FEMA OCIO and the Telecommunication Service Center (TSC) has a mission to coordinate the procurement, deployment, and billing of new telecommunication services and assets within FEMA; and manage existing IT commodities and services for day-to-day operational disaster support. The ultimate objective of Ambit's active contract in support of this mission is to reduce overall operating costs while providing more effective telecommunications services to FEMA operatives in the field. As the prime contractor, Ambit's role in support to FEMA was to (1) initially assist with the transition of service on all of the organization's telecommunications assets from one legacy contract to a series of newly awarded contracts and (2) provide subsequent strategic and programmatic management support for FEMA's overall telecommunications program in its post-transition state.
Since September 2008, Ambit has provided Telecommunications Program Management Support Services to FEMA at its facility in Winchester, VA. In this role, Ambit directly supports FEMA OCIO and the Telecommunications Service Center (TSC) in managing all Telecom Services and Assets. Specific activities include Billing, Provisioning, Ordering, Communications, Training, and ongoing Business Process Improvement/Re-Engineering.
The Ambit team at FEMA, comprised of both PMP and ITIL v3 certified members, is tasked with the implementation of a new Telecommunications Lifecycle Management tool called NIOS. Ambit managed the initiation, planning, monitoring phases of this implementation project to include documentation creation utilizing PMBOK methodologies. Ambit trained all 10 FEMA Regions on using NIOS software for telecom order requests and continues to provide ongoing Vendor Relationship Management support.
The monitoring process for the NIOS implementation is all encompassing and includes:
Ambit facilitated FEMA's largest nationwide telecom provider service transition in 12 years, which included more than 60,000 wireless, wireline, and satellite telecom assets. Ambit continues to provide 24x7 Telecom ordering, billing and provisioning support as well as heads up the 24x7 Telecom Tier II Service Desk.
As a result of Ambit's program management efforts, FEMA has benefitted from significant cost reductions. Ambit supported FEMA in identifying cost savings of $4.5M in 2010 and ongoing savings in 2011 through continued inventory control and has performed regional inventories of non-active disaster devices, resulting in $1.3M annual savings. Ambit supported FEMA during a No Usage Suspension Policy for devices that were idle for 30/60 days, with initial projections highlighting annual savings of $4M as a result of the effort.
"…This past week, we were engaged in [a multitude] of financial and justification type activities. This required good listening skills, acting at a moments notice, and producing accurate information based on the current environment. This environment is in flux and forecasting can be challenging at times… [in this regard] Team Ambit and FEMA TSC personnel have proven valuable to our Management Team at Headquarters. I say this based on feedback I received… [Team Ambit staff] made themselves accessible anytime and at [the COTR's] direction, located at HQ to be available for any additional information or questions that might be required. Their presence was noticed and appreciated."
- Email to Ambit's President, written by our COTR at FEMA.