take us into the February-March time frame," he said. Earlier in year, Y2K issues caused some agencies to wait on decisions on shifting traffic to FTS 2001, D’Agata said. "So they hesitated in 1999 until they had Y2K behind them in 2000." In other cases, agency delayed decisions so that transition to FTS 2001 would be done on schedule that wasn’t disruptive to their operations, he said. In yet other cases, FTS 2001 contracts included network elements that weren’t in original FTS 2000 contract, creating need for more time to make shift, he said. Sprint has completely transitioned 84 agencies to new contract and has 28 more to go, he said. Among agencies that are WorldCom customers, Dept. of Justice has completely shifted its traffic to FTS 2001 and Dept. of Defense is 99% complete, said WorldCom Dir. of FTS Programs Rick Slifer. Other agencies are "well above 50%," he said. Among factors that slowed transition, Verizon strike by CWA this summer "has had a substantial effect," Slifer said. "It probably was one of the largest problems because no matter what the government service, a great deal of it is in Verizon territory," he said. FTS 2001 contract, awarded in Dec. 1998 and Jan. 1999, was designed to save federal agencies money by giving them choice of vendors for telecom services. Earlier this year, Sprint and WorldCom had set midyear target of moving over traffic from old to new contracts. GSA also had goal of completing transition by June, which later was revised to Sept. 30 target by Comr. of Federal Technology Service Sandy Bates. Govt. and industry sources had indicated in past that they viewed ultimate deadline as Dec. 6 expiration of bridge contract, although in recent months that was seen as potentially needing extension as well to move over straggling traffic. Part of reason behind slower than expected pace of transition is that contracts didn’t involve like-for-like services, since agencies in some cases were using FTS 2001 switch to upgrade to newer technologies, Slifer said. Incentive for companies to move has been to obtain revenue from contracts as soon as possible, rather than specific penalties for vendors, he said. "Delay costs money for the agency and WorldCom," Slifer said, declining to provide dollar figure for deferred revenue that WorldCom may have experienced. He described WorldCom relationship with AT&T on customer switches as "extra formal." Slifer said company had "good working relationship" with GSA. As for AT&T, he said, "I would say that they tried to hold on to their customers anyway that they could." Delay in traffic being moved from FTS 2000 to new pact signals that neither Sprint nor WorldCom "have been compliant in terms of the their contract regarding the ability to complete the transitions on schedule," said Lisa Crawford, procurement consultant who formerly headed AT&T’s FTS 2000 program. "It also says that AT&T has been successful in dragging its heels sufficiently" to maintain revenue that’s at stake as part of bridge contract, she said. Moreover, Crawford said, "I think it speaks volumes about GSA." On one hand, agency has declared victory on success of program "but the votes haven’t been counted" since transition has yet to be finalized, she said. For agencies, delay has meant longer time periods until new technology promised under new contract is available, Crawford said. "It hurts the ability of government to streamline and become more effective, so there’s a domino effect," she said. –Mary Greczyn