Unified Cellular Service's Program

About the Program

Category: County Administration and Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2022

In 2020, Jefferson County, Colorado (Jeffco) faced financial challenges and budget cuts of $16.1 million to its General Fund. Departments were tasked with creating cost savings while continuing to deliver quality services to the community. Jeffco had recently established an Innovation program and this team played a key role in developing a Unified Cellular Services program to help departments generate cost savings. The Innovation Team conducted an analysis on county cellular services and identified an opportunity to significantly reduce annual operating costs. With help from county departments, the team organized comprehensive network and user testing across the county’s geographic area. The results showed that the county could switch thousands of cellular devices to a new network at a lower monthly fee while still maintaining quality service. Departments were impressed by the competitive coverage and decided to start migrating their devices to the new network in 2021. By the end of 2021, over 600 devices across many departments had been converted. This will generate savings of over $800,000 over the next five years. Additional departments are migrating their devices in 2022 which will deliver another $1.35 million in savings over five years. The Innovation Team continues to lead these efforts and to collaborate with departments to transform county services and create new efficiencies.