Transitioning to a New Telecommunications Program

In fiscal year 2007, federal agencies spent approximately $960 million on services acquired through GSA’s primary governmentwide telecommunications program, known as FTS2001. With the contracts governing these services set to expire by June 2010, GSA has awarded successor contracts for a program called Networx.
Along with its customer agencies, GSA has begun preparing for the transition of services from the FTS2001 program to Networx.
GAO’s work on these programs identified a number of challenges that require ongoing efforts from GSA and other agencies that use these programs to avoid the costly delays that occurred during previous transitions. For example, only two of the six agencies we reviewed had documented processes for maintaining the accuracy of their inventories of current services—essential information to facilitate a successful transition.

^ Back to topWhat Needs to Be Done

As the facilitator for the Networx transition, GSA will have to continue to proactively identify and resolve common transition challenges, complete actions planned to resolve already identified challenges, and monitor transition progress. Agencies should follow sound transition-planning practices to reduce the risk of delays that could result in unnecessary service disruptions and increased costs.
Highlights of GAO-08-759 (PDF)