IE 11 Not Supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.

Strike Up the Bandwidth

Tennessee and its two higher-education systems are outsourcing their consolidated telecommunications networks to increase bandwidth.



Deciding to consolidate and outsource Tennessee's telecommunications network with those of the state's two higher-education systems was simply a matter of dollars and sense.

After all, Tennessee CIO Bradley Dugger said, the three major networks were being funded with state dollars, and this was a case where the whole could be greater than the sum of the parts. The state, the University of Tennessee and the Tennessee Board of Regents plan to be anchor tenants on one large statewide telecommunications network featuring increased bandwidth. And since the consolidated system has been outsourced, the participants can focus on buying functional services instead of having to manage disparate networks, so it's conceivable that costs could go down while services go up.
"We want to be able to say, 'I need an IP service at this point and video at that point. Or I need both.' So we're buying the functions," Dugger said.


Let's Make a Deal

The bid of roughly $118 million over five years was awarded April 8 to a group including Qwest Communications, BellSouth, EDS, Lucent Technologies and OAO, a company based in Washington, D.C. A protest by a vendor not selected has held up the start of the project, which must finish work within 16 months from the date it gets under way.

However, Dugger, who could point to California as a recent example of a state outsourcing its telecommunications network, said it didn't take much to convince Tennessee's higher-education systems that this was a good idea. Chancellors from the school systems, the governor and senior staff on all sides collaborated throughout the process.

"The selling point was that we should not be competitive over infrastructure. Infrastructure ought to be used to leverage government," Dugger said.

"It's the most bandwidth for the best price. It's to stretch our dollars for as far as we can because there is this sudden, unquenchable thirst for bandwidth by faculty and researchers," said Tom Ballard, associate vice president in the University of Tennessee system. "Tennessee is a fiscally challenged state. We do not have a comprehensive personal-income tax; we rely on sales tax, consumption taxes. We don't have a lot of money to throw at technology, so for the University of Tennessee, it's to stretch our dollars as far as we can."


Sharing the Network

The University of Tennessee is the smaller of the two systems with four campuses and three institutes. The Tennessee Board of Regents is the seventh-largest system nationwide, thanks to a cadre of two-year schools, vocational schools and teacher colleges. Both systems seek a larger fraction of the same students, but both systems recognize a good deal. Information technology, Ballard said, is the common denominator.

"The university has been committed for almost the entire decade to the notion of bandwidth on demand," Ballard continued. "We believe that our role is primarily to provide instructional and other types of services to our customers, and if we can concentrate on the content and not worry as much about not having our own network in place, building our own network, etc., then we would better use our resources. So the highest levels of the university have been committed, essentially the whole time, to a single consolidated state network."


Downsizing Possible

The idea of a consolidated state network became less thrilling as Dugger moved closer to the people responsible for the network. While senior-level management loved the idea, the technicians running the state network weren't as excited. The belief that "I built this and can run it better than someone else" was voiced by some, possibly in fear that they may lose their jobs.

"We have tried real hard to counteract that," the CIO said. "We use a healthy combination of state employees and those who do a lot of contract work. I can honestly say to my state employees that their job is not in danger by the consolidation because we can redirect their efforts to some other areas. I can't look my contractors in the eyes and say they're not in danger because we will be reducing some of those positions."

Some state employees will become technology "support specialists" for various departments. "We will have enough other functions for state employees to keep them busy, but we will be reducing manhours through the contract [employees]," Dugger said, adding that contract employees could end up being subcontractors in the outsourced consolidation effort.

The CIO said the state will reinvest any potential savings in the infrastructure of the network, which will cost the participants about the same but have greater capacity.

"We believe strongly that that infrastructure investment, which didn't cost us any new dollars but is costing us tax dollars, will be the basis where you get your true savings," Dugger said.


Finale

Once the consolidated network is operational, it will allow Tennessee residents to utilize the concept of e-government, which includes running applications on the Internet while efficiently delivering services. More bandwidth will be available, although the CIO doesn't believe most residents will connect it with the project.

"Our goal with e-government is that the person doesn't have to know where the service is or will be coming from," Dugger said.

"It's a big move, and we don't think we made it on a whim. We went through and made a major look at 'Does this make sense?'" he said. "We looked at our options. Then we brought vendors in and said, 'Here's what we're thinking. Should we be doing this?'"

The answer is certainly worth a lot of dollars. But it also made a lot of sense.