Helping Your Government Agency Purchase the Right Telecommunications Services at the Lowest Possible Cost

The way Government accounts purchase telecommunications products like the ones shown to the left of this page are much different than the way businesses do. At the OBJ Group Ltd. we work with hundreds of local, county, township and state government departments and offices. With one simple phone call, your agency or department can get a proven method method to ensure that you purchase the right services in the most efficient manner, at the lowest possible cost.

Six ways Government agencies and departments benefit:

1. Non Funding Agreements - You work with an annual budget, but getting the best pricing for telecommunications services from the carriers often requires multi-year contracts. Many carriers understand this inherent conflict and will provide non-funding clauses in their contracts which allows government agencies to terminate a multi-year contract early should they not receive funding adequate to cover the cost of the service. These agreements let you achieve the lowest possible monthly costs and adhere to annual budgeting guidelines.

2. “State Rates” - Even if you aren’t a state agency, most government entities qualify for “State” rates from various carriers. Carriers negotiate a state contract every few years and will normally offer this negotiated state rate to every governmental agency within the state. This often includes special state long distance pricing. We know where the state contracts are and we will make sure your agency has access to the lowest possible pricing.

3. E-Rate - E-Rate is an extremely important tool for school districts. This federal funding source is a critical source of annual technology funding. Getting applications in on-time, with correct pricing, and detailed information can be a real concern. Our account executives help dozens of school districts with this process each year and are ready to use this experience and expertise to assist you as well.

4. Volume Purchase Plans - Almost every governmental agency we know has multiple locations – a couple lines here, another couple there, etc. Many carriers offer volume purchase agreements to combine different accounts at different locations and then apply a discount to all accounts. 90% of government accounts qualify and the result is telecommunications savings of 10-30%.

5. Consolidated Telecommunications Billing - With multiple locations, come multiple bills. We know, we have been in the offices of telecommunications/IT managers when the monthly bills come in. It can be an imposing stack of paper to sort through. A key component of working with Governmental agencies is consolidating the billing

• getting as many things as possible on summary bills
• setting up ways to bill long distance calls by department
• making it easier for your accounts payable people to handle the monthly onslaught of bills.

6. Tax Exemption. You are a government agency, so you are exempt from taxes. However... we see bills every month from government agencies being charged taxes because their billing wasn’t set up correctly. Given the difficulty of reading most carrier bills, it often goes unnoticed. Your OBJ group project manager will know to set up the billing correctly on government accounts and check to make sure that you aren’t paying for taxes and fees that shouldn’t be billed - saving your agency money.

Discover How Much Your Government Agency Could be Saving on Telecommunications Services