Camden County Freeholders Seek Savings on Phone Service
For Immediate Release: February 23, 2009
Contacts: KEN SHUTTLEWORTH (609) 472-8837

The Freeholders are dialing for dollars to save on telephone service throughout Camden County.

Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. said the county administration will use a $45,000 grant from the state Department of Community Affairs to assess current data and telephone technology networks in facilities throughout Camden County Government and in buildings in two of the county’s school districts.

“It’s one of many initiatives in which the objective is to share services and reduce the cost of operations,” Cappelli said. Under study, besides county government, are the Gloucester City School District, the Board of Social Services and the two campuses of the Camden County Technical Institute.

“In the end, we hope to upgrade from our current analogue, traditional phone system to a Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP system that will allow for telephone portability without requiring re-installation when an office moves from one location to another.”

Cappelli said there are a number of other potential advantages of moving to a data-based system. Local and long distance charges are greatly reduced or eliminated, and monthly per-phone line connection fees disappear.

Available industry studies indicate that a countywide VoIP system could yield hundreds of thousands of dollars in yearly savings for taxpayers. VoIP phones will also provide end users with more capabilities than traditional phone systems.

The recently authorized Sharing Available Resources Efficiently grant is expected to substantiate that real savings can be achieved by sharing services. “It’s a pilot project,” Cappelli said. “If we can prove money can be saved, we will initiate the conversion of the county’s phone system and seek to expand the initiative to include other school districts and local governments,” Cappelli said.

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